Archive for the ‘Big Questions’ Category
“Silence is consent … I refuse to consent.”
The following just-published news story has a bearing on an episode of hypocrisy that caught my eye … and gave me more food for thought about one of our themes: What is it ‘right’ to do in the face of wrongdoing? Or put another way, How should we then live? Read on… Paul Haggis Renounces […]
Vendetta
I love the sound of the word Vendetta! Vendetta! Say it with me, Vendetta! It has such a lovely ring to it. It almost feels as if you’re in Italy, with a great big knife, pumping it in and out of your worst enemy’s chest. Vendetta! Vendetta! Vendetta! But the word itself, dissected by dictionary […]
Q: Where does conflict come from?
A: Our innate Superiority complex It is strangely easy for us as human beings to see ourselves as separate from others … or in an ‘us’ while ‘the others’ consist of a ‘them’ — and, naturally, we regard ‘them’ as inferior to ‘us’ in every measure that matters. In the same way that herd animals […]
Future Think
While the current world economic crisis is definitely one for the record books one wonders what history will say of this meltdown? Was it predictable? Were there signs? And if there were signs why did the people of the first decade of the 21st Century not follow them? With hindsight as a guide it would […]
Groping for the truth
Why does a lie offend us? Why is it that a lie — especially a lie to our face — vexes us so? Our efforts to identify the veracity of a claim (sometimes a very basic claim), can be frustrated by liars and rogues. So much of our lives can be taken up with efforts to […]
“Do I believe in the forgiveness of sin?”
I heard this question in a BBC Heart & Soul documentary today about a family where the father had sexually abused his young daughter. The wife described how she had come to a place where the question, “Do I believe in the forgiveness of sin?” arose when considering her husband’s actions towards her daughter. Her […]
The Paradox of Animosity
I’ve been thinking, prompted in part by a comment from Chowbok who said: Hatred is the easiest of emotions to invoke. Is it possible to be trenchantly, even violently opposed to what you perceive as wrongdoing without slipping into HATRED of the perpetrator? If we agree (you and I) that bitterness of spirit is a […]
Daring — if there was no risk it wouldn’t take guts
I like this image for two reasons: One – the graphic design speaks to me. Two – it kind of makes my point: ‘Many saw evil. They dared to stop it.’ I can’t tell you how many people will cheer from the safety of the sidelines, or grumble uselessly about something they perceive as not […]
Moral courage — being willing to stand in scorn
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls […]
Is there a ‘whistle blower’ personality type?
It’s emerged that the latest book by economist Gareth Morgan After the Panic is being recalled because there’s “a mistake that must be corrected” (see notice from the publishers here PDF) … a new edition is being readied to replace the first edition (now a collectors’ edition?) This self-styled “straight shooting” book was launched just last month […]
