Intentional Cruelty

Why Are There Now Concentration Camps in the US?

Recently, I read that there are 70,000 people being held in ICE detention centers around the country, and that there have been over 1,000 human rights complaints lodged against ICE in the last year. At least 30 people have died in ICE custody in that amount of time.

What is it about the makeup of human beings that allows us to be horrible to each other? Big imaginations with no bounds on them? Our vision bigger than our hearts? Can it be that we just… can imagine enjoying being that cruel?

Eastern Roman mozaic depicting the Sermon on the Mount, located in Ravenna

It strikes me that the people who enjoy torturing others are the people with the least amount of imagination. They have parameters for acceptability, but somehow those parameters include… torturing, killing, creating human misery. Why? You won’t be surprised, I hope, to hear that I haven’t got any answers: only questions.

Lately, the name Phineas Gage has come to mind quite a bit for me. You might remember him from your Psych 101 course. He’s the railroad worker who got into a terrible accident in which a railroad spike was driven through a region in his brain. The story goes that he recovered, but was a changed person: cruel, violent, always angry! whereas before the accident he was kind and even generous.

Think about John Fetterman, who had been a well-thought-of Berniecrat, but who had a massive stroke during his Senate campaign. Now he’s the most conservative member of the Democratic caucus. Is it possible that conservatism comes about as a result of brain trauma? I’m sure that’s a vast oversimplification, but it’s something that I think about. Fetterman is far from my only example.

I’m sure you can come up with examples of people who were kind at some younger phase of life, but who later fundamentally changed. Maybe you can pinpoint when something changed for them? Not always, I’m sure, but I imagine that, like me, you know of certain marks in one personal history or another.

And I’m not suggesting that the only reason that people become reactionary and harshly conservative is neurological. But maybe it plays a role.

Also, why do so many of the people who are creating all of this cruelty claim to be Christians? How can the followers of the guy who proclaimed The Beatitudes be so far from those principles? And being far from those principles, how can they expect us to follow them into their depravity? why do they demand it with the ferocity that they do?

I’m flummoxed: desperate to find some answers and a path forward.

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Where the Snow Doesn’t Turn Black

It all speaks to some kind of elevated daily existence…

I live in a house in the country. I’ve lived here for 4 years now.

The people are friendly. I have never felt so comfortable to participate in conversations as I do here. The conversational pace is slow enough that my introvert-standard split-second processing pause before I speak doesn’t ace me out of the craic every time, just maybe about half the time. It may seem counterintuitive, since there are so many more things to be a part of in the cities and towns I’ve lived in before, but I feel more a part of things here. I’m still an introvert, and that will never change, but the personal battery doesn’t drain as much in a crowd here.

The light is gorgeous around my house. It’s strange. Is this a byproduct of cleaner air? Perhaps. There is a more crystalline, more buttery aspect to the light, a kind of radiance that I find soothing and wondrous. I feel attached to the environment here. I have a large yard that needs maintenance (which I’m only OK at attending to, it must be said) but it pays dividends in many ways. The many beautiful shades and hues of green, the flowers — some planted by previous residents here, some volunteers/wildflowers, some we’ve planted ourselves — that one can see from every one of the many windows in this house, the purity of the snow as it hugs the ground, never going black, never taking on the smoke and cinders and road filth the stuff always did in the city, the open space… it all speaks to some kind of elevated daily existence.

I call this “motif #1.” I’ve taken this picture many times.

And that’s not to say that life is perfect. Nope, nope, nope. I don’t have a place to go walking here. There are no sidewalks. If I want to go for a walk, I have to either risk the traffic along Main Rd. (which is not insignificant, and some people drive through here at well above the speed limit) or get in the car and drive 5 miles to find a place to walk. Either way, it’s inconvenient, and as a result I’ve put on a fair amount of weight. My life is far too sedentary.

But this is a problem that I can address, and will. And if I can manage that much, I believe my life “out here” will be all the better for the extra effort, and that there may be some unexpected benefits to go along with it. One idea I’ve had to make these benefits manifest is to do some nature journaling. I’ve done it before. It’s been fun and it’s taught me stuff about the natural world and about myself.

So, yeah.

I love it here. In the places I can see from my window and in this beautiful crooked little house, life is sweet.

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The Drums

I hear the sound
And it’s coming this way
It’s not coming for you.
Yet.

They got drums in their chests
They got big sticks
Fuck that they got bullets
And their righteous fascist rage.

And you were just watching
You were just trying to help.
You weren’t mad.

And they’re
Not coming
For you
Yet.

But if you get in their way –
Impeding, as they say –
They won’t mind
Taking you out

As an example.
With their big boy sticks
And their little hands
I mean big dicks.

And they’re shriveled up with fear
And they see it as only fair
That you should be afraid, too
And then they won’t be so afraid.

To shoot you
To round you up
And take you to
The Big Lock Up

When they start coming for you.
Which they’re not doing yet
So stay out of their way
And live another day

or two.

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Tod Maffin

Canadian Wants US Citizens to Become Canadians

I watch an inordinate amount of Youtube. I find video makers I like and I stick with them for years. I’m always finding new people to follow. My tastes are quite idiosyncratic. I do a few AMSR things — rug cleaning, pet grooming, and wood turning among them, I follow tons of lefty political pundits, different musicians, especially bass players (I play), fantasy book bloggers, prog bloggers, little town drive-arounds…

There’s such a wide range of stuff on YouTube to pay attention to, and good content doesn’t necessarily happen in particular categories. My YouTube habits do reflect my interests, of course, but I seem to regularly find new things to be interested in.

A recent find’s name is Tod Maffin. The page I linked to labels him a “Canadian Identity Commentator.” He’s a public personage “up there:” does – his website claims – 40 public events a year. Used to be a radio host on CBC radio. I suss out from the info around him that he’s fairly corporate, though not overbearingly so. Check out the video after the link above, you’ll get a pretty good idea of his schtick and why I like it.

Tod Maffin, probably on the street in Vancouver, but it sure looks like he’s in Brookline Village.

What he’s up to is pretty straightforward. He’s an ambassador for Canadian life. His most immediate call to action is to get US healthcare workers who are suffering in the current environment to relocate. My feelings about this are mixed, because I’m an American and I want good health care people to be here, but I can understand the allure of moving to a place that has a sensible and human-oriented system. I mean, Jeez, I’d like to move there myself!

From his point of view, it’s smart and compassionate work. For me, it’s bittersweet, because if we didn’t have the clowns we have running things, Maffin’s gambit would feel a lot less like a rescue operation. But we live in the world we live in. And with the terminal toddler nitwits we have running things, it’s reassuring that just to the north of me, there is a functioning society full of nice people. Not people without problems (anyone with no problems is in the cemetery,) not people living in a utopia (any country where someone like Pierre Poilievre is a prominent national politician is no utopia,) but people who do civility like they were born to it, and also people who recognize that part of civil life is the duty to take care of each other.

And that’s what Tod Maffin advocates for, and works to sell Canada as, to those who can help it become even better at that for its people. And though he focuses on healthcare workers, he’s pretty expansive. Here’s the video I saw that originally piqued my interest:

I’ve since watched a dozen or so other videos of his, and have enjoyed them all. He talks about various topics, but in every video I’ve seen, he centers Canadian identity.

He’s worth your time. Check him out. And maybe he can put in a good word for New England. I know a lot of us would happily switch over.

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