Banal Evils

It is very easy to judge someone for a horrible act that you could never imagine yourself committing. It is also very easy to fear extreme and unlikely events like shark attacks, and terrorist acts much more than it is to consider the more likely and common dangers that claim many more lives like driving a car. However, just as we fail to evaluate risk for what it is, we also fail to recognize that evil is far more commonplace than headline making horrors like school shootings and pedophile rings. 

You don't need to know about the resent revelation of the largest child porn ring in history, or the ongoing starvation and slaughter of civilians in Syria by all sides of the conflict to know about evil. You don't even need to be aware of the large portion of the world that worries about getting food and clean water every day. 

You also don't need to have taken part in causing these things to be guilty of evil. 

Many often look at such horror and ask why. One could just as easily look out the window and ask the same if they knew what they were looking at. This is because, as always, that which goes unnoticed can and often does lurk under the surface like some Leviathan. Ignorance is not bliss and that which you do no know can indeed kill you. The evil comes from these things doing so to others. 

Consider the clothes you wear. Now consider that the majority of the cotton used in the garment industry comes from Central Asia and is produced by what is essentially slave labor. Now consider that the agricultural practices employed to produce it have irreversibly destroyed the environment of the region and will continue to do so. This sort of thing doesn't go on the labels.

Consider the technology we use (I’m using a MacBook Air to write this). Not only the manufacture of the final products, but the procurement of the materials is extremely exploitative to the people involved. It’s easy to decry the ongoing wars in Central Africa. Not so easy to admit they are fought for resources that go into the technology your lifestyle is dependent on. 

Consider that 1 in 5 American women reports sexual assault at some point. Now consider that that number is much lower than the actual number of sexual assaults. Men in the audience, ask yourselves some hard questions about your past and current relationships and consider the possibility that you may be a part of this. 

These are only a few examples. The are sensational, which draws the attention. However, the key  thing to remember is that all events have other events that lead to them. Nothing happens in isolation. To this end, complicity is as much of a contributing factor to evil as is the act itself because it sets the conditions for it to actually happen. 

We are all guilty of complicity to one extent or another and thus all guilty of evil to one extent or another. Thus the question that will ultimately arise is so what? Another less damaging, but ultimately ineffective response is to blow up the issue into some major metaphysical-existential crisis. Workers rights. Global poverty. The 1%. This is all nothing more than hope soon to be swept away for lack of a path to reach it. As lofty and noble as such thoughts are, they are nothing more than good intentions, and few things have caused as much harm as good intentions. 

Rather the answer, as always, is to actually do something right now. Rather than making the problem so large that it is either non-confrontable, or comfortably ignorable, look out the window. See what is going on right now. See reality for what it is. Have lunch with the homeless alcoholic. Ask the hard questions of those you are close to. Make decreasing the suffering of others a habit rather than voting for someone who states it as a campaign goal. 

If evil is banal, so too can be its opposite. 

Stop Blaming DC

There is no worse act in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away.

Given the current political issues, it is obvious to apply this saying to our current elected leadership. However, in keeping with the objectives of this space to take seriously that which is overlooked and that which lurks under the surface, think instead about what constitutes power and thus what constitutes leadership, weather for benefit or ill. 

If you want to know what holds real power over you, consider that which you are too fearful to challenge. 

Given the amount of challenge currently faced by elected leadership, they are not who the first line is directed at. They are not permanent and suffer as much from chance and fortune through the system they inhered and thus the limitations they also inhered as anyone else. Rather, the first line is directed at what lead to the system in the first place. 

The real false hope that has been held out is that if we follow our feelings wherever they lead, we will be happy. 

The result has been the opposite. Many will recognize the "greed" that drives the financial system as an example of this. This sentiment is far more pervasive though. In accepting that following feelings leads to happiness, for any good person preventing other people from doing the same would make one feel uncomfortable and thus unhappy. Pain caused by a lack of comfort leads to avoiding what caused the pain. This combined with the very new and very western idea of cultural relativism has lead to it being an uncomfortable, and thus it is assumed, unhappy thing to challenge anything put forward to the purpose of this new common virtue of, not only everyone being equal, but everyone being entitled to the best of everything. 

This is the essence of political correctness, a thing that tends to be seriously challenged only by people equally out of touch with reality, like members of the Westboro Baptist Church, and Tea Partiers. 

This has become elevated to the level of doctrine and dogma and has delivered neither happiness, nor equality, nor gotten anyone closer to whatever they may feel entitled to. Rather it has allowed the collective sweeping of that which is too hard to seriously talk about under the rug at best, and at worst it has resulted in avoidance and thus ignorance of human suffering. 

