In praise of love and earnestness

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
- Buddha

Without courage we cannot practice anyother virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
- Maya Angelou

Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.
- Karl A. Menninger

Cynicism is a cancer in the world.

It causes us to lose the logic of principles. It erodes our commitment to them.

It causes us to ridicule the earnest and reject sincerity.

These days one “wins” by the cutting remark, the dismissive response, the keener the ability to humiliate or shame – the greater the share of the spotlight.

Cruelty, at every level, is the norm.

Leaders who lead you to cynicism do violence to your soul.

They lead you away from love, from joy, from gratitude.

For their own purposes, they stoke cynicism and with it, its companion hate.

Like a drug, it causes us to forget love and its companion, hope.

An open letter to the Republican Leadership:

Recent years have seen the unfolding of stunning and historic events.

The American experiment, the very foundations of the American Revolution, is in the throes of what may be its most daunting challenge since the Civil War.

Arguably – it is all one struggle, one continuity of purpose that brings us to this place, a struggle for the freedom of the everyday person, not as an accessory of wealth or as a special birthright, but as a birthright for all.

I say to you that any act or practice attempting to repress the voice of “the people,” is in the most clear definition of the word, treason. Whether through gerrymandering, voting laws, or turning a blind eye to informational warfare, it is treason.

Are there not principles that are more important than short term goals? Are there not values to be prized more than political standing? than “career”? Shouldn’t the health of our republic be our first priority?

We cannot know if the 2016 election was materially altered by Russian interference or not. We didn’t have the opportunity to find out.

It is clear to any but the most naïve pundit that Mr. Trump is grateful for Mr. Putin’s support. Mr. Trump clearly fears that evidence of Russian interference undermines his “accomplishment” of winning. It is his ego that poisons his thinking and attracts him to despots who bolster his own sense of importance. He cannot see, or even care, how what feels good to him might somehow be bad for the country. If you question my conclusions go through and review ALL of his statements on Russia and Putin. Anyone can judge this for themselves absent the filter of spokesperson spin.

Let me repeat – Review Mr. Trump’s statements. All of them. The idea that replacing the word “would” with “wouldn’t” substantively alters his statements in Helsinki is absurd. It is a farce – and you – the Republican leadership must, if you’re truly patriots, do whatever it takes to act as a wall against these foreign assaults.

You must explain, in the most clear terms, to your constituents and the world, what is happening and what you are doing to protect our government and our people from Russia. You cannot sit by and do nothing. As long as you fail to defend us, as long as you fail to move against this erosion of our national principles, whatever you accomplish, whatever you “achieve,” is corrupted.

For Liberals and Conservatives - a note on feeling(s)

Feelings are not truth – Feelings are not truth – Feelings are not truth – Feelings are not truth -

Acting on your feelings doesn’t make you authentic, but it can make you reckless and ill considered.

Serial killers act on their feelings, rapists, abusers, racists – all are feeling driven.

Feelings are the source of racism, misogyny, prejudice, sexism, and bias of all sorts.

Less antisocial but equally valid as an example – people with bipolar disorder must regularly sort through what is a “true” feeling and what is a product of brain chemistry –

Children, before they’ve learned self-discipline, are examples of an unexamined emotional life capable of equal parts joyful and uninhibited; and cruel and unrestrained.

Narcissists believe in the truth of their feelings.

Feelings are sometimes just intrusive thoughts that need to be ignored. YOU may not be the author of them. They may be a product of conditioning through life experience – or chemical shifts beyond your control. In the medieval period, intrusive feelings were sometimes thought to be the product of Satan or a demon.

Everyday minor biases play out so that we privilege those we FEEL comfortable with over those we FEEL less comfortable with. The system is an accumulation of these choices. It’s not always or even often a conspiracy, but most often a byproduct of people with power helping those they feel comfortable with – generally with no ill (but ill considered) intent -

Feelings are how the system gets rigged.

When you meet someone and you instantly dislike them; when you automatically choose to hire the friend as opposed to the possibly more qualified stranger; when you assume the guilt of someone without evidence but based on what you imagine about them - (how you imagine someone’s motives or intentions absent evidence) … these are feelings at work and they lead to an out of kilter system.

Good news – you don’t have to feel guilty for your feelings, … just for not examining them.

I think it’s important that we consciously decide what principles we are committed to and then as objectively as we can apply ourselves to these. It’s important to build systems that remove the potential for bias as much as possible. We must test what we do against the logic of what we say we believe.

For example – if you believe that it is an ethical imperative that we love one another – then what you say or do should follow the logic of this. Just as some feelings are a negative product of conditioning, some positive feelings must be cultivated, and we must condition ourselves to them.

If we long for a system that is fair, a world where everyone begins on equal footing, then, we really do have to examine our feelings and cultivate those that make us who we hope to be, as individuals and as a nation.