Today I read Helaman 16, the end of Samuel's prophecies and the last year before Christ was born. I have noticed something these last 2 days. My wife and I also read the Book of Mormon to our new daughter and we are still in 1 Nephi but we read a portion where Laman and Lemuel sound much like the Nephites of this era.
It has always seemed so strange to me that the Nephites can be so recalcitrant. But then again it always is hard to believe when I across ridiculously stubborn people. But I realized something today. I don't know about the rest of you, but until I met my wife, throughout my whole life I have believed and acted upon said belief that people are generally like me. And today as I was reading the last chapter in the book of Helaman I had the thought that maybe everyone does that.
The reason I think that maybe I am not alone in believing that maybe everyone believes other people are generally like them too is because the wicked of the Nephites in this chapter start saying absolutely ridiculous things, and if they really stopped to examine the situation they would probably realize that they are being ridiculous with such thoughts but most people, including myself, don't stop to think about such things and just assume others are like them.
The reason that the Nephites, the wicked ones at least, were so convinced that the righteous Nephites would lie to them in order to subject them to "bondage" and servitude is because that is exactly what they desire to do to the righteous Nephites if given the opportunity. The unrighteous Nephites DID in fact want to "work some mysterious art" that would bring the rest of the Nephites into bondage, because that is what they desire, power.
Now, the reason I think most people believe everyone else is just like them, is because it helps people tolerate themselves. I am mostly speaking about the unrighteous. It is a lot easier to live with yourself if you steal things by saying to yourself if others were in your position they would do the same. That is my thought anyway since I have not been in that situation. But if you don't tell yourself such things, then you are forced to deal with the harsh reality that you are a sinner and in some cases a really wicked, maybe even evil, person. In my particular case, I was more giving people the benefit of the doubt, thinking to myself that certain things could never happen because people are not that dumb. Like for example, the first time I saw the movie "Live free or Die Hard" and the scene where all the lights turn green at the same time I thought to myself that people would not just rush off despite the fact that the other lanes were also clearly moving. In my mind people are like me and would see that other cars were also moving and would wait. But I was forced to concede that in fact most American's would in fact go anyway thinking they had the green light and were in the right and the rest of the world be darned.
Hopefully no one is offended by my candor. My intent is not to offend but rather to help others understand how the Nephites could possibly believe that the righteous Nephites would ever try and trick them into believing something. It is because that is what they themselves would do in the situation. And as I can attest it is a very hard thing for one to think outside their own box and realize that others don't think like them, or in my case almost no one seems to think exactly like I do, not even my wife. It's a little disconcerting to discover you are not normal but are in fact quite different from the average person. It's kinda fun though.
Now we are reaching the really neat part of the Book of Mormon, the birth of the Savior and then his death and visit to the Nephites. 3 Nephi has 30 chapters in it, so it will take us 1 month to read it together and I look forward to each and everyday as we read about our beloved Savior together. Hopefully you do too. Until tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment