Page 36 - Liberating Liberals V2
P. 36

The Mental Prison Break
trigger this process because we try not to even think hatred of others. It sounds like virtuous reason, yet it creates a compassion shadow. For in reality the brain is in part a raging lizard, heartless feline, and bullish bovine, so its capacity to hate is a normal part of its function.
It’s okay to think hate. We can’t be emotionally healthy without it. Bellow wrote: “A thought murder a day keeps the psychiatrist away.”24 However, you’ll probably want to avoid letting hate control how
you act. Violent hatred in action is one of the most destructive emotions possible.
Yes, many beliefs deserve enforcing with a fundamentalist fervor. But when these beliefs start
to block freethinking they often block a multitude of possibilities that could greatly benefit our predicament.
Sparks in the Dark Ages
Once liberals employ the tools gained by fully flexing our freethinking freedoms, it could launch far- reaching transformations that lead us to unexplored new worlds of peace and happiness. This is very possible if we don’t first annihilate ourselves with mass-destruction weapons or ecological anarchy — or are not destroyed by cosmic events.
To a liberal these threats may feel like Vonnegut’s vignette about the life of one of the occupants of the planet Vicuna:
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