You hear the term misanthropy banded around a lot. Usually to describe writers and artists whose work is anything but a rainbow waterfall of romance and happy endings. I've also heard it being used to describe myself.
I want to make this clear. I am not a misanthrope.
True, I'm not the biggest fan of people as a group. Given the chance I'd probably purchase a semi-rural property, various weapons, two large dogs and a tank, get all my food delivered and hope the delivery man doesn't crash his van into the gator infested moat I've dug around the fortress I've turned this formerly wholesome farm house into. But really, that's got less to do with me hating humans and way more to do with me being solitary and suspicious of collectives. And also I want a moat with alligators in it.
"Collective" being the highlighted word here. I'm not a collective kind of guy, I'm an individual kind of guy. I like individual people, and quite frankly, I think most people are. Including the so called "misanthropes" who throw around the term in a sort of self-deprecating self-aggrandizement. Look at me, look at how edgy and anti-society I am. I am so beyond all you humans, I barely even identify as one because of how much of a fucking rebel I am. Buy my book, peasant.
You tend to find this line of thinking amongst people of certain political persuasions. The type who hate humans so much that they want to control them as much as possible, be around them as much as possible to keep them in line because they're all such disgusting parasites that I have to be here to make sure they don't all start burning each other at the stake for minor infractions. The sort of people who will utilize whatever power they may have to oppress you in whatever manner they see fit - socially, economically, racially - and worst of all, they'll see it as doing you a favour. Because if you were left to your own devices you'd either harm other people, or you'd wither and die.
That's the binary that a true misanthrope thinks in. The state of the human race is either taking from others, or suffering because you didn't take enough. And the only way to escape this cycle is through central control, a top-down system where everyone is greeted with Orwell's famous boot stamping on their face. But it's okay, because they're told the boot loves them, and only hurts them because it does. This is true misanthropy. Hate disguised as love.
I don't call myself a misanthrope because I believe people should leave each other alone. If I were truly a misanthrope I would be beating people in the street for saying things that offend others. I'd be a nun brandishing a ruler at a boy for being unnatural with another boy in the locker room. I'd be an Islamic preacher, forcing women to wear black bin bags in the scorching sun and convincing young men to strap themselves with explosives and walk into a crowded market. I'd be a Gestapo officer cramming human beings into a train bound for their doom. I'd be a member of the Stasi, imprisoning people for the crime of wanting to be free. All for their own good I assure you.
A true misanthrope hates you. But claims to love you. I'm just an angry writer who's disappointed in a lot of things right now.
I'm going to see my girlfriend. I've left her alone too long.
Be good to each other. And where needed; let each other be.
