Moral Monsters

It's amazing how perception creates reality. Sometimes I wonder if people are actually delusional or if they just aren't in touch with my reality. And by my reality, I mean their understanding of who I am. Meaning this brings into question whether that person is empathetic or apathetic.

Possessing empathy generally makes a person emotionally intelligent. The opposite of that is to be a moral monster.The first time I came across this concept of a "moral monster" it was while reading James Baldwin. Context is important. Baldwin uses the idea of a moral monster as a manifestation of institutional racism at the individual level. Taking a step back, because its often I go off on a tangent, I'm beginning to think people do not see me for me. People outside of my reality; my perception have a completely different idea of who am I versus who I assert myself as.

It's odd. I can tell you who I am until I turn blue or purple, and yet the interpretation of it could be so drastically different. I preach to my babies; people only know what you tell them. They will never know you better than you know yourself. The only person there to bear witness to your pain and joy is you.

Doing battle with these moral monsters in these circumstances is not the same sense as critiquing an institutionally oppressive system. This apathy for the essence of another human being you claim to be interested in is confusing. Being in the presence of those who exhibit this behavior gives me the anxiety that the bubonic plague would.

Has the tone of the system created moral monsters in all spheres of life? Are we destined to wrestle our most intimate moments away from individuals who never really recognize and acknowledge our identity? Releasing stories, lessons, heartbreaks, and moments of happiness is so therapeutic when in the presence of receiving energy.

Moral monsters, they receive this energy; but they never reciprocate it. They feed on it. And if they're smart they disguise all this. They themselves begin to believe that they actually do care about the most vulnerable details but in all actuality are only chasing the vessel which holds these dreams, memories, and secrets.