[Dialogue] Sufficient unto the day is the contradiction there of

[Wayne Nelson]

I like what Paula said.   Most intelligent response I've seen yet. 

Individualism and individual rights has become a smoke screen for the kind of anarchy that says "I" am beyond the law.  It is certainly one of the major elements of this malaise. Alienation, marginalization and a culture of opposition and aggressive retribution makes a very unstable mixture. 

There is a complex and deeply twisted story operating that, I believe, is a form of escape from the existential questions related to being together we are facing around the planet. I certainly don't understand it, but i would be looking at the drivers of alienation and anomie and I would focus on the uniquely American / North American version of it.  




Guns are the instruments and I see no earthly reason for anyone to own one. I grew up in a gun culture and took the same sort of classes John Epps described.  I could probably strip down a rifle, shotgun or revolver and put it back together to this day although I never shot more than a tin can jammed into a haystack.  Never hunted - haven't touched a weapon for 40 years or more. No one needs military grade weaponry or, for that matter, weapons of any sort.  Artifacts of a past culture. Ban them - hand them over to the police for destruction. 



Mass chemical castration is surely an expression of deep, understandable frustration. The mass shooters have been young men, but to see maleness in-itself as the core of the problem misses the mark entirely. Why are these guys so alienated and ill? In what ways are we failing our sons?  How does one grow into a man who cares and acts with compassion?  How do we model that? How do we cultivate and celebrate authentic maleness that has real fire in the belly for decency and humanness? How do we illuminate the pathways to goodness and kindness? How do we reward decency? 


We need, rather desperately, approaches that are thoughtful, intelligent and compassionate.   



\\/






- - - - - - - - - - Wayne Nelson
wnelson at ica-associates.ca
O - 416-691-2316
M - 647-229-6910



On 12-172012, at 8:16 AM, Paula Philbrook wrote:
> The culture of drugs, guns, domestic violence, excess consumption, and bullying, all point to a similar underlying contradiction-deep personal isolation coupled with a vacuum or absence of community has produced a mindset of  "super" power individuals.   The individual is more important than the whole. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20121217/91448e6e/attachment.html>