I was listening to T. J. Jakes last night, a black minister and I had a few observations. He was talking to another minister and his wife.
The first observation I had was the depth of his emotional feeling. I don’t think you can have a reasoned discussion when the feeling is so strong. I think the rioting we see in the streets is also due to a great depth of emotion. You can’t sit down with people in the gripe of such emotions and say let’s reason together. Doesn’t work.
T.J. Jakes at one point said Whites don’t understand how it is to have a culture imposed on them (white culture). Now if I remember correctly when I was young no one gave me a choice as to what culture I wanted. Today, as a matter of fact, I really don’t like our culture. But I don’t think any of us get a choice when it comes to the prevailing culture. Some people might call this White Culture, but I would call today’s culture – secular culture. One thing I think is wrong with it is its lack of spirituality.
The wife of the minister at one point said all people matter. T.J. Jakes seemed to take great offense to this. His point was that in a breast cancer awareness movement, you wouldn’t bring up that alzheimers also mattered. Now I didn’t really get that analogy because I think breast cancer awareness members might very well think alzheimers also matters. But when it comes to cops, at least, some people in the streets saying Black Lives Matter don’t seem to think the people they are throwing fireworks at, pointing lasers at, lives matter. There seems to be a hostility there that breast cancer awareness advocates don’t have toward alzheimers.
Moreover, T.D. Jakes emphasized the importance of listening, but I didn’t get the impression in that discussion that he was good at it. It seemed he wanted very much for black people to be listened to, but his deep emotional feelings didn’t seem very negotiable.
I think it is impossible to really communicate suffering that that the people you are communicating with haven’t experienced. We know its good to have former alcoholics, for instance, help current alcoholics because having experience with that problem is helpful. I don't, for instance, understand what it is like to have a group target people of my religion for extermination as was the experience of some Jewish people. There is suffering it's hard to imagine.
The idea of thrownness of the existentialists also came to me in listening to T.J. Jakes. We are all just thrown into situations. Luckily, most of us don't find others to blame for that. The rioters don’t like our institutions. Now if you asked me if I liked the Catholic institutions in my early life, I would say no. I’m getting a lot out of reading Thich nhat hanh’s book. Thinking wouldn’t it have been great if I had been raised in a spiritual tradition like that.
When it comes to the educational institutions I have been exposed to, I think most of them were just a great waste of time and of life. So I can sympathize with those in our streets who don’t like our institutions.
Have I ever experienced prejudice? Well I’m a Gang Stalking target after all, so I guess you could say I’ve experienced over a decade of it – http://stopgangstalkingpolice.com.
I think it is really hard to talk to people who think they are victims. Wouldn’t you like to say – Do you think your life would have been better in Communist China? Was living in a culture dominated by the ideas of Thomas Jefferson really all that bad?
Slavery, the attempt to exterminate the Jews, the way we used to treat profoundly mentally handicapped people in institutions - man's (politically incorrect I suppose) inhumanity to man is heartbreaking. But what I don't think is fair is blaming a whole race for actions they didn't really say were okay. I don't think its fair to blame all police for the actions of some police.
I don't think it is fair to say listen to me when you are so emotional, you can't listen also, so we can have a real honest no holds barred discussion. I don't think it is fair that you can only say certain things and that we are all expected to think alike.
No, I don't like what is going on in this culture. But I never did.
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