Haters... (ready for this?) ...Hate

Okay, this may not be either a brilliant or even an original observation, but haters hate.

(Space left here for your "Duh!"s)

What is generally less obvious (but still not an original observation) is that haters hide what they are.

Back in 1982 author and psychiatrist M. Scott Peck MD wrote a book entitled "People of the Lie." Its strongly supported thesis was based on an observation he had over and over been making through his life that the nastiest people he met were found in the various healing professions -- both physical and spiritual. That hateful people seemed to bury themselves there, in the "healing professions", where under a guise of 'goodness' they could look for victims -- most of whom were other people who claimed to be "caring," but in their cases sincerely -- and crush them.

When, at the time I was originally reading his book, I mentioned Dr. Peck's observation to a family member who had spent her entire life as a 'carer' -- in her case of the learning disabled -- she very strongly agreed with Peck's observation and started sharing one example of this after another. Ones that she herself had seen and experienced and was still seeing and experiencing.

This came to my mind because of the dichotomy I am myself observing here on Facebook - a place where hate and vitriol are in my eyes far too common. -But where I have been seeing, much to my amazement, that the worst examples of this hatefulness are found, not among my own friends, most of whom tend to be 'people of the idea,' but among others whom... yes! ... are commonly seen as "caring" people. 'Feelers.' 'Love everyone' sloganeers.

Among my thoughtful circle of largely hard-nosed realists a comment by one will bring two, three or maybe in some cases a half dozen equally thoughtful comments. Among these others any comment that even mentions certain disapproved by their set public figures by name will in just minutes get 60 or more 'short and nasties.' -Comments that not only show a relish for name-calling, but for wishing harm on the hated recipient.

Hate.

Group hate.

Cursed.

Slandered.

Wished dead.

All this by people of what? Yes, Peck had it right. "People of the lie."

Those who really care, of course, do none of those things.

I bet you are seeing this too.

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Out of the "Mainstream" (Yes, again)

Long-term friends on Facebook my have noticed that on many days of late I have not posted a 'suggested read' ("My Morning Read") -- or that if I have posted one it was focused less on the political and more on a broader philosophical or historical subject. And along with this change some may have noticed that I've not been having pieces posted by the internet 'journals' that have regularly posted my writings in the past.

All of this is true -- and all of it is related.  For of late I have been seeing on the so-called (not aptly named in my opinion) "conservative side" a tendency toward bias -- one that in some ways parallels what has long been seen on the (also in my opinion poorly named) "liberal" side. -That is a turning away from balanced open reason and argument towards such that is carefully strictured and one-sided.  That is, by way of a musical analogy, that 'chorus voices' are welcome - but that individual voices are not.  That singing 'louder' than others is approved of (and even encouraged), but the tune being sung has to be exactly  'note for note (with the 'score' provided) and don't even think about changing the words.

Whether my separating myself from this -- my withdrawing and pulling away -- is for better or for worse my friends and other 'readers' can decide for themselves, but such is, and always has been, my way.  I'm just not a 'chorus' singer.

Those who have known me well for years likely are little surprised by this.  I was the same as a young person -- and that to the chagrin of my parents (well my dad, anyway) and teachers.  A film student with a commonly thought promising career -- one who was working in the field even before college graduation -- I in short term left the field entirely when I discovered its business ethics did not match my own. And that decision having been made I then directed my 'gifts' such as they were entirely elsewhere.

And so it is, perhaps for a time at least, now.

In this case it did not happen all at once. -First I found my submitted articles were being gently edited to stress more 'acceptable' points of view while softening or removing others. Then submitted pieces were sent back to me for rewrites (which generally were not forthcoming). And finally, when my thinking more and more clearly diverged for that of the editors, such were rejected entirely.  ('It goes no place' I was told -- when in fact it most surely did. -Just not in the currently 'approved' direction.)

My conclusion was a simple one: So be it.

In very brief, this is where I stand:

Now is not the time for intentional divisiveness. It is a time to find common goals toward a common good. Not through compromise of ideals, but through a found common purpose.

What is always true in general is especially true today: That there are good arguments to be made on not just both sides of a central argument, but on all sides.  And this includes on finding the ever changing balance between "freedom" and "responsibility."

That every argument made against "our side" (a distinction I personally do not always clearly see) is not necessarily made with a poor or hidden motive. Hindsight has ever shown this to be so. Shouldn't we thus allow ourselves to see it with foresight?

"Hurray for our team!" is not in itself an argument. Indeed such exclamations can easily drown out an argument.

That corruption does exist and, yes, must in time be dealt with.  But that "investigating" and "punishing" others -- even those who in the end deserve such -- is not always the 'at the moment' most important thing.  As has been said before: 'Fix the problem, not the blame."

So once again I find myself out, not only of the "mainstream," but in truth of any large flowing 'stream' at all -- maybe even that which is comfortably carrying along my friends.

And so again I say -- indeed, I must say: So be it.

For how long?   Who knows?

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The Return of 'old-school' America

If your spirit and soul long for an 'upside' to this entire pandemic hell, here it is: The likely decoupling of America's entrepreneurial, work and merit based society, from those based on the timeworn and failed principles of born-to-wealth-and-power, and/or socialism.

First to go will be China, where to an amazing degree both flaws and failing rule the roost. -For there, as in every communist land ,the party-connected have taken on all the worst attributes of the royals of the past -- that as the working class has become mere serfs under their dominating rule.

The force behind this coming change in international relationships will not be movements -- neither of the "buy local" or the "make it here" variety. Instead it will come from the simple practical requirements of it. -The simple realizations that the
'one-world' dreamy ideal was and is too unreliable for businesses to depend on. Too fragile. Too unwieldy. And for these reasons too costly.

