With/as flowers (top photo)
Hello, my friends – Podcast time once again.
There is a lot of talk about moral ideas these days – but we don’t often discuss the nature of the human creatures that think and feel these things. Surface-level judgement is fine, if we just want to enjoy and critique the view – but if we want to be able to build new things that will last, we need to think intelligently about underlying structure, also.
Today I’m looking at how strange some very obvious-seeming moral ideas – things like nice and mean – can actually be in practise. As usual, there are a few notions in here that may challenge, several chosen to amuse, some rare gems that I hope will be helpful for the humane understanding of others, and also fine stuff that might help some of my friends get off their own case, and discover more self-forgiveness. An increasingly rare commodity in this cold-hearted moment.
Hi Folks – this is another early episode I had to take down, to make room for new shows – but it is up and live once again at my new substack site. Check it out here:
https://paulsnyders.substack.com/p/nice-and-mean
We must remember – even when fully justified, outrage and pain simply do not create building blocks of growth, cooperation or understanding. Then again, pleasant jollying lying nonsense can be almost as alienating, whether well-intended or not.
In order to be real nice, – reliable, alive and helpful friends, allies, lovers and agents of change, we have to start with our eyes and hearts wide open.
True witness – learner’s mind.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
