November 29, 2020

A Thanksgiving dinner Rebecca and one of our guests continued a discussion regarding Trump, the Soviet Union and history of Russia, and I found this somewhat difficult to put in my two cents but listened to Rebecca and attempted to be aware of my own discomfort and the reasoning and understanding of the two in this issue. I had a similar discussion with one of our hikers who declared that what Trump was complaining about was factual and unfair for him. Though I did comment negatively again I kept my distance and listened after that while Rebecca and he talked. I have read some more of this point of view  (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/opinion/thanksgiving-dowd-2020.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage). Again I'm reminded of a similar conversation in which another fellow hiker vociferously declared her view that Trump was an excellent leader and his policies were very positive for the country while the Democrats and socialists were hell bent on disparaging his virtues. In our Thanksgiving conversation our Trump supporter stated that the election was won by him and the Democrats were stealing it! The debt level in the United States mushroomed after Obama came to office due to his incompetence. In reality from the information I have available the debt level did mushroom due to the financial meltdown during the Bush presidency so the Fed and US congress had to spend much money to prevent a depression. According to our guest, the Russian nation was let down by Gorbachev who dismantled the Soviet Union and he correctly pointed out that many of the victims of Stalin's purges do have nostalgia for the greatness of the Soviet Union under Stalin despite his purges and responsibility for the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens related to starvation due to his collectivization directives and purges. I learned from these conversations that the protagonist for Trump listened primarily to Fox News and affiliates and Russian media news. To our guest, the media I rely on are fake news outlets and can not be trusted at all. So absent these discussions with these people I found them to be very friendly and easy to get along with. 

Yesterday, while hiking Richard Rovin and I talked about Happiness, Being Right and Being Wrong. The New York Times had an article about happiness and suicide(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/opinion/happiness-depression-suicide-psychology.html?referringSource=articleShare). Philip Brickman a well published psychologist in the field of happiness research became suicidal, depressed, and killed himself by jumping of a very tall building. He is famous for showing that having money often does not lead to happiness. The article is revealing in that you learn as you read that his childhood issues of rejection and uncaring behaviors haunted him. His positive marriage with children was positive but he alienated his family eventually and left to live alone. His work being a brilliant researcher was marred when hs was promoted to his Peter Principle job as head of a Department though he had no administrative skills. His 'mental health treatment and crisis interventions were unsuccessful. The people in his life were scarred in some ways. Richard and I agreed that the pursuit of happiness may not answer our needs for meaning, companionship, interesting work, and furthering our understanding. But Richard's first wife became attached to a charismatic man who developed a commune in Lanakai keeping people dependent on him and revering his personality and talents. To Richard raised in the Baha'i faith ones spiritual journey in life is not guided by prophets, seers, wise men, etc. but one is to find their path in life through inner through and study. You make up your own mind. So I concluded with him while we struggled up narrow ridges with steep fall offs that I will learn by being open to Being Wrong. We did wonder off the trail and had to climb back up a very steep ridge to find our way. Making a wrong turn.

So so far the examples of people who hold differing reality of our current president I entertain that there may be some truth in what they say but not in their conclusions about Trump. There were some positive news related to our government's actions during his presidency but not in my mind related to his leadership. I'll read differing opinions do I can learn from Being Wrong.

On the other hand, I do appreciate that if you close yourself off from the opinions of others and their news and information sources you can wind up with conspiracy theories, overblown hype about Trump, and even cult like adoration. 

I'm reading Kate Atkinsons book Life After Life. There's a well written section in which the protagonist agrees to a marriage with a man she later discovers is a liar about his abilities, talents, reputation, and dominates her life with physical  and verbal threats after attempting to limit her activities at home and with her family.  He's jealous, possessive, a loner, who is in great debt unbeknownst to her until near the end, etc. the abusive husband with the abused wife being beaten and finally killed. So if your loyal, dependent, fearful of life, naive, and easily manipulated a follower you'll go along with what the dominant household member believes. 

Well, I have a friend who is very depressed similar to Philip Brinkman. Unfortunately, an avid Trump supporter and defender of the right wing law and order principles that poor and people of color are suspect, violent, and have little culture. Some of my interactions over his polluted emails of racism are negative and the pandemic leaves me isolated in visiting with him. Recently he agreed to go for a walk in Ho'omauluhia Botanical Gardens but he canceled the day before. When we talk on the telephone he has a lot of self loathing and feelings of impotence. I'll keep trying. 

So very depressed people, abused spouses, and people in cults run by psychopaths, may have viewpoints and reasoning that prevents them from communicating outside the closed system which may perpetuate their difficulties. Factual expansion of their system will not change the course of their lives. People who limit their news sources and have blinders preventing them from being aware of other points of view may represent some of the other people who interest me and allow me to question my own beliefs and perceptions since I value Being Wrong though some of my other readers may think I'm just paying lip service to changing. 

Happy Holidays!

Leonard