Factories will thus return to US soil.

But the fate of small local shops will, at least for the time being, remain uncertain. -That unless the buy from home and have it delivered schemes start to prove unreliable. (And so far they have not.)

What I personally find interesting is the parallel between this larger failure -- that of the 'one-world' ideal -- with its little sister - the movement to remove the significance of the family unit. -This just as the one-worlders wished and worked to remove the significance of historically separate and distinct nations and states.

Here, too, the turn away will be, and indeed already is being, led by the accomplished doers. That as they have in their private lives returned to the older, and largely ridiculed, ideals of lasting marriages, and children being brought forth only into the same.

Busy and involved with the kids' 'moms and dads'. Private schools that really teach. And for those -- that is their own offspring -- time proven lessons about the need for hard work and personal responsibility that society as a whole has for some time been largely and loudly rejecting.

And here too, as with the return to 'old school', local is best, economics -- this change will be (and is being) based on simple practicality. -The application of principles that really work in contrast to principles that merely sound good.

Along with all the above changes will be -- and we are, again, already seeing this -- a return to the honoring of those that actually think and actually do, and a turning away (at least as regards respect and admiration) from those who merely appear to do either -- be they those in Ivy League academia or in Hollywood.

What all the above holds in common is this -- something that so many of us have long been yearning for: America will be back. Independent, both in action and sprit, and built upon, as it was at its start, strong individuals and families that actually do, not merely those that talk.

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How should we react to the unproven claim that "They did it!"?

This blog piece springs from a query from a dear friend asking what I thought about a video looking to place the blame for the current horrors hard onto the back of Chinese communism.

I loath "communism," not just as a disastrous economic system, but far more as an encroachment on the human sprit.

As Albert Einstein said "Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom."

Communism by its very nature destroys that.

But my response to the video was short; my viewing of it yet shorter. And in response to this friend's question I wrote...

I only watched a bit beyond the introduction. That was enough for me because it did what an introduction is supposed to do -- it laid out the thesis.

The fact is, to my mind, that neither you, nor I, nor the makers of that video know the answer to that question; those questions. But this is exactly how every HATE begins and spreads.

"It was the _________. They are to blame."

It does seem apparent that the Chinese bureaucracy hid the truth and punished those trying to make it known. That is what every bureaucracy does. Lower members play 'cover your ass' to protect their place within the structure.

That is, yes, evil. But it is not the same as concluding that some nefarious evil monster-man created this disease and intentionally spread it among mankind.

That humans want such a clear and simple answer -- that someone "did it" -- is again a historical truth. That people profit in numerous ways, including emotional ones, from "finding" and then "revealing" such a "truth" is equally historical. And that truth has killed far more people than any virus.

The simple, but hard to accept  truth is that there is much we do not, will not, and cannot know. And that emptiness is like a vacuum.

I avoid such theorizing -- such trying to fill that vacuum -- as useless and often harmful.

"I do not know" suffices for me. Adding, as best I can, "but what can I do to help?"

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This, Too, Shall Pass

What we as a nation. and indeed the entire world, are experiencing is unique. Not in the sense that it is the first such international 'plague' to spread through the world, but in that it is the first to which today's world has dealt with in such a near universal and knowing fashion.

What we are facing today has been likened to a "war," and is such in various ways. There is a nefarious 'enemy' looking to kill and maim. There are uniformed armies going into battle. New recruits are being called up to this army and old 'soldiers' are being called back to service. There are small victories being declared and large losses (we have reason to believe) being hidden. And there is that proverbial "fog of war" that is preventing even truth seekers from truly finding what they seek,. And to that we must add that other common creation of war: rumors and suspicion. -Both things that the fearful in general, and the credulous by nature especially, grab hold of and spread, creating what amounts to a second "front," or in this case a second "disease" - that with casualties all its own.

And as in any war there are Generals taking the lead -- some with great (although not necessarily lauded) success -- and lower-ranked officers who are vying to see their own plans put into action, both for reasons good and ill.

All this while the greater number are trying their best to hunker down, to as needed do without, and as able to make their own small daily contributions to the greater effort. And a small number looking for personal gain -- the "profiteers." Yes, all this just as there are in every war.

And then there is that ever-present fear. Fear for loved ones. Fear for our own selves and our futures as we expected them to unfold. Fears for society as a whole. -A society that is changing before our eyes -- and with that the possibly greater fear that the society which we loved, or at least in which we felt comfortably secure, may never return.

Wars, pestilence and famine have always brought these things; always been a part of the human experience -- just as much as has been heat and cold and damp.

But just as modern life has to a large degree shielded most of us from the effects of those things - that heat and cold and damp -- so most of us have to a remarkable degree been shielded, not only from the direct threat of wars, pestilences and famines, but even from the idea that such could be our lot.

This morning missive shall not end with The Answer, for no such "singular answer exists. But it does end with an admonition: That each of us -- you, me, our families, our neighbors, our communities our states and our nations -- should work to make the best of these current realities. To learn from them. To equally be willing to lead and to follow. To put forth ideas, yes, but not to sneer at the ideas of others. To realize that while each of our lives is important -- central to us as living beings -- that there is also an overall "good" that must be kept keenly in mind. To realize and accept that the weak will now require extra help, and that those who are strong will have to use that strength - and possibly allow some of it to be stripped away -- for our common survival.

And all the above as we realize that what is "now" is not just now -- it is, and has been, common to all mankind through all of history.

But it is also "now" in another sense. The one expressed in that old, very common, and very wise phrase: "This, too, shall pass."

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