Loveless Words, Inflated Egos
People, including me, have written a lot of words trying to explain why other people's ideas about politics, religion or even sports need adjusting.
Conservative pundits are forever detailing why liberal politics is destroying our country and corrupting our morals; liberal pundits are never at a loss for words to explain how conservative policies create so much death, destruction and tyranny.
I doubt there has ever been a period in history when more words were spent giving opinions about why other people's opinions are faulty.
I've come to believe commentary of this type is mostly an exercise in ego inflation. Pundits strut and bellow with self-importance and those in their audience who agree with them feel momentary satisfaction having their own points of view mirrored back. Folks with opposing viewpoints also get an ego boost because others are taking their positions so seriously.
All this opinion jousting ends up being fruitless. Minds are seldom if ever changed in a meaningful way. Hawks don't become doves, environmetalists don't start calling global warming a myth perpetuated by liberal media. To my knowledge Rush Limbaugh has never convinced a Bill Clinton voter to become a George W. Bush supporter.
Transformation is not something that can be instigated through logic, clever debate or heated argument. Transformation is not a mind thing, it's a heart thing. And the catalyst is always love. Spouting opinions not fueled with love doesn't transform much of anything.
Conservative pundits are forever detailing why liberal politics is destroying our country and corrupting our morals; liberal pundits are never at a loss for words to explain how conservative policies create so much death, destruction and tyranny.
I doubt there has ever been a period in history when more words were spent giving opinions about why other people's opinions are faulty.
I've come to believe commentary of this type is mostly an exercise in ego inflation. Pundits strut and bellow with self-importance and those in their audience who agree with them feel momentary satisfaction having their own points of view mirrored back. Folks with opposing viewpoints also get an ego boost because others are taking their positions so seriously.
All this opinion jousting ends up being fruitless. Minds are seldom if ever changed in a meaningful way. Hawks don't become doves, environmetalists don't start calling global warming a myth perpetuated by liberal media. To my knowledge Rush Limbaugh has never convinced a Bill Clinton voter to become a George W. Bush supporter.
Transformation is not something that can be instigated through logic, clever debate or heated argument. Transformation is not a mind thing, it's a heart thing. And the catalyst is always love. Spouting opinions not fueled with love doesn't transform much of anything.
posted by David C. at 7:40 AM
4 Comments:
Ah, ready to argue already! Ego has been challenged. Nope, I don't think I will give you any examples. You'll just find more to argue about.
Perhaps look at your own life--all the examples you need will be found there, perhaps clouded or hidden under many layers, but they are all there, pointing to one thing: Love is the Answer.
"Love is the answer, you know that and I know it too..."
But when people keep playing those mind games, well not much gets done and you know it's true.
When a bullet pierces the one you love, and death becomes the final greeting, your heart is touched in a brutal, unavoidable way. If you truly feel this loss you may be moved to take action to prevent another parent's unfathomable pain, another parent's weak acknowledgement letter to whom it may concern on Pentagon stationery.
You may be moved. Then again, you may fall back into the self-delusion and justify the burial of your child as a "necessary cost" to "keep our freedom free."
"When the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies..."
Do the parents of tomorrow's 18-year old enlistee really want to send their loved one to the Iraq killing ground--with a great chance of bearing a toe tag on the return trip?
Love is the answer, however it takes a circuitous journey through the forest of untruth. With enough energy of the heart it can make it to the other side for redemption.
Redemption that the grevious personal loss was not for nothing. Redemption through action that no more soldiers need die in our Iraq "war."
Redemption for our own soul's share in how we let it get this far. We will know that much more can be done to stop the silent parade of silver flag-draped caskets on a one-way trip back home, to the heartland.
Where, with love, all things are demonstrated to be possible.
Thanks, folks. I appreciate the feedback. No one person has all the truth, certainly not I. There are a lot of different ways to look at things. Words are just words.
Surf's up. Gotta go.
David
Exactly.
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