when something causes us pain, we instinctively focus on eliminating it, or at least put considerable effort into reducing its effects. living with such pain would be absurd.
but when the pain is small enough, making a deliberate effort to address it can seem excessive, even if the effort required is minimal. it's as though there's a threshold for pain, below which any attempt to alleviate it feels like a waste of energy.
yet, if these minor pains are left untreated, they can gradually become an irritating part of life consuming a considerable amount of cognitive activity. the pain itself may even grow, but because the brain is so accustomed to it, day in and day out, it becomes blind to it. the natural thing to do, for a brain under these circumstances seems to be to continue ignoring it.
but this is a fallacy. addressing the issue at any point is a valid course of action—if only the brain notices it at the right moment.
what holds true for the individual also applies to the collective. as a group, humans can grow accustomed to a communal pain that starts as a mere inconvenience. over time and across generations, this pain becomes a natural part of life. generation after generation becomes numb to it, even as it causes deeper, often invisible, damage.
at some point in the life of this community—or even humanity as a whole—someone might, in a moment of brilliance, notice the growing thorn in the collective's side. they might even devise a remedy.
i deeply believe that recognizing these pains for the evils they represent is one of the most challenging things to accomplish. to do so, a person must not only free themselves from the shackles of centuries of shared "wisdom", but also have the courage to declare it publicly, without fear of being ridiculed for questioning the so-called "basic facts" of life.
at this juncture, two factions inevitably form: those who will sigh in relief from a pain they never knew they had, and those who will protest, insisting that the thorn is a natural part of life, without which life would be a mutilated mess.
the divide can be as benign or as serious as it gets. and the effort might go unrecognized, let alone appreciated. so to those whose contributions freed us from the invisible pains of the human race, those whose efforts i’m aware of, and those who remain unknown to me: thank you.
see you tomorrow.