Sunday Musings – January 10, 2021
The events of the past week in the United States underscore the extent of the frustration, hopelessness and the pain of many.
Whether storming the United States Capital building (just listened to the major of a nearby town who was there and experienced it as a friendly visit during which law enforcement people assassinated one of its members), claiming second amendment rights to not wear face masks or to not get the vaccine, watching the stock market prices rise in the midst of such chaos, or experiencing the inability to have respectful conversation versus blaming, judgmental ones, denying racism or positing a god who is threatened by same sex relationships or strong, assertive, take charge women one might think that many of us live in alternate universes.
It seems that is easy and/or convenient for us humans to pretend as if symptoms are the disease or responsible for the “dis ease”. Whether in medicine, economics or politics we seem all too willing to treat the symptoms as if the source of the symptoms is the symptoms. While we may need to stop the bleeding wound, the erupting faucet, the angry group of men and women storming the capitol building of the United states, wear a mask or a prosthetic boot, it makes common and scientific sense to identify the underlying disease or dis ease and devise a plan to treat that condition.
Hitler was not the problem in Nazi Germany. Some historians in examining the success of Hitler stand back to at least the first world war and even earlier. If one wants to understand why there was such a large group of individuals who were willing to support and serve the symptoms which defined the historic Hitler one has to attempt to understand the number of people who felt less than/undervalued or disenfranchised . If one wants to understand the large group of people who support Black Lives Matter, the women’s moment, or the Proud Boys movement one has to understand, not President Trump, but the history and culture which creates such a large, angry group of individuals.
If one wants to understand sexism one has to understand and accept responsibility for what we teach males about the essence of their worth. If we want to understand homophobia which exists despite scientific evidence that same sex men and women are not wasting seeds and eggs which are needed for procreation, one has to understand the life force of religious institutions.
All of us, including this human can, if we choose, trace the history of trauma back to the dark ages and prior. The history of that trauma will, at the very least, correlate with many of our attitudes, characterizes and behaviors.
Sometimes the line connecting history and current behavior, attitude and characteristic is made by a sharpie and sometimes it is a faint dotted line which is barely perceptible to the naked eye, but it is always there.
If I am accurate, all of us could take a deep breath and become more detached observers of our history and more accurately diagnose and treat the “dis eases” which, when left untreated, result in the various political and social conditions which we have allowed to be fertilized by our response to symptoms.
Written January 10, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
The events of the past week in the United States underscore the extent of the frustration, hopelessness and the pain of many.
Whether storming the United States Capital building (just listened to the major of a nearby town who was there and experienced it as a friendly visit during which law enforcement people assassinated one of its members), claiming second amendment rights to not wear face masks or to not get the vaccine, watching the stock market prices rise in the midst of such chaos, or experiencing the inability to have respectful conversation versus blaming, judgmental ones, denying racism or positing a god who is threatened by same sex relationships or strong, assertive, take charge women one might think that many of us live in alternate universes.
It seems that is easy and/or convenient for us humans to pretend as if symptoms are the disease or responsible for the “dis ease”. Whether in medicine, economics or politics we seem all too willing to treat the symptoms as if the source of the symptoms is the symptoms. While we may need to stop the bleeding wound, the erupting faucet, the angry group of men and women storming the capitol building of the United states, wear a mask or a prosthetic boot, it makes common and scientific sense to identify the underlying disease or dis ease and devise a plan to treat that condition.
Hitler was not the problem in Nazi Germany. Some historians in examining the success of Hitler stand back to at least the first world war and even earlier. If one wants to understand why there was such a large group of individuals who were willing to support and serve the symptoms which defined the historic Hitler one has to attempt to understand the number of people who felt less than/undervalued or disenfranchised . If one wants to understand the large group of people who support Black Lives Matter, the women’s moment, or the Proud Boys movement one has to understand, not President Trump, but the history and culture which creates such a large, angry group of individuals.
If one wants to understand sexism one has to understand and accept responsibility for what we teach males about the essence of their worth. If we want to understand homophobia which exists despite scientific evidence that same sex men and women are not wasting seeds and eggs which are needed for procreation, one has to understand the life force of religious institutions.
All of us, including this human can, if we choose, trace the history of trauma back to the dark ages and prior. The history of that trauma will, at the very least, correlate with many of our attitudes, characterizes and behaviors.
Sometimes the line connecting history and current behavior, attitude and characteristic is made by a sharpie and sometimes it is a faint dotted line which is barely perceptible to the naked eye, but it is always there.
If I am accurate, all of us could take a deep breath and become more detached observers of our history and more accurately diagnose and treat the “dis eases” which, when left untreated, result in the various political and social conditions which we have allowed to be fertilized by our response to symptoms.
Written January 10, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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