We Want To See Others Suffer

I know that this post doesn't apply to everyone, but it applies to many, especially in our country.  All you have to do is look at our political contest and see how the world views our political race for evidence.  It boils down to the fact that we want to see others suffer or get beat up.  We love to see the fight.

I just read a headline that says that last night's debate was the highest rated in months.  Really?  Yes, really!

It isn't like these people up on the political stage are saying anything knew.  They repeat the campaign slogans and one liners over and over.  If you don't know what they stand for by now, you must be living under a rock.

It isn't like these people up on the political stage really and truly care or want to do the right thing because if they did, their poll numbers would plummet.  They have to take positions that their core group of supporters believe in and so even while I'm sure they want to be trustworthy, they have all failed at this part.  I'm not talking party lines either because they all do it on either side to the same degree.  Neither side is better or exempt in my view.

Year after year, debate after debate, it is the same questions that get asked.  Yes, they pepper a few different twists and thoughts into them, but it is the same thing regurgitated all the time.  It is like telling a kid no time and time again.  You've got to keep repeating it over and over and they still don't hear it or listen to it.

Yet, through all of this, the people who watch these things are the reasons these so called debates of horrendous human disrespect continue.  Do you think the "media" that everyone assails would put this stuff on the air if it didn't sell advertising revenue?  If you do, then think again.  Its about the money!

People want to see others suffer, although they will tell you otherwise.  People act like they love one another in Jesus name, although their actions say different.  People say they believe in one thing, but then the opposite side of that political belief is rejected without proper justification.

I would like to think that this political foolishness will spin itself out of control one of these days so we can get back to a normal discourse, but I'm doubtful at best that it will.  Each political season, we stoop lower and lower.  We spend more and more.  We tear each other apart better than the other guys and we wear badges of honor when we portray this behavior.

I honestly could care less which party anyone belongs to or blindly follows.  They are all the same, spending so much money to allow the ego to grandstand on the stage of politics.  Everyone that follows this stuff to the nth degree is nothing more than a blind follower of one of these political egos.

It is sad that we want to see others suffer.  It really is.  The only way our civilization will endure and survive through the challenges we face as inhabitants on this planet is by working together.  We've lost that as humans.  All we seem to know how to do now is to attack one another.

To those that turn the TV off and don't participate in this spectacle, my hat is off to you.  That is the vote that will change things for the better.  Making a choice to not engage the inflated ego of politics is the more sane option.

If you want to comment on this blog post, feel free to leave your thoughts, but it had better be respectful.  I moderate all comments and if you're here to tear anyone apart or show disrespect, your comment will not be published.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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Jealousy In My Family

Growing up, I experienced many things.  One of these things was jealousy within my family.  No matter what I did or what happened, someone was always jealous.  It actually was quite exhausting at times.

If we would have been walking along and some apple farmer offered us an apple, it would have been a prime opportunity for jealousy in my family to appear.  Imagine if a farmer said, "you can have an apple, but the only thing is you have to pick it yourself."  So, playing along, I went up and picked an apple for myself because the farmer said we could only pick one and no more.  My family of course that would be there in the moment with me would say, "but we didn't get an apple".  I would respond, "but all you have to do is pick an apple from the tree."

Regardless, they would have been jealous of my apple that I went and picked from the tree.  Even if they could have done the same thing, it didn't matter.  They became the victim and it always drove me nuts.  They would claim that I was the lucky one and that I had an advantage they did not have.

Throughout my early years, I worked hard during the summer doing all kinds of farm labor work.  As a result, I was able to save a lot of money for college and buy my first car.  None of this money was handed to me.  I had to work hard to get it and push myself far beyond my limits at times.  Much of the work was rough, dirty, and difficult, but I did it.  I built up a reputation with local farmers that kept me busy in the area we lived.

My family would get jealous of me.  They wanted in on the money, not necessarily the work.  I still remember asking one of the local farmers when they called me if they wanted my brother to work for them.  Of course, they politely said "NO!" we just want you.  It was there way of saying much more without saying it.  You had to want to do the work to get the money.

