From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Mon, 4 Sep 2023 18:10:00 -0700 (PDT), Ilya Shambat   
    wrote:   
      
   I know a number of people who used to be hippies, and I am angry at   
   how badly they have been misrepresented. People claim that they had no   
   morals and that they were not in touch with reality.   
      
   No, they very much did have morals. They fought for better treatment   
   of workers. They fought for better treatment of women. They fought for   
   better treatment of black people. They fought for better treatment of   
   the environment. They had better morals than the people who have been   
   attacking them.   
      
   Were they not in touch with reality? I think they were very much in   
   touch with reality. They put a lot of effort into addressing issues   
   that in many cases did not even impact on them personally. Similarly   
   some people think that I don’t live in reality, but I’ve put in huge   
   effort into addressing all sorts of issues impacting upon all sorts of   
   people.   
      
   Now to be fair, some of these people became jerks even when they   
   didn’t start out as ones. There are some in the New Age who think that   
   everything that happens to people is a reflection of what’s in their   
   consciousness, and that the person is responsible for everything that   
   happens to him. I am privileged, and this idea stands to work in my   
   favor. I reject it for moral reasons. This kind of thinking would   
   justify any crime under the sun under the claim that the person to   
   whom it happens is causing it.   
      
   I have a friend who has had a constant unbearable migraine since age   
   22. Her New Age relatives claimed that she was causing it deliberately   
   in order to avoid taking responsibility for her life. Eventually she   
   found the right treatment; but she lost 30 years. It is completely   
   wrong to claim that she deliberately brought it about. Sometimes   
   things just happen, and it’s nobody’s fault.   
      
   Saying that you cause everything that happens to you is easy for you,   
   and it is easy for me. It is not as easy for my friend, and it’s not   
   as easy for folks in Haiti. In fact you didn’t cause everything that   
   happens to you. Your situation is not owed only to yourself. It is   
   also owed to parents who raised you, teachers who educated you,   
   military and police that protect you, business and labor that provide   
   your prosperity, and intellectuals and Freemasons who gave you your   
   liberty. And it is important that people be reminded of this, as many   
   tend to forget.   
      
   Is it valid to work on yourself? Of course it is. But it is not valid   
   to ignore the world while you are at it. I do both; I recommend that   
   other people do both. It is important both to be the best person that   
   you can be and to contribute what you stand to contribute.   
      
   I want these people to regain the good values they had when they   
   started. I also want more people to avoid disinformation about these   
   people. They should not be getting demonized. Many of them came from   
   the right place. And it is important that this reality be understood   
   and treated accordingly.   
      
   (reformatted for legibility)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)