Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Written on February 1, 2017 by 1 of the messengerS. All rights re-served.

trump

 

“When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I’m beginning to believe it.” —Clarence Darrow (1857 – 1938).

Disclaimer-A: Please remember that irony/ satire by definition needs more freedom of speech & use of some for some offensive statements, often w/o author’s intention, but for a purpose of clearing the point.

  1. Some people say that there’s no bad w/o good, i.e. when something bad happens, it probably also has something good in it. While it might not be in real life as comforting as it sounds on a paper, still it’s important to remember that eternal truth of “half/ quarter/ tenth glass full” & try to find it in the Real Life. Let’s take the new president for example…

Disclaimer-B: By no means ever I want to say that Mr.Trump is bad. As by no means ever I want to say that Mr.Trump is good. As BTW all other human or animal beings until it appears as 100% proven scientific fact. That is not for me to decide, as also I never met Mr. President personally. I try to separate between labeling good/ bad person as opposed to good/ bad actions. & even the actions themselves not always appear 100% as good or bad. So any sentence where I say something that appears good or bad about Mr. Trump (or about any other individual, including myself) is only due to the lack of my ability to express the intentional message at that point of text & time. & my intention is to understand psychology of everyone w/o my personal bias, which I must admit I had/ have? in abundance.

2. As most of us know by now we already can write books about USA’s 45th President, his life, his election, his social impact, etc. These days it’s hard not to have an opinion about this matter, even few opinions, even the opposite ones. Today I want to share 1 of such. Again, as usual, I’m not dealing with the person, but with the persona, which is for a matter of this article, the public perception of a certain individual. As we know some public thinks pretty badly about Mr. Trump, while others are quite excited. Again: it’s not my job to find out who is right; (at least I’m not getting paid to do so, so I’m not professional), but it IS my job (even I’m also still not getting paid to do so) to find the opportunity for Compassion. You might still call it tolerance, acceptance, respect or human rights; the words don’t matter, the principles are.

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”  (Voltaire, 18th century).

Ironically, most of people say they adhere to this philosophy, they believe in freedom of speech, opinions, etc., but in Real Reality most of the same people find plenty of excuses to shut many people up. & it’s not only due to political/ religious/ racial/ gender correctness with excellent intentions to be tolerant & kind, except for those who seem to be intolerant & unkind. It’s everywhere: we tend to listen & to give stage/ voice to those opinions, which we think are right, while wise Voltaire talks about something else: We should give stage/ voice also to those who are completely wrong (to our point of view), (as BTW should do also those who express that “wrong” opinion). I think that 1 of the lessons of last elections is that if we become intolerant of the intolerant, then the intolerants will also not tolerate our intolerance towards the intolerant & we won’t have the full moral right to ask them to tolerate. (yes, it took me a while to write this one & still I’m not sure I understand, but the point is of course to be tolerant of everyone, even the intolerants…), & the only way to avoid those conflicts is through honest, sincere & compassionate Dialogue.

“Love truth, but pardon error” (Voltaire, 1738).  

Self-explanatory. Or not? Same thing: lots of talks about Forgiveness, millions of words & ceremonies, but in Reality we punish, punish, punish, condemn, mock, offend, fire, persecute, etc. those who we think are wrong. Maybe it’s not wrong sometimes, but it’s wrong to talk about Forgiveness after then. As usual: our sins seem much less sinful that the sins of people we disagree with. 

  “What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly — that is the first law of nature.”  (Voltaire, 1764)

(I have to note that he said it exactly 100 years before H. Spencer coined that awful term “survival of the fittest“, so we can forgive Voltaire for thinking that 1st law of Nature would be something positive & cooperative.)

3. Again: it’s all self-explanatory & most of us would agree w’ those statements; it’s the Hate & Anger that make it so difficult to follow our bright & good intentions. Each side says that they want to become better, to make better world/ country/ specific states- & it’s a very good start. What needed now is the Understanding that we Must listen to the other side, even if we think that that side is totally wrong.

(Side comment:it’s very easy, but quite pointless to listen to the side which we think is right, it looks more like a campaign rally.)

Why? Well, 1st of all those who declare their loyalty to Tolerance, Human Rights & Love (as opposed to those “bad guys & hombres”) should remember that Tolerance means Tolerance & not just tolerance of/ to “your kind or kind that you prefer”. When we have “zero- tolerance” towards anything (well, maybe except pure proven evil), then we are completely erasing any human dignity that has the person, which does something wrong to our opinion (& gay revolution & marijuana legalization are such a good examples), since obviously that person doesn’t understand yet how & why he/ she is wrong & by ignoring his/ her decisions/ opinions we are taking his/ her free will away, making him/ her a mental slave in that specific issue.

& now last quote for both wings/ sides:

“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” (Voltaire, Enlightenment).

I know it’s a confusing one. it’s very clever on a paper, but Voltaire forgot to tell us WHAT is Wrong or Right? (Or maybe he did it in a different quote). It brings us back to the question: How can we Know What’s Right?

(Actually I must observe that according to millions comments I’ve seen, thousands interviews I’ve heard & hundreds of articles I’ve read that question is solved long time ago by many many many very smart individuals across our planet. The famous Socrates’ “I know that I know nothing” sounds our days very old-fashioned, dated & even pathetic, which brings us to the modern philosophy: How to co-exist in the world where everyone knows what’s right, yet What’s Right is quite different even within 1 country/ town/ family?

The good news are that the solution might be quite simple: we don’t need to be concerned so much about what is Right or Wrong (although as we know from the Bible this is our Main purpose & Challenge on Earth, so we definitely should keep thinking about it), but we need to be more concerned about how good we treat the other person (“Treat other the way you want the other to treat you” cliche), regardless of their beliefs; to paraphrase “You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.” : “…how we treat those who we disagree with…” Since we already know What is Right, then it shouldn’t be a problem to let the other side talk & say everything they have on mind, while we are trying to understand What they feel & think. In short: Freedom of Speech. But for Real! The other option is conversation of 2 people talking different languages or ∞ WAR. Thank you for your time!