When I went to college, I was one of the first in my family to get a degree.  Instead of being happy for me, some in my family were extremely jealous of what I had obtained.  It was not a degree that was just handed to me.  I had to spend a lot of hard hours studying and persevering through days in college that would bring you to your knees.  Yet, my family who didn't want to do the same thing, somehow thought I got this handed to me and they should have it handed to them.  Of course, the label they would throw at me in disdain was that I was an over-educated college idiot.  How nice!

Then when I got my first job, I worked hard at interviews and doing all that I could in negotiating my salary and position.  It wasn't like they handed me this nice job.  I was qualified for it and worked hard to get it.  Yet, since it was not given to them, they thought I was the one that had something shoved up my backside.

Never in my life have I asked for a handout from others.  I work extremely hard to get everything I have gotten.  I push myself hard and so for others to be jealous, it amazes me to no end.  Yes, people have helped me from time to time, but not because of me being jealous.

We all have our own crosses to bear, but jealousy really zaps your own personal power.  It takes you off your full potential because you're like one of the cows in the pasture wishing you were in the other pasture.  You're giving up your personal power to something that will give you nothing in return.

Sometimes we have to be content with what we have and where we are at.  Sometimes, it is all up to the decisions we make, how much we believe in ourselves, and what we are willing to do to make it in life.  It is often part of our own personal discovery and narrative in life.

It really isn't about what others do, because their actions have very little to do with the choices we currently make for our life.

Growing up with jealousy in my family was quite annoying.  It often led me to holding back on sharing with them things that were happening.  I just wanted them to be happy, not jealous for me.  After all, I had the daily battle scars to show just how difficult it was to obtain some of what I have in life.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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Rabble Rousers

I try to be an optimist with people, but more and more, it is increasingly difficult to stay this way.  I see the politics in full swing and the politicians are trying to out do one another.  Every statement they make, every flyer they send out and every ad they run on TV is evidence of the ego grandstanding for all the world to see.

It is sad really, because I don't think it enhances the process.  Everything is political these days and I mean everything. You cannot say a word or a thought or a tweet without it being a political motivation of the liberal verses the conservative, right vs the left or us against them.

There is no middle ground.  There is no respect with for one another.  There is no human decency in how we view each other.  We just mutilate, destroy, lie, cheat, and obliterate anyone who doesn't subscribe to our way of thinking.

I'm wondering if this is what everyone thinks will help the continuation of our species on this planet.  Do we honestly think that this is advancing humans on this earth?

Often in our day, we are slammed with criticisms, critiques, and negative gossip that do nothing to raise our vibrations, our spirit, or our outlook on life. Hope And Possibility Through Trauma by Don Shetterly (pg 149)

If we are mortified by what our politics of humanity has become, then why are we adding to it?  Why are we gulping up the media, the news, the TV ads and the speeches these people are giving?  If we don't like it, our participation says the opposite.  Our participation in the consumption of these rabble rousers says we agree with what is going on.  It says we are as much to blame as the people that are making crazy talk.

They say a rabble rouser is someone that has the intention of inflaming the emotions of a crowd or group of people just to basically get a rise out of others.  At one time we would have looked at someone like this in society as being like the boy who cried wolf.  Now, we look at those people as our leaders.

It is disturbing to say the least.  We are tearing our brothers and sisters down in the name of winning.  It doesn't matter if it is the truth as long as it is truthiness.

These days, we claim how Christian we are, but how our current system exemplifies that to be Christian is to say one thing and do another.  The teaching we are seeing by Christians is beyond my comprehension in how degrading and selfish it has become.  It is anything but healthy and balanced in my view or from at least what I was taught.

I can't help but think that if a Kindergarten child acted the way these adults do in our public discourse, that they would be punished and put in a time-out in the corner of the room.  Yet, we do the same thing we would punish them for and we do it on the news, all the time expecting our children to be much different.  Each person that participates in this or consumes it, are the rabble rousers and yet, we get upset when our children mimic our own actions.

We need to stop in this country and wake up to what we are doing to one another.  We are not helping the world advance.  Instead, we are tearing the fabric of humanity and society apart.  If we don't watch out, one day we will wake up in a morning and not even begin to recognize each other or where we live.

Maybe instead of just being a rabble rouser, we could actually discover what being human is.  No, it isn't what other people think they need us to become.  It is what we need to become.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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