For example, a white man shoots a minority teenager and mass society demands blood. Even if this is a rightful response, it absolves no one for the blind eye turned to people who look like the victim killing other people who look like the victim on a regular basis. It absolves collective society even less for ignoring the conditions that lead to it being common for this to happen in the first place.  

The correct response to that which has given false hope is to face reality and move on. 

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. For those who have served or are now serving, it is a day of pride and recognition. For those who never served, but support none the less, it is a day to remember and go out of one's way to thank and recognize those that have sacrificed in a particular way. And for a very few, the day means nothing at all or it is a source of irritation at the so called hero worship they perceive as unwarranted.

Much can be, and is said of this final group. However, in my opinion, nothing needs to be said at all of them. They condemn themselves by voicing such opinions. The far more troubling scene on this day is that of the homeless alcoholic on the sidewalk still living out the jungles of Vietnam, or the college student in his room flirting with a loaded firearm in the knowledge that ending the memories of the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah would be so easy. It's also the girl from New Jersey who gives half of her paycheck to her mother who is living in a hotel room, even though she disowned her because she loves a another girl. It's the kid who has been the primary care giver to his baby niece because his sister is standing charges for murder, and it's the the guy who drinks himself to sleep every night in order to forget how much it hurts that the women he loved couldn't wait 7 months for him to get back. 

The truth is the sacrifices are greater and more irreversible than simply going to war. Most will never know what it is like. However, this does not make their recognition none the less valid, or their love none the less needed. 

For all those who support us, thank you. 

Behavioral Issues

There is a lot of talk these days, as there ever was, about radical change. We here about the need for it from sources as non-congruous as the Huffington Post and local mega church revival gatherings. The only problem is waiting around for something dramatic generally entails waiting a very long time.

Also, waiting around, however frustrating it may be, is a lot safer than the risks associated with doing what you truly want to do. Think of the member of the opposite sex, or perhaps the same sex who you wish you could have something more with. The wishing becomes its own fortress. Hope becomes its own solitary confinement. The thing with solitary confinement though is that if you can't get out, nothing else can get in, and thus at you. 

Important decisions are always underpinned by emotions more than logic and reason. 

That being said, rather than waiting for that radical change which is beyond prediction, the emotional blocks laid one on top of the other like walls in a fortress underlying that hope can be rearranged to form something, if not quite as dismally safe, much more open and thus much more capable of influencing the real world. 

This doesn't happen by waiting around. It happens by deciding to take control of your thoughts and actions daily, and moment by moment until they change. It comes by deciding to have a conversation with the homeless alcoholic on the street corner rather than ignoring him. It comes from deciding to make eye contact BEFORE leering at that hot girl's back side. See the person before you see an object. It comes from saying thank you when something has happened for which you should say so. It comes from deciding to forgive and saying you forgive until you actually mean it and it actually becomes true.

We talk about bad habits, and all too often forget that good habits can be learned just as well. 

Many small things become big things.

Revolution Doesn't Solve Anything

A common trend in political discussion, as well as anything else pertaining to a large mass of individuals is to forget the role of the individual almost entirely. It is thus consistently common when advocating for some form of change away from the dismal norm to either talk about that change in terms of ultimately hollow platitudes and meta concepts, or to start going off about "revolution". This is by no means a new phenomenon. It's where we got the dual rise of Communism and Fascism from. On the other hand, the ultimately boring and depressing talk about getting to some morally superior plain, which sounds surprisingly similar to the talk of women still not being equal to men in the work place, or on the other side of the isle, how we have gotten away from family values and thus are about to crumble as a society, has been recorded since when the ancients still reverenced Athena.

Great ideas, with no hope of being realized 

Actions realized that burned out like wildfire and burned millions in the process

As with everything else, these trends arise for the same reason the course of water is always towards the least resistance. It's easy to push for an untenable extreme, which forces extreme sacrifice and thus irreversible commitments, or to advocate unclearly defined concepts that are just big enough for no one to actually have to look at their reflection and see something about them to be changed. The mark of great skill and wisdom though is build something that lasts. 

This does not happen at a meta level of ideas, or through some great awakening. The first is not specific and not actionable. The second, like wildfire, dies out eventually, as has been the case with all great social movements, from political uprisings to church revivals. This is because both courses appeal to the crowd, whether it be increasingly pervasive media projections of "normal", or race riots and occupy encampments. 

