The pendulum

I'm seeing a dangerous trend. On several issues, the pendulum is passing through the middle and headed to the other extreme. I won't name the issues themselves, but there are many. 

I live in a country that considers itself the land of the free. Freedom is a balancing act, one that we haven't always achieved well. The disenfranchised gain footing, but instead of merely holding place, they go on the attack, in the name of protecting themselves from ever being hurt again. However, it's impossible to protect ourselves from ever being hurt. Even the boy in the bubble felt pain. If he didn't, he could have been seriously injured and not even realize it. Pain is not a good thing to endure, but it is a sign of things going wrong.  Even in large groups such as a society.

If people are willing to let the pendulum swing that far, we end up with John Brown and Robespierre.  Lit fires and Madame Guillotine.

The pendulum is a gut response to being hurt. It's a reaction of immature minds and hearts whose only worry is themselves. Lately, I have seen it from one end of the spectrum to the other: the need to protect self and attack others instead of reaching out and caring for others, working for the actual good of others and the whole.

Everyone in the world has borne pain. No two people have had the same experiences. However, when we start quantifying and cataloging offenses, giving some more weight than others, we run the risk of becoming that one thing we hate. We've all read that story (or seen that movie) where the angry young man looks in the mirror after winning the civil war against his father's forces and sees his father's face looking back at him.

History, myth, and religion all bear this out: evil -- selfishness and focusing on getting revenge -- turns in on itself like an Oroubourus. It's only by reaching out and moving past our own pain and failures that we are free.

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