Madame Madame,
A passionately reasoned defense Madame! You
have brought up good historical examples, and the human spirit has often
demonstrated such. But it got me
thinking that perhaps the two of us have painted our intellectual avatars into
a corner! The human story is complex,
and what you and I have spoken of is not the full mosaic. If I have cast confusion on Hedges’ point, I
have done a disservice. I did not mean
that hope itself is not important in general (nor do I think that he believes
it unimportant in general). But only that
Hedges feels that blanket expectations of hope for those awakening to this
illusory culture is perhaps itself illusory and even diversionary. Sometimes it is only when people don’t have
hope for themselves or even their loved ones that hope conversely exists for
others that come after them, others perhaps even un-envisioned, and perhaps
only for humanity itself (and in this point maybe we are agreeing, just from
different angles). The Alamo, the Light
Brigade, the Easter Rising, the countless failed and crushed rebellions, are
just some examples. The struggles of the
Native Americans of the Western Hemisphere are especially instructive. Failing to maintain their freedom, utterly
defeated and sometimes exterminated, they fought hopelessly with no thought
that they would inspire or influence anyone.
But sheer defiance, sheer statement that they would go down fighting, go
down struggling, that the dominant power(s) would at least know they didn’t
accept what was dished out, and more importantly, they themselves were true to
themselves. That they would not accept
meekly what overwhelming power had dictated would be their fates! They would be true to their spirits every
moment before they exited this life.
People can thus protest and cease to cooperate even where hope does not
exist, even when depression or despair would otherwise be pandemic. Is that not one of the points Hedges is
making?
And yet how un-intendingly inspired by
examples of courage (and perhaps by guilt at our cultural implication) we can
be in considering these tales from the human experience!
I will agree ahead of time that it is
hard for Americans to postulate the no-win scenario. We are the Jim Kirks who would rather tamper
with the test than accept such a thing.
In one respect, that says great things about confidence and
determination. In another, it says
volumes about refusal to deal with reality.
I agree (wholeheartedly!) with
everything else you stated in your posting!
Your writing has been much crisper and harder-hitting than mine of late!
If someone’s been advising you—I need to enlist him or her as well! :)
Much of positive psychology, at least on
the surface, can perform a beneficial function (as the examples on p. 127
purport to show). One of the problems
with positive psychology, however, is its use for MANAGING problems instead of
really addressing them, let alone solving them.
Another is that its organizing principles often eliminate the creativity
with the negativity. Still another is
the drive for more feelings manipulation, primarily in the quest for effective
control. This of course spills out of
corporate halls and into homes—and politics and political preferences. It can take some perhaps further sinister
turns as well, as Hedges implies on p. 128 (and which mirrors a significant
portion of Naomi Klein’s work on investigating psychology and breaking of
individuals, institutions, and countries).
Paragraph Police! Perish any such thing! :) May the Orwellians
not infect our blog! War is NOT
peace! Freedom is NOT slavery! Ignorance
is NOT strength! :)
Hmm.
One oversized paragraph, one large but manageable paragraph, and four
small quickie paragraphs. Do believe El
Windbaggo is making some progress! :)
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