6. Everybody Is Different

What distinguishes human beings from all other life is their volitional nature. Beyond the fact that every individual human being is an animal organism with a mind (which is what makes them human beings and the only way in which they are the, “same,”) every individual is different from every other human being. [See the section, “Unique Human Nature,” in the, “The Moral Nature,” article.]

Unlike all the other higher animals whose behavior is determined by their instinctive nature, every human being’s behavior is determined by their own conscious choice. Nothing pre-determines what any human being will choose to learn, think, and do.

Everybody Is Different

Because every human being has the same volitional (moral) nature, which requires them to have knowledge, to think, and to produce, nothing determines what they will choose to learn, what or how well they will think, or what they will do (what service or product the will provide) to sustain themselves as a human being.

While every human being is born with the same volitional, intellectual, rational nature [see, “The Nature Of The Mind“], the specific attributes and abilities of every individual are different. Beyond their essential human nature, what any individual human being will enjoy, find interesting, be able to learn and do, will be different.

Human beings are all different in every non-essential way. They are all different physically, mentally, and emotionally. No two human beings are identical, and most are not even very similar.

What Is Right For Any Human Individual

There are two old sayings which are both true: “one man’s meat is another man’s poison,” and, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” What is right for any human being is probably not exactly right for any other human being.

This simple fact means most accepted beliefs are simply wrong. Within the limits of what the volitional (moral) nature and physical reality make necessary and possible for all human beings:

• There is no one right way to educate children.
• There is no one right diet for human beings.
• There is no one right way to any individual’s health.
• There is no one right way for families, communities, or societies to be organized.
• There is no one right way for any individual human being to think and behave.
• There is no one right way for any individual to live their life.

Nobody Is A Statistic

Actuarial tables cannot tell you how long you will live. Statistics cannot tell you what is good for your health or safety, what you will like or dislike, what will make you happy or successful. For every statistical danger humans are warned about, there are individuals who did all the things that were statistically, “bad,” or, “dangerous,” and lived long successful lives. Others who lived exactly within the limits of what is, statistically, “good,” and, “safe,” led short miserable lives.

There is always risk in life, especially an adventurous life that is worth living. As with all risk, statistics can provide some sense of what the degree of risk might be, but one’s choices must be based on weighing the reward against the risk. The measure of one’s life is not in how long it lasts but in how much one lives, that is, what one has done and achieved.

Must Think For Yourself

Because everyone is different, no one else can possibly know what is best or right for you. There is always a temptation to watch how other human beings live their lives, especially those we think are successful and happy, as a guide for our own lives. While it is important to learn all we can from others, how others live their lives will never be exactly right for anyone else, just because everyone is different.

One can learn from observing how others live, but when choosing one’s own course of life, one must do their own thinking and choose what is best for their own life, interests, and abilities. Your own life will never be exactly like anyone else’s.

No One Can Read Minds

Human consciousness is distributed one to an individual. No individual can know what any other human being actually consciously experiences, or thinks, or believes, or feels. One individual can explain to another what they experience, but what they are actually conscious of is forever hidden from all other consciousnesses.

You cannot know what is anyone else’s mind, and no one else can know what is in yours. You cannot know what anyone else feels or experiences and no one else can know what you feel and experience. The ideas of empathy, sympathy, and compassion (which all mean, “to feel with”) are terribly mistakes.

What you can know about others is what they actually say and do which is all that actually matters. One thing is certain, whatever other actually think and experience will not be the same as you think and feel. One must never suppose other are like themselves or want the same things, enjoy the same things, feel the same things, or believe the same things.

What to remember: No One Else is Like You!

—(11/14/2020)