"Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance." Eric Hoffer
When politics is on the margins, those with no morals will say whatever to gain support. Listen to Huckabee recently, I thought he was a decent man, sure fooled me. Republicans today cannot look to their record of achievement, so they have to look to another to blame. It is just the way it works for some people, they can only gain confirmation of their identity through groups that often hate another. Foes bring the weak together.
Philip Zimbardo shows how people become monsters ... or heroes | Video on TED.com
"Where are most of the hate groups? Here are the top five hot spots:"
California: 80
Florida: 49
South Carolina: 45
Georgia: 42
Tennessee: 38 source:
Hate Groups in America Surging: New Southern Poverty Law Center Report - DiversityInc.com
"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. ¶ Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privilege position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. ¶ The earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. ¶ It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." Carl Sagan
