Why are peaceniks so persecuted?

It seems that when people say they want peace, compassion, understanding, or other virtues, other people suddenly get this compulsion to put them under a microscope. If you've ever spoke out and had someone point out some minutae flaw in you, then you know what Im speaking of. I think its because these people feel guilt when confronted with people who want peace, so they look for any kind of way to prove the peacenik is a hypocrite, so they dont feel bad by comparison. But does it work? I dont think so. The original guilt will always be there, and knocking other people down won't make that go away.

What is it that's broken in human beings that they have to hurt in order to feel better? Freud called it a Thantos urge, but I'm not sure if I like his oversimplification. Is it some part of our lizard brains that wants to strike out when we feel hurt? If so, why can't mankind control this? Perhaps we are not evolved enough? Seems to make man an incomplete creature in any case. This base reaction to strike back doesn't work, thus making human brains a broken machine.

But some people can rise above these petty reactions. In fact, I think some people are born above them, and only partially descend into such behaviors because they are so prevalent in society. So why are some people kinder than others? Is it genetics, or is it reincarnation; old souls vs. the new? And if there is a cosmic structure such as reincarnation, why can't the cosmic cycle protect the older souls better?

 

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what i can't understand is how some, not all, but some deeply christian people can say that they love god and all this and that, but hate gays and jews and blacks etc. if you believe in god, then we are all god's children and are all good people. i dont understand the hatred behind some religious folk.

 

I do ..

brainwashing passed down from generation to generation.

=\

 

the funny thing is, i could picture someone like you described reading your thread and thinking "what a fag". there is no reason, some people just dont think spiritually or dont care about others to that degree, they just want to live in the now and be content.

 

I think it's like you said: guilt, and a good dose of ego righteousness. They look at what you're saying, then at themselves, and know they aren't living peacefully or right. So that makes them feel bad (guilt). But to feel better (without having to change their way of living, which would be harder), they have to rationalize. They have to condemn you, make you a hypocrite, while making themselves, at least in their mind, look better. It's a stupid cycle.

 

I think it comes from out simian ancestors. Coupled with the 'herd mentality' - or at least, a lot of it does.
Also modern society seeks to instill in people 'values' such as being competitive, belief in the nation state, acceptance of their own deep ignorance, agression towards anything/anyone different who might threaten the status quo, etc etc.
The whole 'macho man' type image which is projected by the media as sexually attractive also probably has some input.
They'd like us all to accept blindly the same old shit they consider so important.

 

Where does the soul come from, if there is one? If there is something so flawed in our character that we are completely broken, I imagine it must have pre-existed us. Maybe it's just being and becoming. Creation is destruction, because it destroys the pre-existing state of being.

So to exist at all is an act of destruction, and no wonder some people are so inclined. We're here for what we assume to be the right reasons: love, beauty, truth, all that gay shit, etc. There is also a part of us that fights, that we fight. Even within ourselves that fight exists, change and fighting change.

I'm not too worried about all those other people. I know our peace is as strong as their war. After all, what's more peaceful than death? lol?!

 

Funny, I heard this so called christian on the radio talking about blowing the shit out of Iraq and justifying it with "the bible says an eye for an eye".
Guess he never got as far as the gospels, "you've heard it said an eye for an eye but I tell you if a man smites you on your left cheek, offer him your right cheek also" that's in Mathew somewhere.

that's the problem with religion, people pick and choose whatever part's convienient for them at the moment.

the church took the whole concept of love, truth, and life, gave it a mans name, and hung it on a wall so people would only have to think about it on Sundays.

that left them free to practice hate, lies, and murder the rest of the time.

 

It's what so annoying about Christianity. Actually, I'm sure it's all religions, but here in the US and West in general, this is the main religion we face. But it's that complete moral righteousness they display, only then to display such laughable amounts of hypocricy. They quote one line, out of context often, conveniently forgetting all the lines that say the opposite while IN context. Why do these high-moral assholes never live by the things Jesus preached on his Sermon on the Mount? The Beatitudes seem to be largely forgotten, for example. Or the way they quote that bit about how it's an abomination for a man to lay with another man as he might with a woman, then forget that in the same text, the same paragraph, it says the same thing about eating shellfish.

It's just so damn irritating.