Jun
20
What is an absurdity? It is something that is not believable IF you are
paying attention and thinking it through. You have to purposely ignore
evidence that is easily in reach and you have to have a pre-existing (even
if unconscious) desire to believe the absurdity for it to persuade you.
How does it lead to atrocities? If you believe, as people of many races
have over the centuries, that people of other races are not fully human,
then denying them rights (or killing them) is easily rationalized.
If you believe, as people of many religions have over the centuries, that
people of other religions are eternally damned, then treating them as
less than human (or killing them) is easily rationalized.
If you believe, as people of many political persuasions have over the
centuries, that those who don’t believe in the same way of governing
as you do are evil and corrupt, then keeping them from being politically
involved (or killing them) is easily rationalized.
If you believe, as people of both genders have over the centuries, that
women are less intelligent and able than men, then oppressing them
(or killing them) is easily rationalized.
Where did those actions come from over the centuries? From believing absurdities.
quote by Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
May
30
>
Can anyone think of anything more stupid than to hate someone because
of the melanin level of their skin? I have.
Some competitors for the Stupid Hate Award are:
- The language they speak
- Their accent
- The amount of wrinkles they have, or don’t have
- The specifics of their genitalia
- Where they were born
- The clothes they wear
- Their job or career choice
What do you think? Is the list accurate, what else would you
add or subtract and why?
Give your opinion and you will be helping me out by testing
my comment box. I think it is working well but I need people
out on different machines and browsers to check it out for me.
quote by Abraham J. Heschel, Jewish theologian and philosopher, 1907- 1972
Dec
20
>
The easiest thing in the world to do is to sit back and do nothing.
But it really is true that if we want ‘evil’ to diminish we must not just hope it goes away, we must actually speak and act against it. I am not talking just about the big protests or letter writing campaigns you can be part of (I don’t do well in either of those categories either). I am talking about standing up for what is right with the person right in front of you.
The courage to confront someone who cuts someone down because they have a disability, or are of another race or nationality. The willingness to defend someone who isn’t there when they are talked about. The desire to stop innuendo or rumors in their tracks when you hear them. Those are the real day to day work of changing the world to be a better place. That is what defeats evil right where you live.
For those of you who worry about ‘confrontation’ or what my friends will think, then there is no easy way around it. You will likely lose a friend and have a confrontation. But if you practice speaking the truth in love, with a kind heart towards those who said the offensive statement, you can often become closer and more of a friend to the person, not less.
In the end, confrontation or none, you will become a person you and others can be proud of.
Dec
11
>
One thing I have learned over the years from reading a lot of global and personal histories and biographies and witnessing 50+ years of them myself is that there is ALWAYS a rationalization.
It doesn’t matter how ludicrous the idea might be, how completely untenable or self-destructive, how mean or violent, how opposite of logic or sanity it is, if someone believes it, they will rationalize it. Most all of Germany rationalized Nazism. Mao and Pol Pot rationalized their ‘cultural revolutions’ that killed millions and left their countries destitute. Individuals rationalize addictions and violence and control and gossip and destructive machinations against others. They make the most absurd of conduct make sense in a perverse logic they are depending on.
Always watch out for that in your own life, it is insidious and no one is immune from it unless they have intellectual safe guards against it. What are those safe guards? Solid and proven principles that will keep you safe from outrageous and absurd claims, beliefs and behaviors. What are those principles? There isn’t one set. There are many and it is up to each person to find them for themselves. That is a topic for another blog posting though.
