There is a sense in which every act of cruelty is a natural outgrowth of every other act of cruelty in human history. Meanness and pettiness seem a part of the human spirit, and certainly most people encounter cruelty in their own lives, and shit flows downhill.
But there is another sense in which every act of cruelty, of sadism, is unique, to that person and that moment.
We all feel unhappy sometimes. We all have our own variety of the need to kick a dog, at least if we have experienced enough insults to our sense of self in our lives.
But the task is to resist these impulses, to name them, to understand them, and to stop them.
And this is PARTICULARLY true when the way to cruelty, to violence to others, is paved by some sort of social commandment, such as the purported duty to hate haters, even if the haters don’t actually hate.
We all are and should be responsible for our own perceptions, with perceptions being actions in themselves. And we are then also logically responsible for what we DO and say.
I am speaking from a personal place. I am not trying to create the space to judge others. Far from it. I am speaking to individuals and asking you to do better. That is what I am asking from myself.
And I will add that my little brain has not been idle. I have a lot to post. But I am processing some grief. Nothing specific, just something that was always there, which is what always pushed me to write.