A thought piece for Sunday morning.
Oh the tranquility of solitude.
I can see this. When you see yourself as incapable, you want society to do it for you.
Describe’s today’s Left. (And some on the Right as well)
The idea of a lust for power as a means of diversion is a powerful one.
Similarly, hedonism as a means of not considering your life, as a diversion from thinking...
Good article.
Christians say Christ sets us free from being a slave to sin. Very similar notion.
“And he can’t even run his own life
I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine, sunshine”
This sums it up nicely.
Cat ladies, HR departments, bureaucRats
I have come to the conclusion that people who are obsessed with controlling others do so because they have no self-control.
Since they can’t control themselves and live they life they want, they try to force others to live in such a way as to provide the life they want.
Hillary Clinton
Sounds like featherbedding.
When you are young (and the world hasn’t yet beat the snot out of you) you dream of a world where people are always nice to each other.
Mom is nice to you.
Dad calls you “princess”.
The teachers rave about how smart you are because you kiss their behinds.
Then, you begin to run into a series of self serving jackasses.
Your boss doesn’t care that you’re a prince.
You have to do menial work.
Your whole worldview is shattered.
How do you react?
You turn 180 degrees and take your revenge on anyone who dares disagree with you.
You take your revenge on anyone who looks like someone who blew up your snow globe world.
And he can’t even run his own life, I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine.
I’ll let the reader decide how many modern politicians Pascal’s ideas apply to. With Pascal’s insight, we understand why conflict is a feature of politics and not a bug.I'll wager that religion forums go way back..
Pascal spares no one’s feelings. Some “seek external diversion and occupation, and this is the result of their constant sense of wretchedness.” For them, “rest proves intolerable because of the boredom it produces. [They] must get away from it and crave excitement.”
Let that sink in. A person able to exercise coercive power can use their morally undeveloped “wretched” mind to create endless misery for others merely because exercising power distracts them from their failures as human beings.
Why are they picking on people without meaningful lives?
>>>Pascal’s authoritarian king or many of today’s modern politicians have no meaning in their lives, but find a corrupted false sense of meaning by exercising power over others, starting wars, issuing edicts, punishing enemies, etc.<<<
This says it all.
“ For him, having power was an attribute of a meaningful life.”
POWERFUL.
The difference between the left and the right.
1) The right wants to be left alone, minimal government.
2) The left wants everyone controlled and to tell you what to do. You have to answer to them for your thoughts and actions.
We really need to get better at communicating this to voters.
Reminds me of one of my fav Dilbert cartoons.
Dilbert is talking to Dogbert. In the first frame Dilbert say, “I figured out what’s wrong with life.” In the second frame he says, “It’s other people.”
😅