Rule #572: A house divided against itself cannot stand.
“In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.”
This sickens me. The stupidity, the hatred, the blame, and the insanity—it all sickens me.
The needless deaths of Eric Garner and now George Floyd sicken me. Yes, they were allegedly committing crimes, but not capital offenses. The force used by police has to be kept in check. This was murder and should be treated as such. Police reform, discipline, and training are all needed. We need to trust our police force again.
We are living in a country that is focused on blame and hate. We have lived through the crisis of COVID-19 and came out of it not united, but more divided. Everyone is digging into their positions and piling barrels of gasoline around their foxholes. With the riots over the last few nights, we have now begun tossing lit matches at each other. The fires will only get bigger and more deadly.
We are fighting over whether we wear a mask or not, or whether we fly a Trump flag. The hate for our fellow citizens is overwhelming. We have stopped seeing ourselves as Americans, instead dividing into groups that are either with us or against us. We are distrustful of everyone, because they are distrustful of us. We have lost empathy. As looters are arrested, others are bailing them out.
This isn’t about Antifa, white supremacists, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or anyone else you care to blame—this is about a house divided against itself. We have begun to look at each other as something “other,” as though our opinions make us less intelligent, less evolved, less human.
The people who are looting must feel that they are the underclass and as such can take what is not rightfully given. If you no longer see the rich—and often white—as part of your world, then it no longer feels like stealing, because in their world you have no rights.
Dr. M. Scott Peck, in his book People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, defines evil as “militant ignorance.” The people looting are not dumb or less than human; they are people who have lost empathy for others. They are not stealing from Foot Locker to feed their families or to protest an act of police brutality. They are stealing because they have numbed their consciences and rationalized evil behavior. They no longer have empathy for the rich, the white, the privileged, or the police—to them, stealing from them is not wrong because they don’t care about them.
This “scapegoating” of other groups (as Dr. Peck calls it) is necessary for evil to exist. I watched a video of a woman being beaten by looters in upstate New York. To do this, they must have lost the ability to see from the victim’s viewpoint, becoming completely narcissistic. Watching that video, like the video of Mr. Floyd being choked to death, is to witness evil.
We must find justice for George Floyd. We must have empathy for the pain his family and friends are enduring, and we must change through listening.
We must also find justice for those whose homes, businesses, and even lives have been taken by these looters. Both must be done swiftly and decisively.
We have stopped listening and have developed a covert intolerance to criticism—and that is the pathway to evil. Something is seriously wrong with our society, and we need to find pathways back to caring about each other. We can disagree without hate.
Love, Dad