The question of who we are not can be equally as difficult as answering the question of who we are. Describing one of these tasks as overarchingly more difficult than the other gives far too much credit to the good, and not nearly enough credit to the bad. Far too much credit to the white, and not nearly enough credit to the black. If it were as easy as ‘cutting things out’, why haven’t more people already done it? If the good and the bad are truly so black and white, then there wouldn’t be any black left. 

Eliminating the black parts of our lives that we have held onto for such a long time is an overwhelming goal. There are parts that helped us through bad times, even though they may not be fundamentally ‘good’. There are parts that gave us glimpses of hope or happiness when we had nowhere else to turn. It seems like an impossible task; removing parts of our lives, until only the things we cannot afford to lose remain. 

The blackness, or the bad parts of the world, exist for a reason. They are perpetuated further into society every day for a reason. The ‘black’ often gives us the instant gratification we crave, which drives so much of our society that many people now struggle to see past it. To so many, the five seconds of happiness we get from the black seems to be worth the five years of suffering afterward. 

Finally, cutting out the ‘black’, only works when we know what is black and what is white. Judging what is good for us and what is bad is a consensually impossible task among humans. We tend to bend our ethics when we feel like we can justify the reasoning. “I know I probably shouldn’t have done that, but in this situation, it’s okay because x,y, and z.” It’s only natural to try and defend our actions. The majority of people struggle to see their imperfections as clearly as they can see them in others.

The world isn’t black and white. It cannot be easily separated into the good and into the bad. ‘Cutting out the bad,’ is an idealistic, if not impossible, mindset. The black can only be cut out when we know what is black and what is white. The black can only be cut out when it stops giving us the happiness we aren’t finding anywhere else.