How to re-enter society gracefully.

I wrote this during the last election, before the primary, before this shame... it still applies, I think.



Friday, November 10, 2006

This was my latest post on one of my blogs, I felt the need to stop being such a rabid bitch, this week.


(Turned out to be one of my last posts, actually, with such a disappointing Majority.)







Hello, to all my friends who I have essentially abandoned in the last few months leading up to this election. I was silent with

you for many reasons, I did not want to fight or argue with the people I love over politics or religion, I will confront

strangers and strive to change minds but my love for my friends is unwavering, which is why it had to be put aside for something

even more important. I do not have children, will never have them and I am okay with that, some of you do, and I love them and I

want them to have a future. That is why I have been so quiet in my personal contacts with you because I wanted my friends AFTER

this important moment in history. I felt very inspired to do my small part to change a tide of intolerance and volition of

purpose that I think, fundamentally, is harmful to this country. It was not about abortion or taxes or sex or even, really, war.

It was about the future and what kind of world we will shape and ultimately, leave behind. bush may be a good man, I do not know

him, personally, although, I have done ALOT of research on him and it doesn't look inspiring. More importantly, he is surrounded

with a lot of bad men, notorious hypocrites and warmongers. HE chose to surround himself and align his administration with these

people and they were/are bad for this country and the world. That was HIS choice, he must pay for that, even if it is just

politically. We all want the same thing in the end, comfort and love and understanding in a very big, scary world. It is how you

go about achieving it that shapes you as a human being. When you decide, or are chosen, to do that for the multitude you must

tread carefully and humbly, that is all we ask. The way I see it, the republican party chose to acknowledge the few and damn the

many and that carries a heavy price. We deserve more in our leaders and that is a conversation that can never be had in a heated

debate. So, I just avoided the conversation, on a personal level, when I could, if you were still blinded by the false issues.

Forgive me for that and my absence in your lives, our friendships depended on it, trust me, you know what a bitch I can be. And

to the ones who agreed with me, I have been CRAZY busy, it takes a village of idiots, you know, but it is over, for the moment,

and the next round will come with less struggle... God willing. IF hope IS a fool's errand, we all must be it's fools. Peace,

Ann.

I think this is a shared feeling among us now, unfortunately.

And... yes... I think there will be much reconciling to be done after this difficult primary is ended.

And I hope we all can return to sanity soon. Peace to you.

http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/enemy_image/?nid=1133

In-Groups and Out-Groups

The term "out-group" refers to anyone who is not in your own group. "Your group" can be any salient identity group: your nationality, your ethnicity, your race, your religion. In conflicts between groups of people, disputants usually view people outside their own group as less good, or in the case of the opposing group, as really bad. The term "enemy image" refers to the same thing. The opposing group is seen as the "enemy," who is inferior to one's own group in many ways.

For example, the enemy may be seen as stupid, selfish, deceitful, aggressive, hostile, or even evil. This perception remains, even if members of the out-group do nothing more selfish, deceitful, aggressive, or evil than do members of one's own group. However, when they are engaged in a serious conflict, people will normally project their own negative traits onto the other side, ignoring their own shortcomings or misdeeds, while emphasizing the same in the other.

Enemy images also involve "scapegoating." It is common for each side to decide that it is the other side (the "enemy") that is the source of all their problems. If only the enemy could be vanquished or eliminated, then those problems would go away.

The extreme form of this tendency is dehumanization, in which members of the opposing group are considered to be less than human. While such a view is unthinkable when people are not involved in a serious conflict, it is absolutely necessary to dehumanize an opponent if one intends to go to war against them. Otherwise, it becomes psychologically very difficult to kill people on the other side. If one is convinced that the other side is bent on one's own destruction, and is less human than one's own group, it is much easier to engage in war, human rights violations, or genocide against the opponent.

************

Sound familiar? It should.

What the hell is wrong with you? I just think Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would make a rotten President. I don't trust her, it HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH OBAMA! IT IS THE FEELING I HAVE GOTTEN FROM HER FOR YEARS!!!! Period. btw, I loved EDWARDS, but we all have to fucking compromise sometimes. JESUS! Really? And I'm drinking "koolaid"? You have clearly lost your mind.

I just could not take it anymore.

You picked out (to you) the most inflammatory word/phrase/statement in the portion of the article I repeated here and used it to attack someone who you perceive as being a member of the out-group. Genocide is the bottom rung of the ladder. While I doubt anyone on DU has sunk quite that low there has definitely been a LOT of dehumanization, most of it directed at Hillary. You, in effect, proved the truth of the article's statements including dehumanization.

that is accusing people of a behavior that is offensive, I reply with the intended anger of being accused of the said "offense" and I'm the hatemonger? Or what am I? SENTIENT?

Do you, as a human, really think that I am trying to paint anyone as an "out group"? I am a Democrat. I have no "out group", I do have people I do not agree with, as we all have, but there is no conspiracy. I just don't agree with her, or apparently with you but there is no hate or judgment, it is simply fact. I do not want Hillary Clinton to be President. I'm truly sorry.