Relax

 
My father was a sociopath.  Like most sociopaths, originally known as "the morally insane", my father didn't really understand the difference between right and wrong.  He only knew how normal people reacted to right and wrong, so he was careful to deceive and manipulate to get what he wanted without provoking undesirable reactions from his victims.

In an unpleasant surprise, following my father's recent death, it became clear that my brother really doesn't understand the difference between right and wrong either.  His notion of fairness is so lop-sided that it falls squarely in the camp of selfishness, the same camp that was my father's base of operations.

My reaction to all this has not been well received in the family.  I have been advised to sit back and "let it be."  "Don't rock the boat."  "Relax."  "Enjoy life."  Yes, relax in the face of injustice.

I got that message again for Christmas when my sister sent me the sign pictured above.

Don't get me wrong -- I like this gift because it emphasizes the unbalanced approach of the sociopath, which has permeated my family.  Sociopaths want nothing more than for their victims to relax into the abuse and accept it quietly.  They don't want any resistance.  They don't want you to react; they want you to relax.

There are indeed times when it is appropriate to relax.  And there are times when it is appropriate to react.  The balance lies in knowing the difference.

We see the same dynamic in the world around us.  The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 when our sociopathic leaders lied to us about "weapons of mass destruction".  To this day we are still relaxing rather than holding the liars accountable for war crimes.  We are also far too relaxed about 9/11 truth, Fukushima radiation, Guantanamo Bay and other government torture facilities, unconstitutional NSA spying, judicial corruption, Congressional criminality, and presidential con-artistry.  We are so relaxed that we have become sheep good for nothing but fleecing.

So relax.  Be a good sheep.  Stand still for your fleecing.

Just excuse me if I don't join you.
 

Is Christianity good?

The book in question.

This is a debate between a sick man and a man who has been cured.  The sick man suffers from delusions which prevent him from assessing his own problems.  The man who has been cured was once sick himself, so he easily recognizes the delusions of the sick man.  He wants to help him, but try as he might, his words are swept away by the sick man who only sees the reasons that can dance with his delusions.  The Christian reader will instantly recognize that the sick man is the atheist.  Poor soul, he is like a lost sheep and need only recant and return to the flock to be cured.  The atheist reader will instantly recognize that the cured man is the atheist.  Poor soul, through strength of reason alone he has broken rank with the sick masses and endured their irrational condemnations.  The atheist is one of a very few that knows the truth -- that an idea does not gain truth as it gains followers.

The Christian presents some devastating arguments, such as the two tenets of atheism (1. There is no God, and 2. I hate Him), and that atheists have no warrant to define good and evil and thus cannot define good and evil.  These arguments are, of course, devastating to the Christian's position, when they are meant to be an attack against atheism.  The atheist correctly ignores the first argument, as its absurdity is self-evident.  For the second, he points out that morality is a product of evolution, something that evolutionary scientist and atheist Richard Dawkins so eloquently and thoroughly explained in chapter 12 of his book The Selfish Gene some 20 years ago.

There's more, but in a nutshell, half the book is the refreshing voice of reason, and the other half consists of the delusions of a madman.  Which half is which will depend on the reader's orientation.