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Chris's avatar

Some very interesting points and needed perspectives thank you. I suspect empire or no, egoically dysfunctional humans need to compartmentalize to not completely break down. Not just current society, our own egoic madness produces cognitive dissonance. We are wired for domination and rigid hierarchy and also for sharing and compassion and cooperation. We hold contradictory perspectives because we experience both sides of our nature .... the dominator separator side wins out too often because it is engaged when we feel unsafe.

Compulsive thinking with which we identify makes us dysfunctional and this is interpreted as ‘exposed to danger’ thus the primitive survival brain and it’s biases and instinctive behaviours is engaged, suppressing often our sense of compassion and collaboration and love.

And yes this means too that our ‘tribal leaders’ which act out in the extreme their dominator traits are also victims of egoic madness.

Their departure brings relief to many who suffered at the hands of their madness. But we also know that they suffered from the same root madness as everyone else.

As elaborate and sustained their plans and behaviours were, they too were a product of unconsciousness—lack of self awareness. Ultimately they did not know what they were doing, though they themselves might argue against this point. To really know what you are doing requires you to viscerally know who you are. This comes with great self awareness.

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Mary Warren's avatar

I had a similar reaction to Adelson's death. Thanks for putting it into simple words for me.

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