Reply #9: Sorry for the delay, folks: I was in Coventry [View All]

[Mairead]

Thanks your your guesses.

It actually comes from "Death Wish" by Brian Garfield, copyright 1972.

I was struck, re-reading the book for the first time in years, by how totally intractable the problem seems to be. A whole generation later and not one damn' thing has changed. Actually, 'intractable' feels too benign a term. The reality seems to be that we're losing ground against the selfish.

There's another passage in there that seems to describe us and explain why we're not making any progress. I don't have the book in my hand right now, so I'll have to paraphrase:

We don't go mad and start bumping off the bad guys, or even take our protests to the streets and smash up corporate offices. We don't act out our rage and terror at all. Instead we defend ourselves against those upsetting emotions by repressing them and pretending that the bad stuff isn't really happening, or if it's happening it's not as bad as people say, and we do all sorts of displacement activity (like spending time on the Internet :)) to drain off the negative energy that being around really so much really bad stuff produces in us. The sad part is that we might well be healthier and the world better off if we did act out.

Your views?