Some people have accused me of thinking that I'm better than everyone else. That is untrue. There are people whom I see as better than me; people whom I see as worse than me; and a vast majority of people that I know nothing about.
Someone once told me that he was a kind of person that wouldn't see one person as better than another. I am a kind of person who does see one person as better than another. I consider myself better than Ted Bundy; I consider myself worse than Thomas Jefferson.
When I was talking to my daughter about "yucky people" she said "there are no yucky people." I see there a mix of both wisdom and naivete. On one hand, different people are going to behave in different ways, and many people will choose to behave wrongfully. On the other hand, there really is something wise in people that is cultivated through such disciplines as prayer and meditation and purposeful action, and it is possible for people who start out as "yucky" to become good.
Most people are going to see different people in different ways. Once a friend was talking about a concentration camp guard who would gas Jews during the day and would come home to play with the children in the evening. He didn't understand how such a thing was possible. It is in fact quite possible. The Nazis saw Jewish people as unhuman, kind of like flies. There is no contradiction between playing with the children and swatting a fly, and that is how the Nazis saw the Jews.
Someone once wrote that everyone's friend is nobody's friend. That is because everyone's friend will not choose one of his friends over another. Whereas someone who is more picky is likely to be more focused. Being loved by someone who loves everyone is less of a prize than someone being loved by someone who loves few people. And a person who loves few people is likely to do more heavy lifting in the relationship.
Are some people better than others? You bet they are. However the people who aren’t better have hope. People can improve. They do all the time. And a person who went from being a bad person to being a good person will understand more about the subject than someone who’s always been good.
As for seeing another person as better or worse than myself, that can go in any number of ways. I keep hearing a lot about how pride is wrong; but in many cases it is the right thing to do. I want to see more people be genuinely good. And if that requires strength of mind to stand by one’s inner-directed accomplishments, then that simply means that it is a part of the project.