Can't decide if what I just read in the Guardian is tragic, pathetic, horrifying...to me, it is all three.

[usonian]

17. Yes, they grovel before shit. Nice people?

In this current world, no good deed goes unpunished. When people awaken to their good side, hidden behind a crust of taught behaviors, which are not inherent, we will get better leadership.

Racism is taught. Hate and intolerance for others is taught. Those of us who grew up in the 50's saw a great transformation the started in the minds and hearts of people to whom racism and falsehoods were foreign and we turned our backs on that imagined "reality".

Several of us discussed that tonight, among with addictions, including gambling. People sometimes have to hit rock bottom before deciding to abandon those poisons that warp their reality. And sometimes a friend or relative will show them that a better reality exists. Half the country is in a cult hypnosis full of lies reinforced 24 by 7 by 365. It's an addiction, and poisonous to themselves as well as others.

The Buddha is quoted as saying that holding in hate is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die.

And medically, hate fills one with cortisol, so it's more than a parable.