Sabotage Ukraine aid because your donors paid you to? Sabotage your own country’s energy and environmental policies because your donors promise you millions of dollars?
What is this black hole in the human psyche that consumes all who venture too close? Is greed just another name for a deep-seated psychological fear reinforced by a lifetime of paranoia? Is the resulting obsessive-compulsive behavior — hoarding wealth and power — because of an unreasonable fear of emptiness, of not having, of losing that which is most precious, like Sméagol in the Lord of the Rings? One’s greatest passion becomes an all-consuming desire that turns into an inescapable hell.
Putin and Trump will never have enough riches and influence to satisfy the monster within. Little men who already have everything anyone could want or need on this physical plane of existence still cannot slake their unquenchable thirst. Wealth, power, fame — there is no bottom; greed-mongers who’ve reached the pinnacle of worldly success will forever lust after more and more, never reaching ultimate fulfillment...because no such state of being exists.
Yet, unrequited desire and the fear of losing remain their only raison d’être. It’s a shallow existence. And they will finally die losing it all, because they are cowards and fools, leaving a trail of suffering and death and shame as their only legacy. They will have wasted their own worthless lives along with the precious lives of countless victims. Meanwhile, humans continue the march toward oblivion, wasting their energy and the planet’s resources.
Excellent, Deepspace. We all have that pit, and it is but one face of eternity. Those of us on this side of an unsought-divide fill that pit by giving. We have empathy, and we want to help others, and because we do, we are taken care of in turn, plus we never feel empty, and thus no need for control, which takes money and requires power. There is no other addiction like it. Eternity and fear.
My wish is that those so twisted could see eternity as we do, whether consciously or not - if we can feel secure, at least from moment to moment in a world with so many threats, we do see it, feel it, and it is our best friend. It is our power.
Seeing is acting. And the right action in the moment defines us. Thanks for reminding us that helping one another is what true power is, what fills the vacuum.
Deepspace, thanks once again for your insightful and brilliant analysis. Whether it's greed or any of the other Seven Deadly Sins that people are guilty of, I believe that the preponderance of such human ugliness is learned behavior. However, I think that a certain percentage of people are born with a genetic predisposition to being assholes. When that trait is nurtured by one or both parents who pass on their asshole genes (AND they have a lot of money) you get a Trump-like creature who regularly engages in all seven of the deadly sins and he likes it. My guess is that both his parents were carriers.
Thanks, Dave, for your thoughtful contributions as well, and those of so many others who post here. In my humble opinion, this is the best blog in the trenches on the frontline of battle. 👍
John Dean's "Conservatives Without Conscience" (2007) explores the nature/nurture aspect of the right-wing mindset, and Thom has expounded on the subject several times. I think some studies have also shown certain links to genetics. Perhaps one's emotional state is hardwired during development -- whether the amygdala is exercised in the womb due to negative factors in the mother's life. Then, after birth as (mostly) an empty vessel, environmental influences either reduce or enhance predisposed feelings, depending on the intensity of experience.
What makes people laugh and cry; conversely, why are some so easily prone to fear and anger, which leads to the hatred of "others"? A flaming racist, for example, spends a lifetime learning a skill-set of ill will toward others (usually from parents and peers) and honing specious intellectual arguments to excuse the raw ugliness roiling just beneath the surface, obvious to everyone but themselves.
Naming, shaming and framing the carbon oligarchs’ Congressional whores with persistent and pithy messaging (as found in Thom’s article) is the same tactic that the oligarchs’ propagandists use, and this has the added benefit of being true so it shouldn’t be as hard to sell. (Hopefully)
OK I didn't read every word. But wouldn't hardball look like, OK sez The President. I am lobbying Congress to defund everything else in the bill. The only thing we are paying for is supporting Ukraine to defend itself against this gross, blatant violation of every hope, principle, law and moral of the world. Everything else is on the table, after that. Submit the aid to Ukraine as a stand-alone budget, stiff everything else.
Defense spending never matters. Now it does. We should always be preemptive with our "national interests". Now we shouldn't. It's "America First". Now it isn't.
The emptiness of their ugliest sentiments is a performance in hypocrisy unrivaled. Or perhaps it's not hypocrisy, but putrid pragmatism in the excluse pursuit of power.
Cui bono? I believe that is all. True nihilism - the absence of any beliefs...
Hey, they supported the Sabotager-in-Chief after that damn phone call. It tracks that they would turn a buck on Ukrainian misery and death. Monkey see, monkey do. Of course that is true also of taking the fossil fuel bribes to begin with. They are trading OUR health and environment for M-O-N-E-Y.
Speaking of money, when you are looking at the psychopaths, obviously they love their rich lifestyles. But, what it represents to them beyond that is it's a way to "keep score". Apparently you can not have the best unless you have the most as well. It is sick, they are sick, and the ones we are discussing are killing people and the environment.
