“People are not primarily evil. Evil behavior is a secondary consequence of the fact that most individuals
don’t have the courage to leave the evil crowd.” -Petr Ludwig
“Whatever madness that was happening that day was actually happening.” -Neil Gaiman
My family will not let me watch the evening news. Personally I struggle to listen to the morning newscast I used to love. At those times that I have to go out to a website that has banners of the day’s headlines, I am genuinely shocked at the madness that surrounds me. Moreover, I am shocked at the people who acquiesce to the evil that is growing day by day in the halls of governance.
Weariness overcomes me as I try to contemplate all the mistakes of the big money boys’ club that have brought us here. I call their actions mistakes only in the sense the actions taken by them did not foster the betterment of the public as a whole. These actions were not mistakes in the sense that without values of citizenship in our country, and without a belief in stewardship for the future, their choices were made to make ungodly rich, those who were merely super rich before.
How do we not lose heart in the world that currently surrounds us? Is it because we are simply allowing our emotions to drag us dow that we feel the acids churning in our guts with each sound bite?
A writer I read recently said that to move from this place of darkness we must acknowledge we are going unconscious-we are losing awareness. She asserted that we must look at the larger context.
What does that really mean, the larger context? Well, we can start with the concept that life is very short indeed and that we have limited energy. We should not be burning our limited energy on unproductive routines and habits. We can’t get hooked in the cycles of pain that some in media foment. We can’t get hooked into the cycles of I’m right and you’re wrong that fill social media interactions. We have to take a macro view of all that is happening so as to free our compassion on a day to day, one to one basis.
With rawness and vulnerability the writer argued we can have a positive impact on the world. We need to trust in basic goodness. I guess that this means we live our lives based on our greater values acted out in a smaller scale world. I guess it means that we believe that being good might cull another good person out of the evil of the crowd. The evil in the world is massive and our singular acts of basic decency won’t end genocide, won’t end the mechanics of greed, won’t assure that we won’t have the living shit kicked out of us. Our singular acts of decency will help bolster a greater communal mind set of decency, humanity and resilience.
Once when I was watching Billy Bragg at a small venue concert he said our real enemy is not the evil of those in power but in cynicism. Cynicism motivates us to give up, leads us into a selfish self pitying cocoon. Mr. Bragg urged us to participate in the world and to keep our actions above board. He too believed that our individual acts would bolster the humanity and decency in those around us.
This is one of the days I feel outnumbered, overwhelmed. I’m not sure if it was him calling himself the “chosen one” or the “king of Israel” that did it, or maybe the fact that it appears not one republican has the balls to challenge this.....either way, it feels like we’re nearing the end of our run. Saddens me.
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