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Michael's avatar

Wise and wonderful essay as you so often gift us with.

Are we we good by nature or are we bad? I've come to the belief that a property true of a set is not necessarily true of all elements of a set and if you look at an individual as the collective set of all the time slices of the individual's life then the property of being good or bad of the whole is not shared by all the time slices of that individual.

But that is all being excessively reductionist. I don't think Putin is always bad, but as an average, he is definitely such. As for Humanity, the jury is out, we don't have enough data points..we may get better we may get worse. On the whole, I would be hesitant to make a judgement other than to say that the trend line is that we are neither good nor bad, but that we are definitely harmful- to ourselves, to other species, to the environment.

The appropriate moral response to the trend line is to reduce the harm by voluntarily reducing our numbers, even if it means reducing the numbers of saints walking the earth.

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Baird Brightman's avatar

Thanks Michael. I think most of us live up our down to the cultural norms. There's been a lot of "defining deviancy downward" of late, so we can expect more bad acts. As you say, our numbers are so big that we can do a lot of damage.

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Michelle Scorziello's avatar

Baird, your article about when saints walk among us is one of my favourites and I think of it a lot. And of course I've been thinking of Alexei Navalny today and what causes a person to stand up for what is right despite the dangers involved. He was a brave man, the bravest, braver than I know I would be. But we can be brave and stand up for what is right in the small things in life. Often it is the small things that presage and give free rein to large things, large erosions of freedom and erosions of behaviour that exists to keep us safe.

I recall a time in a school I worked in and a staff meeting where one of the management was making jokes about the children and many of the staff were laughing. I looked around at them and realised that this person making the jokes was putting us all in an unprofessional and therefore dangerous position. I did not laugh. I was horrified. I went to the head right after the meeting and told her how I felt. Long story short, the person was eventually dismissed. Her 'grooming' of the staff was just one in a litany of inappropriate behaviour. Of course, if I had been really brave I would have spoken up in the meeting, but I was aware that I had at least registered that what she was doing was wrong and I refused to go along with it.

Alexei Navalny reminds to hold fast to our beliefs and defend them when required.

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Baird Brightman's avatar

Thank you very much for your generous sharing today Michelle. We all knew Navalny was a dead man walking, but I am still devastated by his murder. There are so few lights in this darkening time and we need each of them desperately.

Thank you for your reminder that we can do good on a (non-heroic) human scale. Your action to help rescue your school from the degradation of a sadist is a case in point.

Be well. 🙏🏻

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mark pro's avatar

Im with you Baird,

I will make a few Judgements. Ive only seen one tv Doc. and have read a few articles about Navalny. I was very moved. Now Im angry and sad, again.. What a Mench, .What a true patriot in the finest way. What a loving and courageous human being.

Sometimes, somethings seem pretty black and white to me, on a moral level. And, frequently these days, only Black.

Is Trump good or bad?

We might note the incessant malignant narcissism, his ruthlessness, the damage he has done to so many innocent people. At the border,Trump authoriized, with an assist from Steven Miller, separating babies and children from their mothers. This act was so evil to be iinexcusable.

As a psychologist, I imagine you truly appreciate the depth of their wounds.. perhaps their permanent loss. Yet Millions of American's were not horrified enough to demand Trump be thrown out of office. Instead, many Americans enabled him. I was devastated when I saw an attempt at reunification, as the mother rushed to her kidnapped baby on the floor, the baby looked away, would not make eye-contact and crawled in the opposite direction. That's when I began calling Trump Satan. Trump and Putin are very similar.

Knowing just enough about developmental psychology to be dangerous, I have read about Trumps earlier life and imagine Putin's early years and. I do feel some empathy while I pray for their painful deaths. Lol.

Throughout our own history many Americans have treated people they considered "less" or "the other" with the same cold-blooded ruthlessness. I won't burden you with the details.

I had back surgery yesterday. I feel a lot better than what I have expressed here.

Hope you are enjoying this phenomenal weather.

Take Care

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Baird Brightman's avatar

Thanks Mark. I appreciate your comments.

I think it's possible to understand the developmental roots (trauma etc) of someone's malevolence (though I believe many psychopaths are born that way), and still hold them responsible with heavy consequences (long prison terms). If we let people get away with bad acts, we signal other it's OK to act that way.

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