(cont. from Conundrum: Humanity - Met One, Seg One
https://steemit.com/bluewhale/@callistanix/conundrum-humanity-met-one-seg-one)
Maybe this broader principle might also suggest a thing or two about why Mr. Budeikin did what he did. Perhaps he felt, given his own social experiences in school and likely after as well, that there were some people who were just not meant to cut it in this world, who wouldn't be given a chance by society, and that it was simply better for such people to end it as opposed to slugging it through life and society, likely going nowhere. Or perhaps he developed an understanding of how to really be socially strong (which, in my experience entails developing one's own mental strength and will first), and then simply concluded that all those weaker than him couldn't do it because the strength and pride of his accomplishment went to his head, and decided to contribute his own twisted interpretation of 'social service'. What went through his head when he came up with this idea and then followed through with it, is something only he or a Jedi could ever know. But it says something about the paths human beings choose.
Having faced social rejection in school, albeit with far, far milder depression, and fortunately without the anxiety that seems to plague so many of the people I know and love today, I have experienced reasonable shades of the lack of social attention these individuals suffered from, and so know something of the mindsets they'd operated under when they signed up on the app, as I too downloaded certain apps and joined certain social platforms in an effort to feel more recognized and valued. However, when I ultimately discovered that the true meaning of being 'important' and valued is to first learn to validate yourself, and recognize that everybody else around you is going through virtually the same struggles, the only real differences being in scale, in measure, I made sure I taught this to as many people caught in the thrall of that very same inferiority complex as I could, and guided those who would listen towards realizing that the person they needed to value first and foremost was themselves, and see themselves for who they were, as opposed to what those around them told them they had to be, even giving this endeavour a name my fourteen year-old self thought was supremely 'cool' at the time; the ASP, or 'Advanced Social Protocol', a name that is fondly remembered by some of my mates who helped me push it and who themselves gained from it.
So...when I heard of the story of the 'Blue Whale' and the losses it had brought people, aside from feeling bad for those who had lost loved ones to this horrid game, I couldn't help but wonder why someone couldn't simply have devised an alternate-Blue Whale (or at least a 'Happy Minnow', if they were to adopt a parlance with which Steemians are all too familiar). Something that worked on a similar concept, but instead drove people to not only keep healthy hours where they could, but also encouraged them to start their morning with a pushup, or a really, really good stretch, and show them pictures of a cute kitten or wolf-pup, a beautiful visage of greenery and nature to start the day, and oblige them to start their day with positivity. Maybe ask them to meditate or clear their thoughts and self-reflect. If such a thing were to be created now especially, it could well provide the sort of positive response to the kind of problems Budeikin was attempting to tackle through his significantly more extreme means. If enough people with sadistic drives could band together to make something like Blue Whale a reality (Budeikin sure as hell didn't pull it all off on his own), why shouldn't enough sane, compassionate members of society get together and make an alternative to Blue Whale a reality? I'd sign up as a contributing member if such a thing existed. Maybe it already does and I am not yet informed of it. I'd just love to know.
In our everyday lives, choice is something we are constantly presented with, and it should never really be the circumstances that offer us no choice that define us, but how we act in moments that do which should, as small or insignificant as they may seem. And seeing as our choices are all too often directed by the moral compasses driving the course of our actions and the specific manners in which we choose to interact with our world and environment, I believe the best way to stay true to who you really are as a human being while still honouring the ways of aforementioned better angels of one's nature is to be the best person you can be, and centralizing that M.O in decisions even when faced times in which you are forced to make tough choices you'd rather not make at all, be they what may.
Clearly Budeikin's idea of what 'doing good' meant differs starkly from that of most others.
I hope you guys were able to take away something constructive or enlightening from this post, and if not, I hope at the very least I didn't bore you to death or put you off with my pontification. I'll try and keep it down in subsequent posts if it becomes too much of an issue.
If you did glean something of interest from this post however, I would dearly love to know what it was in the comments below.
Thanks for reading, and cheers!