(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . We Can Be Better Than This, They Say. But Why Should We Be, and How Can We Be? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-06 There must always be a cat. Thankfully His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, understands this. It seems to happen more and more frequently, seeing people on this site call for suicides, call for violence, and call for specific types of harm to happen to people on the Right. And they do this while insisting that it’s OK, because the Bad Guys, those Other People, the ones on the Right, do it, but We are the Good Guys. I’m sorry, it’s not OK no matter how good we think we are, because the moment we do this, we stop being good guys. Self defense is one thing. This is something else. Now usually when someone objects to this behavior, there’s noise made about sanctimony and religion and other distractions that seem designed to shut down thought and keep the homes on fire burning. Today, for this diary, people who want to respond in that fashion will still be able to, as always. But they will need to make noise about the Dalai Lama, and call HIM sanctimonious. Because I am posting a short video of HIS take on this, in general terms, and then a longer video in which he speaks about what to do instead. Again: the counterargument that people here, speaking from rage and pain, seem to think is invincible? is this: the Bad Guys want to hurt us and that makes a Good Guy MAD. And when a Good Guy gets MAD, apparently, it’s OK for the Good Guy to act like the Bad Guys. No it’s not, no matter how good you are, or think you are. Here’s why, and here’s what to do about it. The blockquote below is a lightly edited summary of the Lama’s words in the first short video. The longer video is appended here without comment. However, I did check, and both videos are closed-captioned, and the feature is actually available when you click on the icon. Firstly I think you should realize that anger may bring some kind of energy, short period, but that anger is actually BLIND energy. And anger really destroys ... part of your brain which can judge right or wrong. So when we fully develop anger we can’t see the reality…. that energy is blind energy. … in order to face the problem, our method should be as I mentioned earlier, realistic… you must know the reality. When we investigate the reality, our minds should be calm, otherwise we cannot see the thing objectively. So in order to use human intelligence properly, our mind should be calm… anger destroys your ability to investigate the reality. anger is no use, only destruction… ” If I were a hacker, which I’m not and will never be, I would be sorely tempted to run this clip over and over and over, on every FOX News station in this country and online, for about two weeks. Long enough to detox the worst anger and fear addicts and give people a fighting chance to get their parents and grandparents back. This is an excerpt from a talk he gave at a school in India. Now here is the longer one. It’s a school festival in India, at a different school, and the video captures the talk in much more depth. I invite you to consider that the name of this school is St. Columba’s. This diary is posted in memory of Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Lewis. I will not be in close attendance today, but I will show up periodically. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/6/2149097/-We-Can-Be-Better-Than-This-They-Say-But-Why-Should-We-Be-and-How-Can-We-Be Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/