PARENTAL WARNING! THE FOLLOWING POST DISCUSSES DIFFICULT ISSUES IN UNVARNISHED LANGUAGE. COVER YOUR DARLINGS' EYES.
I had a very tough time grappling with the whole concept of cruelty. It always struck me as a flaw in the fabric of things, a cosmic imbalance that Should Not Exist. Like a cognitive Dali painting depicting something ineffably, innately repulsive.
And yet, and yet.
I am led to speculate that cruelty has Darwinian value - within limits, the cruel overran the meek. The exercise of cruelty is a display of naked power over an opposed will ... for many men the precise equivalent would be to receive an ass-kicking.
And like an ass-kicking, it is something that has to be done just right - a dearth of whupass invariably leads to a turning of the tables, and in such instances standard policy is to really hurt the would-be ass-kicker. Near escape from an ass-kicking converted to the acquisition of the upper hand .... this is a drug, a rage agonist, and that is the part of the movie where four of Hero's buddies restrain him from going Medieval on Failed Ass-kicker.
...so where am I going with this?
<long pause>
I could bring the sermon to a sharp point and summarize my epiphanic insights into Homo Sap as a pack animal:
Cruelty is a direct consequence of a massive force of counterempathy - one of the two true pieces of evil in the human software. The relevant one is that (drum roll) I cannot feel your pain or distress.
postscriptum: It would be rude of me to not treat of the second and greater evil that takes residence in almost anyone's psyche. Like a software virus, an assault meme.
... I know what is right, and it is my highest duty to teach you this.
But that is fodder for another essay on another day.
<edit> I know a lot of big words, but I restrain myself to letting'em bark here. Big words are cause for an ass-kicking in these parts..... |
