See Who I Am

It seems obvious to me that this is about treating everyone as people (if that makes any sense), and I agree there is no romantic aspect to it.

When I read mhorton's and artemislee's (in particular) comments, the first personal example that came to mind, for some reason, was one of the kids I taught English to when I lived in Seoul. She was very quiet around me initially, but less so over time, and then one day she told me that she was afraid of me at first because I'm American, but then she realized I'm not scary at all. That was one of the best moments of my life. I was flattered that I was a catalyst for one child to realize that looking beyond countryist fears meant seeing me as me. (Back then, with all the changes that Bush was causing for South Korea, this fear of America was very strong, and I could completely understand it. But I'm not Bush, and I don't try to tear families apart and destroy attempts for them to be whole again, and I don't think it's just fine for U.S. soldiers to rape women, etc.) Of course, the credit goes to her, but part of me can't help but feel proud that I was one tool for her epiphany ^^ Just two children (I was actually a minor too when I lived in Korea), and we were part of the change that I (and hopefully she) wished to see.

We are completely surrounded by prejudice, immersed in it, absorbing it without meaning to. Seeing different subjective points of view--and generalizing it to seeing what is objective, seeing possibile subjective POVs--helps one have a more accurate, realistic view of other people. People are aware of racism, and sexism too although often not taken seriously, but many things are taken for granted and not even thought of as prejudice--moneyism, ageism, speciesism, countryism, religionism, prodictivityism/usefulnessism, and many stigmas and myths surrounding mental health, sexual taboos, behavior modification, and so on. Forgive me for making up new words :P

I still dream of a world of peace, acceptance, and understanding; I'm not sure what the second verse is saying, but perhaps that it's the best thing to live by, instead of, say, obsessing over the current state of things, getting depressed by the truth of what ought to be and how far we must fight to get there, being sucked into people's assumptions (lies?) of intolerance and hopelessness, etc. I'm horrible at interpreting things like this so I'd appreciate other people's ideas.

Is it just me or is there an implied threat in this song? Trying to not lose what we have, souls withering, having to find a way, keeping the world from ending... Sounds not only like "We should do this good thing," but "Or else bad things will happen and continue happening."

I'm also wondering if it's just prejudice, intolerance, fear, hate, and the like, or if there's a more specific embodiment that is against us. For example, some powers in government and corporations that insist we can't find any other way and just have to bomb others, that say we can't find a way to free our minds, that will crush our strength if their power reigns? Kind of doesn't fit with the "silence preaching" though.