All of us are the product of our upbringing and our experiences. What we live through is eternally formative, crafting our feelings and then manufacturing around them the shell that is who we are - our actions.
The reason I chose the image I did for the cover of this small little piece is to reflect exactly that. Even a villain as cold and twisted as Darth Vader has an origin. He wasn't always a monster with the blood of billions on his hands. Once, he was a young boy living alone in a small hut with a single mother. He was kind, honest, and fascinated by technology. That little boy would one day turn into Darth Vader.
Hitler didn't start out as a genocidal dictator either. He used to be an ordinary kid who went to school like all of the other Austrian boys. He played, he studied, and one time he got beat up in a fight against his fellow student Ludwig Wittgenstein, who is now a (deceased) very famous philosopher.
That's who everyone is. They're the person within, sometimes a child within, reacting to what the world is, and becoming what the world shaped them to be. That even applies to me. I used to be bullied for my height when I was younger, and being short also led me to be underestimated in regards to physical strength and athletic ability. This is part of why I am so devoted to the gym and to keeping a strong, fit body. It's also why, to this day, any comments about my height irritate me even when I don't show it.
Growing up, I saw a lot of people able to do things socially that I could not. Some days I still see that, and both then and now I envy it. I envy and have always envied people who were born with or developed a certain level of attractiveness, just as I envy and have always envied people who were born to be or who turned out tall. I built part of myself around that emotion. It's the part that strives to be as kind, social, and charismatic as I can be. Because I really do want to interact with people, and I want to get along with everyone. I want to be liked and acknowledged, and I desperately want to feel as if I belong somewhere, with certain groups of friends.
Everyone has something like that which drives them. Some people grew up surrounded by Disney films and decided true love would be their ultimate goal. Some people grew up surrounded by hate and became damaged or extremely sensitive. Some people grew up surrounded by love and grew up compassionate or taking love for granted.
But what matters, and my ultimate point is that all of our experiences can be formative that way. When you're rude or mean or judgmental or otherwise somehow very unaccepting of another person, you may be changing them forever. You may be damaging them. You may be making them bitter and hateful, and hurting them.
It's important to always be as kind, loving, and engaged with others as we possibly can. When we hurt others or look down on them, we create our society's monsters.
By alienating people and making them feel alone, we give rise to those who will one day become Darth Vader or Hitler.
