Courage and progress

The more the kids and I have discussed it, the more convinced I am.

The greatest bulk of human tragedy is borne of cowardice.

And the most pernicious cowardice of all is the failure to say those three little words that we find it so hard to say.

I was wrong.

Actually, as my friend Julie said recently, that's probably not true. The truth is that our cowardice is borne of our ability to say, "I love me. And I love you. Enough for both of us to be wrong plenty in life. Because that's what's gonna happen anyway, fool. Now stop hogging the blanket."

And most of that is borne of the further cowardice to acknowledge that perhaps our failure to do that is borne of our failure to treat each other more decently and forgive one another when we do screw up. And the ways that aggression is not only limited in preventing otherwise, but has generally contributed to creating many of those messes, in the first place.

When I think of all of the people who have died, lived in fear, and otherwise had lives destroyed or seriously undermined by this one common source, I am sometimes overwhelmed by the stupidity and waste of it all.

With the solid knowledge that our only hope of turning it around is finding the courage to face this failure.

And it is courage, it is clear to me, at this point, that is borne of love, and compassion, and decency, and forgiveness. And all of the values that we fear make us weak. But which really are our surest source of strength.

That is a fact, I am clear, at this point. And a stubborn fact more stubborn than our stubborn refusal to acknowledge it.

And it is our stubborness to acknowledge that fact that is the single most destructive source of the greatest share of preventable human tragedy in our sad, destructive history.

And it is a fact that does not care what we think otherwise. It is a fact that will most certainly be a part of human existence, in some smaller way, likely, for as long as we exist. And it is a fact that will engender the most serious preventable tragedy until we face it.

I've had to make my peace with this fact.

Until we find the courage to face it. And to be better, for real.

The only honest progress humanity has ever known.

Tragedy of our common cowardice

David Sirota is largely wrong in this piece that gets the big picture right.

Journalism is definitely a serious mess, these days.

Journalism today: A haven for parasites and double-dealers

What David is wrong about is the reason. Journalism's not in sorry shape because of the evil journalists in cahouts with big industry opposing the noble progressive agenda, as this old, tired, and self-centered line of reasoning supposes.

Journalism is in trouble because of people like David.

Not progressives. Though they certainly have done more than their share to make journalism a mess. Not conservatives. Though they have created enough of the ugly milleu that the media has become. Not moderates. Though most moderates have been either playing cynical games or been too cowardly to challenge the cynical games being played.

The reason most people that I talk with don't trust the press is the same reason I trust the press so little, these days.

Because they're assholes. They are a mass gathering of vultures and cynics looking to shit on anything decent and mishandle anything serious they can get their hands on. Because it's never dawned on them that maybe being assholes has helped create most of the more intractable messes they've been covering.

Why? Because assholes, as a rule, do not take responsibility. Ever. Not until they stop being assholes, that is. At which point, they're no longer part of the problem. But which problem remains while they are. Which is the ugly and destructive self-fulfilling prophecy of the press, politics, and most serious issues that we just can't seem to get a handle on that face us, today.

As a good friend of mine was just saying, it's Network in real time. It's press cynicism feeding a cynical political, financial, and broader culture. Taken to it's logical conclusion with the exercise of formal political power, it is the ugly tragedy that is most illiberal cultures, like North Korea, Cuba, China, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Syria, and Iran. And the larger logic is what drove Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to their unimaginable depths.

And what all of those folks have in common is that none of them will take responsibility for it. Because there's too many other people to blame for their bullshit.

And no matter how much they fail and how much advocacy for more aggression to solve every problem backfires in every variation of foolish, obvious ways, they just keep at it.

Because to do otherwise would take courage that none of them seem to have.

To admit that this path of aggression and pressure to resolve our most serious problems was just a foolish, mistaken, counterproductive path.

It's ego trumping something more honest. And decent. And more genuinely liberal. And what they know is the better direction, deep in their tiny little hearts.

And you know what the saving grace for humanity is?

There's no way to get things turned around until we face up. Period. Everything else is one long lie to avoid facing the failure.

Doubt that? Then live with the failure.

Most of these assholes seemed pleased as punch to do so.

Perhaps that's all we will ever do.

Until we get honest, that is.