It’s Not Contempt
I got an email from a colleague regarding my essays. Almost a friend; though I’ve not met him in person, we have talked on the phone, exchanged emails, and done a little radio together. He is a superb writer on contemporary issues and lives in the Shenandoah Valley. He wrote asking to be taken off my subscription list because he didn’t like my tone. He felt that I was "contemptuous toward some not-tiny proportion of your fellow humans, like Mencken's scorn for the 'yahoos.'"
Well, thanks for your candor, Andy; I wrote him back. The Mencken comparison is a fair and indeed an honored one; on an inferential basis only, of course.
I particularly appreciate your comments, I said, because it explains some of the hostility that I've received from my liberal associates who seem to feel that I have deserted The Cause. And you know, for all my causticity, I haven't. I have great hope that we will realize our dreams of a world without war, where all of our current social problems are resolved, and we can move on to actualize the human potential.
I don't know how much of it we will be by what we do so much as who we are. My belief is that we will continue to just play around the edges until enough people who have seen the light gain enough sway to defrock the currently-unbridled military-industrial complex. Once we evolve to a critical mass level -- meaning 20% — we will make the turn and the majority of the rest of the people will follow. Until then, I fear, we will continue to rely on nature stepping in to clean up our mis-steps.
I think it's coming. I think that we will discover something more valuable than money and power...something intrinsically human...a higher intellectual-spiritual capacity. Perhaps a hyper-intuitive that knows truth.
Until then, however, I'll likely continue my rants. They are not designed to abuse, but to rally, and they are focused against the policies of the regressives, as well as the pusillanimous handkerchief wringers who fail to stand effectively against the bullies.
I’m angry at all of the victimhood and blame-shifting. Maybe this quote explains it. It’s from a Polish poet named Edward Yashinsky. He survived the Nazi death camps only to die in a Communist prison. Yashinksy said, "Fear not your enemies for they can only kill you; fear not your friends for they can only betray you. Fear only the indifferent who permit killers and betrayers to walk safely on the Earth."
Finally I wrote, I will take your thoughts to heart, for that's where the meet me, and I will probably lighten my tone, depending on how good the coffee is that day.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.
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