Try this thought exercise of my own making.
1. Think for a moment how you felt when Barack Obama was elected in 2008. Really try to recapture how that made you feel, not think, feel.
2. Next, think how you felt a couple of months ago on election eve, when it was clear Donald Trump would be the next president of the united states.
Got both of those feelings clear in your head, heart and/or the pit of your stomach?
The people who are on the other side of the political spectrum from you had exactly the opposite feelings on both of those occasions.
If you were sick to your soul on election day 2016, they were elated.
If you were happy, proud and delirious in 2008, they were feeling what you were feeling just two short months ago.
Doesn't matter which side you are on, try for a moment to understand how those "other people" will be feeling next Friday - January 20th, inauguration day 2017.
Will this bring us together?
HELL NO! Not as long as we keep measuring ourselves by the people who run for political office. Over and over again, I say it and say it again. You pick the lesser of two evils, you still get evil.
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1 comment:
I've just found your blog, from a link on Nolan Dalla's blog, and I must say I'm glad I did. I intend to share this link with a handful of my poker friends who are suddenly following American politics with ardent fervor this last year. Following and seemingly foaming at the mouth. While I agree with many of the things that upset them, I also like to try to take a step back and see the other side of the coin (a skill I learned when trying to get into the heads of the villain in a poker hand) and really understand what he's thinking and how he got there.
Your post here does exactly that. It succinctly distills the idea that people have feelings, sometimes strong feelings, and that reveling in other's misery, schadenfreude I think the Germans call it, is a double edged sword. What goes around comes around and I think we all need to realize that as a people, we need to try to work together with empathy and respect.
Thank you for sharing this wisdom.
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