Drill, baby, drill! “Upon death” is the literal answer to Ted Kennedy’s rhetorical question, “When does the greed stop?” https://hartmannreport.com/p/when-does-the-greed-stop?s=r
What is this black hole in the human psyche that consumes all who venture too close? Is greed just another name for a deep-seated psychological fear reinforced by a lifetime of paranoia? Is the resulting obsessive-compulsive behavior — hoarding wealth and power — because of an unreasonable fear of emptiness, of not having, of losing that which is most precious, like Sméagol in the Lord of the Rings? One’s greatest passion becomes an all-consuming desire that turns into an inescapable hell.
Putin and Trump will never have enough riches and influence to satisfy the monster within. Little men who already have everything anyone could want or need on this physical plane of existence still cannot slake their unquenchable thirst. Wealth, power, fame — there is no bottom; greed-mongers who’ve reached the pinnacle of worldly success will forever lust after more and more, never reaching ultimate fulfillment...because no such state of being exists.
Yet, unrequited desire and the fear of losing remain their only raison d’être. It’s a shallow existence. And they will finally die losing it all, because they are cowards and fools, leaving a trail of suffering and death and shame as their only legacy. They will have wasted their own worthless lives along with the precious lives of countless victims. Meanwhile, humans continue the march toward oblivion, wasting their energy and the planet’s resources.
Excellent, Deepspace. We all have that pit, and it is but one face of eternity. Those of us on this side of an unsought-divide fill that pit by giving. We have empathy, and we want to help others, and because we do, we are taken care of in turn, plus we never feel empty, and thus no need for control, which takes money and requires power. There is no other addiction like it. Eternity and fear.
My wish is that those so twisted could see eternity as we do, whether consciously or not - if we can feel secure, at least from moment to moment in a world with so many threats, we do see it, feel it, and it is our best friend. It is our power.
Seeing is acting. And the right action in the moment defines us. Thanks for reminding us that helping one another is what true power is, what fills the vacuum.
Deepspace, thanks once again for your insightful and brilliant analysis. Whether it's greed or any of the other Seven Deadly Sins that people are guilty of, I believe that the preponderance of such human ugliness is learned behavior. However, I think that a certain percentage of people are born with a genetic predisposition to being assholes. When that trait is nurtured by one or both parents who pass on their asshole genes (AND they have a lot of money) you get a Trump-like creature who regularly engages in all seven of the deadly sins and he likes it. My guess is that both his parents were carriers.
Thanks, Dave, for your thoughtful contributions as well, and those of so many others who post here. In my humble opinion, this is the best blog in the trenches on the frontline of battle. 👍
John Dean's "Conservatives Without Conscience" (2007) explores the nature/nurture aspect of the right-wing mindset, and Thom has expounded on the subject several times. I think some studies have also shown certain links to genetics. Perhaps one's emotional state is hardwired during development -- whether the amygdala is exercised in the womb due to negative factors in the mother's life. Then, after birth as (mostly) an empty vessel, environmental influences either reduce or enhance predisposed feelings, depending on the intensity of experience.
What makes people laugh and cry; conversely, why are some so easily prone to fear and anger, which leads to the hatred of "others"? A flaming racist, for example, spends a lifetime learning a skill-set of ill will toward others (usually from parents and peers) and honing specious intellectual arguments to excuse the raw ugliness roiling just beneath the surface, obvious to everyone but themselves.
Naming, shaming and framing the carbon oligarchs’ Congressional whores with persistent and pithy messaging (as found in Thom’s article) is the same tactic that the oligarchs’ propagandists use, and this has the added benefit of being true so it shouldn’t be as hard to sell. (Hopefully)
I like "whores." And I'm a feminist.
Thank you for making this shareable.
OK I didn't read every word. But wouldn't hardball look like, OK sez The President. I am lobbying Congress to defund everything else in the bill. The only thing we are paying for is supporting Ukraine to defend itself against this gross, blatant violation of every hope, principle, law and moral of the world. Everything else is on the table, after that. Submit the aid to Ukraine as a stand-alone budget, stiff everything else.
Gelding Of Patris.
Defense spending never matters. Now it does. We should always be preemptive with our "national interests". Now we shouldn't. It's "America First". Now it isn't.
The emptiness of their ugliest sentiments is a performance in hypocrisy unrivaled. Or perhaps it's not hypocrisy, but putrid pragmatism in the excluse pursuit of power.
Cui bono? I believe that is all. True nihilism - the absence of any beliefs...
Hey, they supported the Sabotager-in-Chief after that damn phone call. It tracks that they would turn a buck on Ukrainian misery and death. Monkey see, monkey do. Of course that is true also of taking the fossil fuel bribes to begin with. They are trading OUR health and environment for M-O-N-E-Y.
Speaking of money, when you are looking at the psychopaths, obviously they love their rich lifestyles. But, what it represents to them beyond that is it's a way to "keep score". Apparently you can not have the best unless you have the most as well. It is sick, they are sick, and the ones we are discussing are killing people and the environment.