*Originally posted by j66 *
“”""My response to your post is such a confusing mixture of agreement and disagreement.
So, let’s cut to the disagrement (always more interesting.)""""
An observation riddled with its own existential problems =)
“”""“Damn straight I think I have the right AND responsibility to defend myself; I might not be better than my attacker, but there is a good chance I am, because I did not attack.”""""
The fact of matter is that you do not (inspite of The Constitution) even have the right to live (I think many people in their own way are trying to solve this very problem (I know I am) as we speak and sleep). As the existential problem currently stands, it’s pretty bleak! not unsolvable, but not positive enough to warrant a stance like that IMO, though everyone has their own circumstances). It’s a null set that is communicable; the same is true of your ‘friend’ in hate as well… this ‘right’ to live is just not tangible in a logically consistant way yet.
You may have behavior patterns that incite the attack (remember my thing about not seeing people as having ‘wills’). Were you to look back from an area of vast knowledge of human determinism, you may have chosen your hang-outs, conversation style or emotions differently so as not to trigger certain behavior into your life; cruel both to yourself and the other person in retro-spect. Or, the effect could have been socially agragate, and you were simply a ‘statistic’ required to ‘fill the books’ on that level - more likely a combination (…so to say “I can’t pinpoint it exactly”).
“”“Anger and hatred are very different things; now, thanks to Mac, I can see both as healing emotions.”"""
Without some degree of refection, they will become habits. They do help to dis-engage one from existential crisis (while changing the tension dynamic); which takes phenomenal energy to evaluate; often at the expense of anything relating to materialism; which can require an abandonment of heartfelt promises to others depending on your situation.
“”""And I am often angry at the world; the world is a cruel and unjust place. What does that get me? Poorer in material goods. I tend to donate money when I get mad at ‘the world’. (I refer to societies, not to the earth.)
All that is necessary for evil to flourish is for good [people] to do nothing."""
All that is necessary for darkness to flourish is for fuel to be consumed… Violating trust does not require much energy in contrast to other means of life. Working on the existential problem and working what many call a ‘real job’ is literally the only definition of work; the other is a vacation in compare. It’s like the saying, “It’s only work if you lose”; a pretty unamerican sentiment right now… What you see outwardly as ‘nothing’, can indeed be the product of the workload “squared”. ‘Good people’ have to work in over-drive to even the score without resorting to the tools of ‘evil’. Of course, then ‘evil’ just replies; “So we give your life meaning and increase the selective pressure to determine meaning as a whole on a species and societal level, HA! You should thank us!” Yes, indeed; ‘evil’ is a frustrating foe =)
““On the other hand: be careful what you hate lest you become it.””
A shift of societal focus towards existentially positive endevours does not come from force; rather from some sense that there must be a way to solve it for all of us; that the concept of ‘truth’ exists… the existential logic pulls on everyone, ‘evil’ or ‘good’; like: “Yes, but we can already prove that such behavior is not logically consistant; we know why it achieves results – stop being a dinosuar and help us out here.” Ultimately, nobody wants to be forgotten as irrelevant; like people who burned schizophrenics as witches just a while back… people so retarded now, that they are completely irrelevant in terms of their entire logical matrix; an oblivion of historical significance, never actually a conscious being while being alive.
“”""“Also: no-one will ever hate us so much as some-one who has wronged us.”"""""
They just need that hate to protect what they have stolen, something that often feeds on itself even if you realized that you ‘screwed up’ and wish you could do it over. There is also a fundamental fear that, given the opportunity, you’ll enact a retrobution when they confront you with their trust. An idea still fundamentally rooted in ‘hate’ thinking… that feeling of inherent superiority in rightousness; inspite of evidence that it doesn’t actually exist.
“”"“Anyhelp on the exact wording of the above quotations would be appreciated. (Except the substitution of ‘people’ for ‘men’; that was deliberate).”"""’
Hopefully it provided more to think about; (I don’t really think of my posting as answers) hopefully options of perpective. The rest is completely up to you.
-Justhink