I was walking our dog this evening and came across these deer grazing in a field. From the picture it looks like I might be walking through the highlands, but just on the right edge you can see a frisbee golf cage that is sitting in someone's backyard. These are the average suburbs.
A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again.
A President said this?
I don't know if a whole civilisation will die, but civility appears to have died quite a while ago in public discourse, where even those who used to be admonished for being too pretty with their words, speak ugly. Perhaps it is because in order to gain power they need to appeal to the lowest common denominator of people to get their support, and once that becomes the norm, the average shifts toward it. Incentives are aligned to attracting the masses, not in doing what is right.
The pope "condemned" Trump.
As if Trump cares.
Trump is a product of the system, not a leader of it. He is a symptom of the ill-health of society, not the cause. But symptoms also have an impact and create new and amplify old problems, and Trump is doing just that, because he is an attention-seeker and lives in the paradigm of "all publicity is good publicity" - and so far, no matter what he says or does, he is proven right. Nothing sticks.
Many thinks he is doing this to build a legacy, but I am not so sure. I reckon he may just like the sound of his voice and enjoy the attention so much, that everything is done so he can get more while he is alive. Since Trump isn't very religious if at all, he doesn't care about an afterlife, so everything he does has to be enjoyed by him now. And this makes him more dangerous, because he has a short time frame to make an impact large enough to satisfy his unquenchable ego.
In a hypothetical future post- Trump, all the names on buildings can be removed and even all mention of him can be consigned to history, but that doesn't matter - because he doesn't care about that. Now is all that matters, so he will do all he can to please himself.
See the problem of being addicted to the present?
The majority of people have bought into the "live now" paradigm because it is self-serving. The present is all we have but the power of now isn't in what we can get out of it, but what we can do with it to make the next moment better, and the next better again. The moment is the only life we ever have to move, and therefore it is the only moment we have to make a difference. Most of us though only care how we feel in the now and as long as "I feels good" it doesn't matter what else is happening in the very same now.
Whatever you are doing right now, in the same now others are suffering.
Some are sheltering under a table from falling bombs, while others are drinking dirty water on an empty stomach. Some are burning to death or being crushed by rubble, while others are ducking sniper fire. Some are sitting watching TV, reading the news, laughing at a meme, or having sex from with a stranger from Tinder they will never see again.
All now.
The now matters, because it is all we have to make a difference, but even as we might act toward helping something be better, there are people who are using the exact same moment to intentionally inflict pain on others. This is the power of now.
Trump is not exceptional.
He is average. You might not believe this since he is a billionaire President of the USA, but he is average in so many ways, just like all of us. If anything, he is an amalgamation of all the worst bits of our averageness. The difference however is that he acts upon his average desires, treating people openly poorly in ways that most people will only do in their mind. He treats people incredibly badly and acts out what many people fantasise about.
Getting revenge on perceived enemies. Getting away with illegal gains. Grabbing random women by the pussy.
He lives it.
The power of now.
Most advanced.
We are the most technologically advanced civilisation to have walked this earth, yet as far as our humanity goes, we are as base as ever. You can look at Trump and condemn what he says and how he acts, but take a look in the mirror at the same time, and recognise that while not at the same scale, you might not be that different after all. Given the opportunity and free license to do as you please, you may not be that civilised either.
Trump is a reflection of modern society.
We should all be disgusted.
Taraz
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