Bullies

"Identification with the aggessor" is a simple way I like to think about the running of "the world."  Years ago Oprah picked up on a study claiming two thirds of American school children were more worried about bullying than any other school problem.  10% of kids were identified as targets of bullies.  I assume the other 57% were frightened by seeing that nothing was done by school authorities or anyone else to recognize the problem--thereby condoning it.  How similar to society at large where the mass of people lead lives of quiet despair.  In the world of realpolitik Richard Nixon noted that three to four thousand people made all the substantive decisions about allocation of resources--societal goals.   I did the math: one person in 70,000 has a say.  Kind of like the military and top brass.  I also read that with today's armaments 2 armed men can control 100 civilians.  I don't believe in conspiracies so much as in the confluence of interests.  And in the ability of mass communcations to obfuscate who the confluential persons are and to mask the costs of their interests to the mass of men.  Bread and circuses, the hope of winning the lottery, and the desire to join those close to the golden calf are carrots held out to the common man.  Loss of job & life plus constant tension about where the next dollar is coming from are sufficient to dissolve most mass action. These would be The Stick.  Take out a rebellious slave, whip him to death, build a pyramid.  To the survivors a little soup and hope to live another day.  And maybe some day to become a whipper one's self.

Jesus is not a role model who's gained traction

Pauline Kael wrote that normal life depends on our hypocrisies.  Lack of hypocrisy is a classic abnormality.  Remember Dorothy Day Lewis.  ?