On Hate Mail P.S.: Thanks for Your Comments
I always carefully read and appreciate reader comments, even though ever fleeting time does not allow me to respond to all of them.
Because time is always fleeting, I am unable to respond to all of my reader comments, but I carefully read all of them, am grateful for them, and try to learn from them.
This post is to give thanks to my readers for their kind, thoughtful, and fascinating replies to my post On Hate Mail. I woke up to a few emails expressing concern for me. I would like to emphasize that I don’t mind receiving hate mail. Though initially shocking, such emails give a fascinating glimpse at emotions that humans almost never express face to face, but that are lurking in their souls.
So much of the time, we humans are acting, showing others only what we want them to see. Even more uncanny than receiving hate mail is the experience of being in the presence of someone who pretends to be friendly, even affectionate, when you know that the person harbors great animus towards you.
Right now, the greatest threat to Western civilization is not the honest expression of negative emotions, because we could learn from these. A far bigger threat is our epidemic of virtue signaling—that is, an epidemic in which powerful people conceal their negative emotions (from themselves as well as everyone else) with phony expressions of goodwill and benevolence.
Again to cite the Carl Jung, such people fail to recognize their “Shadow,” as he called the dark side of human nature, and therefore fail to recognize that they are participating in an evil enterprise. Preferring not to see evil makes them susceptible to it. As Jung put it:
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Interesting. As a Christian it seems to me a case of sin and its consequences. I guess our sinful nature would be the ‘dark’ aspect mentioned here. Similar concepts, at least to me. Either way, it’s not facing reality and so deceiving ourselves and others. The Truth will set us free, hard as it is to face at times. Many thanks for your article. If I don’t agree with an authors opinion or point of view I usually keep it to myself. I’m not too interested in online debates, or being nasty! Yikes! I was taught good manners. ☺️
didn't post any comment to the previous post, but was thinking about it..;) So doing it now.
The fact, that a person, who writes hateful emails, doesn't even want to engage in an honest conversation to get even more personal opportunity to hurt, maybe means, that suddenly that hate turned into a shame?? That would be nice. But how about this possibility, whatif that 'person' is actually AI, something what was responsible for majority of covid 'responsibility messages' which drove millions into a suicidal annihilation via covid shots???
Now, I deserve your 'Thank You';)))