The 3 Thirds. A beginners Guide to Understanding People.

Here is a wee theory I concocted. Its basic and probably wrong but I like it and it helps me understand the world.

So everyone sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.

Humans are divided into three parts, not equal thirds, as the emphasis in any one area is changeable from person to person.

The three parts are…

1, Culture, or just where you’re from and if you move around a lot then this transitional lifestyle.

We all like to imagine we are free spirits and that the decisions we make from day to day are based around what we choose to do. But we are just pawns in a game, or worse still soldiers in a regiment. You are whether you like it or not a slave to your country!! This becomes obvious when you go abroad and start to see other social norms, other people behaving in a totally different way, on mass. Their social norms are completely different. Its like dropping yourself into a different landscape wearing all the wrong clothes. Then you meet people from your country whilst you are away and are drawn to them, not just because of a common language but because of a common sense of a social norm. You have the same presets in a sense.

2, Type of person you are.

So I think that within every culture on earth there are types of people. This is how societies function, if we were all hairdressers society would fall apart, but hairdressers are a ‘type of person’ and a necessary piece of the jigsaw puzzle. So you may be an Artist or a Scientist or a Mechanic, but I don’t mean just jobs, maybe you’re a philosopher, or a villain or murderer or an animal lover. You could well be several of the above. Its what you are, and if you went abroad and met someone with a different set of social norms BUT was also a hairdresser you would still get on. It would be a common trait. You could sit and chat about scissors and stuff. Language would be the only barrier but not insurmountable.

3, Age.

Perhaps I should say time, as age sounds terribly elitist or patronising.

It struck me once that It didn’t matter how much you travel, even if you went to every corner of the globe it would take you a lifetime and once you had completed your ultimate adventure the first country you visited would have changed beyond all recognition. Imagine if you had visited Britain in 1950, then you spent the next 60 years going everywhere else, would you really know what Britain is like now? No, its virtually a different place. So your journey abroad to understand the world would be endless and also impossible.

What I mean to say is that generations change. Each generation are like a mini culture’s in themselves. They use different ‘trendy’ words, sport different haircuts and have different social values. Its more obvious in some people than others and more pronounced in our modern rapidly changing world.

I think that you grow up and reach your late teens, early twenties and then that’s you for life! Of course you change and adapt as you get older but when you are young you’re a sponge and information about the world pours into you. You are a product of that moment in time, the most up to date version. Then unwittingly and very slowly like a panther creeping up on you through the long grass you turn into a saturated swamp! It becomes harder to change and take on new stuff, besides its only a little bit different than the stuff you did when you were 20, so why change? Weren’t those times so much better anyway? Sometimes change isn’t for the better.

What I’m saying is that your going to be able to relate better to people of your own age, because you’re a microcosm of history set at a certain period in time. No matter how much you struggle against it and believe me I do. Of course you do change as you get older, I understand myself much better (if not completely) I have learnt through trial and error and that takes time. You gain a kind of short hand, you meet the same types of people. You take things less seriously. These common attitudes also can bind you to people of your own age.

This is a massive simplification. Its loads more complicated, I know, but its my theory and I call it home. I would also like to say that none of the rules or theories are the same for everyone and all of them can be broken.

The End.