Some Miscellaneous Thoughts

This is going to be somewhat rambling because I have short comments—too short for individual postings—on several subjects.

First: About today's shooter at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum. I don't normally wish anyone dead; but this guy, James von Brunn, has been full of hatred and prejudice and bigotry and resentment all his life; and he is 88 years old. I'd say he's infected and polluted this Earth long enough, so I don't mind bidding him good-bye.

Second: The people who complain about high gas prices should try to remember that, whatever our gas prices are, they're double that in Europe. And, to the lady (and others like her) who complained on the TV news that it costs her $80-plus to fill her gas tank, I'd say, So drive a smaller car. I know that my car won't hold $80 worth of gas. A tank for me, at current prices and here in Chicago, where gas prices are high, would be maybe $40 or so. I just have no sympathy whatsoever for people who want to drive enormous SUVs.

Third: I was thinking today about how we (meaning all humans) are able to rationalize the bad things we do to one another. This guy is this, or he did that, or he said such-and-such. That justifies whatever bad thing we did to him or want to do to him. I think that's a human tendency.

The rationalization that we employ to justify the treatment given someone is that s/he "deserved it." Maybe this means revenge for some wrong done to us, real or perceived. Try to stop and think for a moment about this notion of someone "deserving" one or another form of ill treatment. Certainly very few people are truly all-forgiving; but the degree to which you are likely to feel that some meted-out punishment was "deserved" is a function of your personality. And of course some people are more forgiving than others. Some forgive quickly, others may harbor their grievance for a very long time. Some collective groups (e.g. nations) have harbored ill feelings toward an "enemy" for hundreds of years.

Copyright © Richard Stein 2009