Timid
"The true source of our suffering has been our timidity. We have been afraid to think… Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write." – John Adams
Why do we fear to be wrong?
Why would a person, a community, a political party support apparent corruption and crimes conducted by its representatives and not investigate and prosecute the guilty?
What allows apparently good people to turn their backs in outrage and huddle against the bright light of truth?
Prejudice.
Prejudice is a kind of temerity of the timid.
Lazy minds.
Prejudice is making judgments without truth or real evidence.
Do you see the link I'm talking about?
The timid are afraid to talk to that black man taking a knee.
The timid doesn't want to hear the reason for the immigrant fleeing murder.
The timid prefers to hide behind the excuse that nothing matters that everything is corrupt.
Each of these examples is a kind of prejudice against society to learn the truth.
Even if that truth betrays or throws down what we personally believe to be true.
John Adams, our second President, admonishes, asks, reflects that what has kept this nation and the world from becoming a better place is our collective fear of confronting truth.
I would add it's part of the human condition of a general laziness of mind and body.
You know you should do the laundry, there is a huge pile, and you have no clean underwear.
You don't want to look at the pile.
You know you have to go buy soap.
You would rather tolerate the stink of your clothes then do the work.
It takes effort to gather your resources, apply the energy.
You just tell yourself, everyone else is walking around in stinky clothes too.
Your prejudice, your timid psychology allowed you to make up an excuse for not doing the right thing.
A collective timid psychology a prejudice against doing right has taken hold of the Republican Party and its supporters.
What I am calling a political-economic-social-nihilism.
PESN
PESN, in short, means that these people believe a myth that everything is corrupt.
If everything is corrupt than my personal corruption, my prejudice, my timid response will not be noticed.
If everything stinks, my stink won't be noticed.
My corruption of not taking responsibility to do right doesn't matter in the broader context of right versus wrong because everyone is out for themselves anyway.
Welcome to the Jungle baby!
This is a myth created by timid minds cobbled together on bar stools.
A world full of prejudice where corruption is the norm, and do-gooders are losers.
Boyscouts.
The Deep State.
Never Trumpers.
Adams is right.
This timid myth of the world has held back the Great Society.
It destroyed Reconstruction.
It denied the Equal Rights Amendment.
It shut the door on Gay rights.
It has allowed racism to flourish.
It has grown white nationalism.
It has promoted economic disparity between the rich and poor.
It has strengthened a dark discourse of social dystopia and fascism in social media, networks, and print.
It has allowed the monsters who feed off the fear of the timid to take control of half of our Republic.
Is it too late to do anything about it?
Let us dare to read.
Read everything, especially those writings that challenge us to do more.
Think long, hard, and deep ask the questions, get to the answer at the bottom of the well of deceit and corruption.
Speak truth to power, demand freedom from the tyrant of the mind that says your freedom, your happiness, your equality, your hope is not essential.
And write…
Write to that person who stands in the doorway, stopping freedoms march.
Write to that friend that has lost their hope.
Write and be that hope.
Most of all, do not be afraid of the night as you travel on your coarse.
You are a star in a gathering host.
Together, bravely, with courage and great spirit, we will do right.
It always the time to do right.
Peace
DFrey