What is ignored is the individual. It is ultimately easier to avoid hard choices by not making them because  your supposed "values" would be violated by a required compromise, or because the choice has already been made for you in the heat of a mob in the process of being dispersed by police in riot gear. This makes the choices of each of us no less important. 

The choice is actually not so complicated. In making it, it is critical to always realize that no one is obligated to care about anything and should not be expected to. If you wonder if the world gives a f**&, it doesn't. However it for you to decide if you will. Thus dispense with self pity, as it only brings more suffering. Stop feeling sorry for yourself for being misunderstood because it only leads to pain, and stop considering that things are as they are because people are stupid. The mirror could just as easily be turned on you by someone else. Rather, consider those around you, both near and far and take their welfare into account. Don't make advocacy about some grand cause that is just big enough for you to hid behind it in the face of pain and suffering that is right in front of you every day. Don't decide to ignore because it is to stressful to care or because the problem is too big to ever solve. It is progressively solved every time someone does show compassion and does risk caring for those who cannot care for themselves. Consider the homeless alcoholic begging for spare change and realize that, though such people will always be here, the opportunity is yours to relieve suffering now. Such opportunities should never be wasted. 

It is not through a revolution, or reaching a higher plain of conciseness that we find peace and justice. It is also not through devotion to high ideals and strict observance of narrow beliefs, a crime for which atheists can be just as guilty as the most hardened Westboro Baptist goer. 

It is through the compassion we show to those around us right now.

And especially towards those for whom no one has the time or care to show compassion. 

Someone who decided to care and will never be forgotten for it

Social Distraction, Or Why The Political Situation Is What It Is.

The United States has been good at finding distractions for a long time now. The appeal of spectator sports is a harmless example of this. On the other hand, the national obsession with the trivialities of what would be called in the slang of my generation "first world problems" is less harmless. One of the biggest distractions of all though combines spectator sports with first world problems to create the current political scene, the impact of which ranges from inducing insanity and breaks from logic and reality, to outright abuses of power and derelictions of duties to protect those who cannot protect themselves. It is because of the harm that is caused and the greater harm that is possible that the political scene, and what to do with it will be primary topics of discussion.

In the public discussion of politics, personal ideology has often times taken the place of reason. This is harder to reverse than it may at first seem. The reason any system exists as it does is because it is reaching, or has reached an internal equilibrium, which is to say things are the way they are because it works. Political campaign positions have become more extreme because it provides a better contrast against the opposition and thus captures more prospective voters. Attack adds get run during campaign seasons because they are actually effective, and political actors tend towards more strict ideologies rather than allowing compromise because it causes them to stand out in the increasing noise of modern media.

However, as much as it is my objective to describe things as they are, there would be little point in writing if I did not also ask what could and should be. The purpose of all political action should be to advance the common good, as defined by promoting order rather than chaos and especially defending those who cannot adequately defend themselves. These may be stated intentions of members from all points along the political spectrum. That said, intentions, however good mean nothing in the face of increasing and consistent negative outcomes. For example, the ongoing debate and attempts to restrict firearms comes from a high intention of protecting those who cannot protect themselves, an aim most in keeping with my stated objectives. The actual implantation of such legislation though, does not produce outcomes in keeping with the intentions because the policy does not take reality into account. Criminals, by definition, do not observe the law and should not be expected to observe laws that would restrict their access to weapons for the commission of further crimes. On the other end of the spectrum, there is the idea that abortion should be restricted at all costs because it is very easily seen as the killing of those who are ultimately unable to defend themselves, a view that is actually quite common and accepted in many other developed countries. In practice though, the anti abortion movements often times focuses on the final act rather than recognizing the lack of opportunity, poverty, and other assorted negative situations that lead up to it, and taking action on those with the second and third order effects being abortions becoming increasingly less common. The outcome for them then is that they fight a losing battle and make themselves increasingly a target for being accused of the ultimate modern crime of insensitivity.

Both of these untenable positions result from substituting good intentions for the actual methods, compromises and sacrifices that lead to good outcomes. The same is true of nearly all other major political and cultural issues we now face. It is thus that the  most harmful of all distractions we face are good intentions with no way for realization, and they are so because they lead to ignoring the reality of the situation, taking untenable and oppositional positions thus causing tremendous noise and chaos, and all the while masquerading as good. As a wise man once said, "you don't make arch demons out of lizards, you make them out of arch angels."

The risks associated with actually turning good intentions into positive outcomes may and should induce a certain level of fear. However, acquiescing to fear in the face of sound and thought out methods, however common, will only result in the same and worse than what we now face. Things find internal equilibrium, but it is not always as it should be.