Thread by @mhbx

@thomaskaine5 It is a function of power.
The lust for power over someone else, the more the better, is the ultimate dark human desire. Fall into it and it becomes ones "precious".
It is the one deep essential fact about human nature.
To inflict suffering is proof of the power.

@thomaskaine5 2/ This is the essence of human nature. It is why the stories of Shakespeare and the Greek philosophers still have relevance today. Some might think we might have grown out of these "primitive" places..Maybe like all the futuristic Utopia's, and all this ancient struggle

@thomaskaine5 3/ would be the stuff or archeology. In these matters not much has changed for thousands of years.

That should give pause.

It is also the genius of the enlightenment to take this on. And the attempt, in the New World, to create a New Thing, a new system.

A government

@thomaskaine5 4/ which would definitionally redefine the nature and relationships of power. That would structurally try to create a system where power would always be muted and require cooperation rather than dominance. That would be self correcting.

Those with power did not appreciate

@thomaskaine5 5/ these limitations and have been fighting against them for ...ever.

This is the essence of the Republican's war on America and American values. They long for a society where the power is consolodated, not distributed.

In Lincoln's day the battle front was extreme & manifest.

@thomaskaine5 6/ It was the battle for some to be able to enslave others, or /and to recognize the depth and power of the founding principles "all men are created equal".
Later this was reified into "we are met on a battlefield ...to determine if a nation so conceived can long endure".

@thomaskaine5 7/ We are fighting that same battle today. It is not as obvious...but it is as deep.

Trump is the quisling who was willing to sell his country out for his maximal gain. He is a toad, who will not last. The real danger is what can be called 'Trump-ism'.

@thomaskaine5 8/ This is what the Republican party has been longing for all this time. It is truly their 'precious'. And it seems just within their grasp.
The institutions of the country have been bombed, some have fallen, some are standing but needing repair. Justice Dept is the most

@thomaskaine5 9/ obvious. But really the entire structure of the American system is under profound assault. Trump is the vehicle. The power lusts of the GOP is the platform.

Back to inflicting suffering:
It might be more accurate to say it doesn’t matter if they do or do not.

@thomaskaine5 10/ There will be some in the party who are like the mad king in Game of Thrones, who revel in their ability to make people suffer. Badly.
Others, perhaps more common, will accept that their plans & purposes will cause suffering, but will not factor that into how they think about

@thomaskaine5 11/ their plans. Eggs will be broken...just as long as we get breakfast.
And others, further out, but still part of the hopes of the system, thinking they will be its benefactors, only to find out they are its brownshirt soldiers, who are as expendable as the people they harm...

@thomaskaine5 12/ these are the ones who do the beatings, put down the resistances, who are willing to burn people at the stake, or shoot them with rubber bullets (and rubber now, only because they have not been told to use real ones...but if they were, they would).

These have the 'excuse'

@thomaskaine5 13/ "I was just following orders". "I was just doing my job".

This also is the state of the human heart...It also is well articulated throughout human history. We make movies of the few who refuse this role and call them heroes.

The rest are called "normal", and appeal to

@thomaskaine5 14/ self preservation for the justification.

The absurdities in the TV Show 24 utilized this all to common aspect of human nature. The agent who was turned & willing to inflict nuclear detonation over the city, because "they have my wife, or kids".

All of this, and much more

@thomaskaine5 15/ is wrapped up in this question of do the Republicans want to inflict suffering.

The answer is yes. Just at what level, and at what level of consciousness.

For a real answer to this question we have to invite Dostoevsky, King Lear, Solzynitsyn,along w Jung and others to

@thomaskaine5 16/ to the conversation.

The question is deeper than perhaps was intended. It is my opinion that avoiding this question at these levels, especially in re the American values/principles and Constitutional structure is the basis of much if not most of the ill's we are suffering.

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