T.C. said:I don't know. When I first read that, it made me feel 'all warm inside', but after giving it a little thought, I think that kind of thinking just plays right into the hands of the Psychopaths?
I'm not saying those kinds of small things aren't important because to me they are, but I don't think they're enough. 'The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force' comes to mind. I'm also reminded of Laura's opening questions in Secret History around why is the world in such a state when most people want to be good and do good things - before her experiences and study of psychopathy.
No, it's not just a case of being kind to one another, doing good little deeds. Knowledge of the nature of our reality and of psychopathy is the only thing that could possibly "hold evil in check". But no culture or civilisation has managed it in our entire history, so who knows?
Putin's doing a great job at the moment, anyway :)
Buddy said:I agree, insofar as what has been said can be applied. This orientation of kindness acts and such are important, but as so many of us have already demonstrated, some kind of ability to defend ourselves and others is also necessary. Knowledge-based interactions that demonstrate the existence and importance of fundamental human values. There's little point in having all this knowledge and knowing those values if there's any unwillingness to defend them, I think. And actions influence the probabilities.
T.C. and Buddy, I totally agree, "just being kind" is definitely not the solution - we also need to be warriors and give the situation what it asks for, including standing up for what is right or leaving the scene without second thoughts. In the context of my earlier post, I included the Hobbit quote not so much because of the kindness aspect, but the idea that what we do in our daily lives, the small everyday struggles between Doing and mechanical reaction, do matter - even though we can't see it right then and can loose hope easily. And as the C's said in the latest session, these small steps can lead us to a different reality, in an incremental kind of way, osit.