Just musing here about the absurd amount of violence everywhere, especially some recent incidents in the news and in the [SF] Bay Area. Some pretty scary stuff happening out there. Many of us “decent” people would never even [admit we] dream of raping, stabbing, strangling, beating, pushing off a cliff, etc. Just NOT even remotely what we would consider? WRONG.
It’s really too easy for us “decent” folk to feel smug and superior, to blame the ills of the world on thugs, drug dealers, dictators, religious extremists, klansmen, Nazis, rednecks, Idi Amin and on and on.
Fact is: the world is a very dangerous place for all of us, and there is rampant and insidious violence everywhere.
What? OK– No upbringing of any child in any environment is anywhere near perfect. Find someone whom you totally envy, scratch hard enough, and you are very likely to find some festering wound that they have no tools with which to cope. Sure– there are really very many laudable exceptions, many loving parents, rich poor and in-between in all manner of places who are able to properly nurture their offspring and raise perfectly healthy humans. Sadly, there is too little of that. Some of my evaluation comes from the evolution of social mores over my own lifetime, but we truly have had many exemplars throughout history; our job is to find them laud, them and emulate them. It it NEVER too late to be healthy or to nurture a healthy state in a person who depends upon us.
Oh, dear– my point!
There is inherent in all of us [oh, I think of that poor, deluded chimpanzee] the capacity for extreme violence in the face of potential danger to ourselves or a member of our tribe or family. This is, unfortunately, pretty necessary, even when it proves to be misguided.
But– My main point is that I cannot condemn the folks mentioned in my first paragraph, those who learn violence almost from the cradle, or who are dragged into it when options for a healthy life dim to a dull flame or are extinguished altogether.
Why? Well, we, the “decent” folks, “civilized” folks have ALL in common with these “animals” and have no right to condemn anything but their actions. Think about it. Some of us sit calmly behind our desks and order broad-based strikes against a nation, a tribe, a race, drug users etc. Like Pilate, our hands are clean. Others of us sit back, collecting monstrous pay [for little work, IMNSHO] deciding that so-and-so and so forth are worth far less than us for doing a monstrous amount of work. This is truly VIOLENT. I could go on and on about this, but Rachel Maddow, Barak Obama and friends are trying their best to correct this.
Saddest and worst, and my real point: those of us who doggedly and tirelessly inflict violence, sadness and destruction upon ourselves, our parents, our children and ourselves. We drink, we drug, we are depressed, we abstain from even a fraction of our potential. We suffer in silence that is really a deafening roar to those around us. Our blood, sweat and tears flow in the gutters. Our lives, a sweet gift and holy blessing, melt away in sadness.
We cannot rescue the overt “monsters” and offenders unless and until we rescue ourselves. We must find the marvelous within ourselves, re-plant Gan Eden, and then invite all to share in our bounty.
Shalom
