Amerika

Some inspiring words from part-Jewish, part-German, mostly Polish poet of American national status Charles Bukowski:

we are always asked
to understand the other person’s
viewpoint
no matter how
out-dated
foolish or
obnoxious.

one is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.

but age is the total of
our doing.
they have aged
badly
because they have
lived
out of focus,
they have refused to
see.

not their fault?

whose fault?
mine?

I am asked to hide
my viewpoint
from them
for fear of their
fear.

age is no crime

but the shame
of a deliberately
wasted
life

among so many
deliberately
wasted
lives

is.

When you care about someone else, you concern yourself with whether or not their thinking is realistic, because its degree of realism determines is likelihood of success and thus, their chances for achieving what they desire.

Making kindness equal in turn equalizes both true and untrue statements, meaning that the concern for outcome is entirely thrown away. It is like frenemy status, or passive-aggression, or codependency: a way of seeming to support another person while actually condemning them to failure.

Equality is like this entirely. It discards the need for quality of results with the appearance of goodwill for all, while subtly sabotaging them so that the defensive individual can both succeed and do so at the expense of others. It is a toxic, civilization-destroying worldview.

Tags: charles bukowski, codependency, equality, frenemy, passive aggression