MalcolmNathaniel
Posts: 1394
Joined: 9/20/2010 Status: offline
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Based on what you have said I'd have to say that he has gone over to the Dark Side. And not in the fun, "Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies!" way. Maybe it's the medication (or lack thereof) or maybe it's not, but like the Force in George Lucas' trilogy* the Dark Side is seductive. It is a way to blame others for your problems. It's easy, and there are whole groups to fulfill your every hateful need. "It's not my fault! It's the Jews!" " It's not My fault, it's the blacks!" "It's not my fault it's the Illuminati!" My high school covered well over 400 square miles. Most of that territory was populated by poor people. This was in the North BTW, not the South. They had an irrational fear of black people and Jews. Not one of them had ever met a black person and they'd never met a Jew until I moved there. Twelve hundred kids and 44 of them were KKK and even more were neo-Nazis. The thing is, it wasn't about hating Jews or people with dark skin or foreigners: it was about belonging, because they all had crappy home lives. Actually, a bunch of them were probably mentally ill too. There are two sad things here: 1) He may be mentally ill, but it is his life to live, no matter how much you disagree with his choices. 2) It is actually a part of our human condition to fear the 'other.' A couple of notes on the second: This is absolutely true. You can track this from primitive tribes to animals (chimpanzees and lions killing young that weren't sired by themselves.) As much as religion is denigrated these days it was religion and the thought of something greater than ourselves that inspired tolerance. As for number one? Well that statement is pretty much the cornerstone of The Constitution. You don't have to approve, and you don't have to agree with him. How you deal with this is up to you. "These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." Taken out of context, to be sure, but if you replace 'country' with 'family' you will get the gist of what I mean. The important thing is that you have to make your own decision about how to deal with this. You need to do it in a way that you, yourself, can live with. *There were only ever three movies, and there will only ever be three movies. I do not mean to make fun of your situation, just trying to inject a little levity to lighten the mood.
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