The Cure is Compassion

POSTED BY: deadlockvictim
UPDATED: Sunday, May 27, 2007 22:39
VIEWED: 4923
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DESKTOPHIPPIE

Thursday, May 17, 2007 5:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Unfortunately DLV, Compassion of any kind in this day and age is scorned by the sadist sociopaths our society holds up as examples as naught more than the wimpiness of liberals and hippie freaks.

On behalf of hippie freaks everywhere - HEY!!!

Banners, Avatars, LJ Icons and other fun stuff at www.desktophippie.com

SIRI

Monday, May 21, 2007 12:03 AM

DLV, thank you for daring to use the "C" word. I often think of how terrible it would be to live in fear of sending children to school, or going out to buy groceries or sitting with a friend having coffee. Yes, Sadam was an awful dictator who did unspeakable damage. But is this better? Couldn't there have been another way found that caused less suffering? I suspect to speak of compassion might risk showing cracks in the armor. But there are cracks in all of our armor.

quote]...There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much....

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I hope we risk using the "C" word for ourselves, for one another and for those in Iraq and elsewhere.

Siri

AURAPTOR

Monday, May 21, 2007 2:07 AM

" All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing " - Edmund Burke

There were mass graves being dug and filled under Saddam's reign long before the war to topple him began. Whether good men do nothing, or try to fight evil, innocent lives will be lost.

Damned if we do, damned if we don't, it seems.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

FREMDFIRMA

Monday, May 21, 2007 7:49 AM

DTH

I said scorned by sociopathic monsters, not by me, lol...

You really can't get more 'liberal' than an Anarchist, right ?

Besides which, the Hippies were right all along.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/05/02/notes05020
7.DTL

STOP!
Hey!
What's that sound...
Everybody look what's goin down...

-F
PS - Does it not totally suck that you can't find good luudes anymore ?

HKCAVALIER

Monday, May 21, 2007 3:10 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke

The spurious implication of this saying is that if good men do something--anything--then we are thwarting evil's triumph, and that's the big problem here.

I think of the old complaint about liberals "throwing money at a problem" and I see the current admin. "throwing action at a problem" and not just any action, but the most active (read violent) action they can think of.

Similarly, uninformed compassion can lead good men to do very bad things. My model is of the woman being beaten by her boyfriend in the apt. across from you. Your compassion drives you to go over there and expel the boyfriend from the place. But the next night, you see the woman's whole family over there demanding to know what she did wrong to drive her man away and then her father starts beating her.

Whoopsie.

So you go over there with a few friends and oust the Father and the family, but the next night she has a new boyfriend who's into knives.

Double whoopsie.

Compassion, without understanding the other person's context is a dangerous thing. Compassion for people struggling for decades under an insane dictator (the compassion that made so many people, liberal and conservative alike, support the invasion of Iraq in the first place) without understanding what that kind of life does to a person's psyche has been desastrous for everyone involved.

The compassion of an ignorant 900 lbs. gorilla can be fatal ("I will hug'm, and squeeze'm, and love'm..."). So, for my money, ignorance is the big problem, and wisdom--which, of course, includes compassion--is my cure.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

RUE

Monday, May 21, 2007 11:22 PM

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Monday, May 21, 2007 11:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by deadlockvictim:
If anyone is interested, this quote from Deepak Chopra echoes my thoughts exactly. At a time like this, when all our president and his administration can do is focus on winning, regardless of the extreme cost in human suffering, I have to wonder what ever happened to compassion.
This man speaks to my heart.

Is this compassion for Iraqis? Or something more selfishness? Will the US abandoning Iraq to its fate prematurely stop the killing of Iraqis? Probably not. It is more likely to cause that killing to increase as death squads and terrorists move completely unobstructed, until they tear down the current democratic Iraq and re-establish totalitarianism. None of which is good for the Iraqis, so it’s unlikely that concern for Iraqis is what Chopra is seeking. It may be concern for American soldiers, which is admirable, but I’m not sure trading a few hundred or even a few thousand American lives in this case for the tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of Iraqis that will be slaughtered completely in vain if we leave is the best strategy. Furthermore, the long term effects may have the result of putting the US in more danger. If a bin Laden Caliphate is established in Iraq or even a Persian one, we may be facing the serious possibility of a massive future threat against the US, in the form of terrorist heaven and/or possibly an Iranian offensive to control the Middle East, prompting a war that will be far worse then what we are dealing with today. But whatever happens, what we certainly don’t need to do, because it is not only inaccurate but compassionless, is attempt to paint our premature retreat as good for the Iraqis. It will not be.

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

RUE

Monday, May 21, 2007 11:59 PM

Your simple faith that the US is preventing violence and loss of life is heartwarming, but misplaced.

FREMDFIRMA

Tuesday, May 22, 2007 12:09 AM

Bullshit.

The most compassionate thing we can do is get the hell out of somewhere nobody wants us and let Iraq solve Iraqs problems - every minute of our meddling just prolongs the bloodshed by that very much and whatever puppet regime we prop up is gonna blowback on us again and start this whole goddamn idiotic cycle all over again.

Sometimes compassion is having the decency to leave well the hell enough ALONE.

-Frem

It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

MAZAEN

Tuesday, May 22, 2007 1:18 AM

Quote:
Similarly, uninformed compassion can lead good men to do very bad things. My model is of the woman being beaten by her boyfriend in the apt. across from you. Your compassion drives you to go over there and expel the boyfriend from the place. But the next night, you see the woman's whole family over there demanding to know what she did wrong to drive her man away and then her father starts beating her.

Whoopsie.

So you go over there with a few friends and oust the Father and the family, but the next night she has a new boyfriend who's into knives.

Double whoopsie.

or You don't lose the battle.

A father beats up and uses other violence towards his wife(who had stockholm syndrome] and his 4 children. He threatens their lives constantly. This man is her 2nd violent relationship. They remain married for 18 years, having many children. The daughter grows up strong despite the domestic violence while good man stand around doing nothing.

One day the daughter gets courage and with this courage, words and saves her sister from sexual abuse from her father and saves her mother from a life of violence with abusive men. She doesn't contact her mother for 3 years until her mother leaves the relationship. Her 3 siblings and her mother move away from her father. When her mother leaves her father, her mother says to her daughter that her daughter's strength made her feel strong.(enough to leave) Her mother meets a wonderful good man who respects women. They live happily, the mother's spirit grows wings. HAPPY ENDING

When the daughter marries a good man she unfortunately moves next to a violent man. This neighbor beats his wife regularly. One day this man starts beating his kid with his fists in the driveway. She walks outside and stands up to him. He is silent the next week and the mother moves with the kid that was getting beaten up. The man moves out at the same time. The mother thanks her for sticking up for her son as she leaves. HAPPY ENDING

I'm that daughter.

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