Gentleness, kindness, intelligence and even thoughtfulness are increasingly construed as weakness because of a lot of people with high profiles who are modeling brutality as the way to wealth and power and with that the belief that having wealth and power are the only things that make you valuable—not matter what you have to do to get it. Being a good human? Easing another human's experience on this Rock? Bah! Humbug! Alas, as a historian, you know well that we've been here before, and before, and before. What can we do?
I think you captured the sentiment perfectly with "modeling brutality as the way to wealth." I suppose the only thing we can do is continue to model the behavior we admire and aspire to.
"Living well is the best revenge," as George Herbert said.
Agreed. The Stoics complained of this happening in their time as well. Everything is cyclical. Maybe that includes behavior turning for the better sometime.
Gentleness, kindness, intelligence and even thoughtfulness are increasingly construed as weakness because of a lot of people with high profiles who are modeling brutality as the way to wealth and power and with that the belief that having wealth and power are the only things that make you valuable—not matter what you have to do to get it. Being a good human? Easing another human's experience on this Rock? Bah! Humbug! Alas, as a historian, you know well that we've been here before, and before, and before. What can we do?
I think you captured the sentiment perfectly with "modeling brutality as the way to wealth." I suppose the only thing we can do is continue to model the behavior we admire and aspire to.
"Living well is the best revenge," as George Herbert said.
Agreed. The Stoics complained of this happening in their time as well. Everything is cyclical. Maybe that includes behavior turning for the better sometime.