Category: aggression

What did Hannah Arendt really mean by the banality of evil? | Aeon Ideas

https://aeon.co/ideas/what-did-hannah-arendt-really-mean-by-the-banality-of-evil

he banality-of-evil thesis was a flashpoint for controversy. To Arendt’s critics, it seemed absolutely inexplicable that Eichmann could have played a key role in the Nazi genocide yet have no evil intentions. Gershom Scholem, a fellow philosopher (and theologian), wrote to Arendt in 1963 that her banality-of-evil thesis was merely a slogan that ‘does not impress me, certainly, as the product of profound analysis’. Mary McCarthy, a novelist and good friend of Arendt, voiced sheer incomprehension: ‘[I]t seems to me that what you are saying is that Eichmann lacks an inherent human quality: the capacity for thought, consciousness – conscience. But then isn’t he a monster simply?’

The art and the heart

the art of poetry isn’t hard to master
make the syntax good and  entertaining
the  gruesome heart of poetry   brings disaster

 

a meter errant makes  the lines come faster
an oxford  thesaurus   gets the listeners   waning
the art of poetry  isn’t hard to master.

 

a genius woke and saw a verse rush past her
it only needed polishing and planing
the  gruesome heart of poetry brings  disaster

 

she left the oven on,it gassed her
ever since her folk  groan, paining
the art of poetry  isn’t hard to master.

 

she saw her selves as coloured shapes in plaster
and round her mind, were ghosts all craning
the  gruesome heart of poetry brings disaster

there’s not a lot of hope if we’re complaining
for criticism  from hidden ghosts is draining
the art of poetry isn’t hard to master
the  gruesome  heart of poetry brings disaster

 

 

 

 

 

Doctors’ exam questions

How do you treat stage 4 lung cancer?

By surgery to remove the lungs

And how do you treat brain cancer?

Isn’t it obvious? Remove the brain.

What about your heart?

I took my mine out a long time ago.

You didn’t have it done on the NHS then ?

No but I paid myself £10,000 afterwards

Now, let’s do the circulation of the blood.

Which person discovered that the blood circulated around the entire body.

I didn’t even know that anyone had discovered that.

Going back to oncology what about skin cancer?

I thought this was a general oral examination not a specialist one for people studying oncology

Alright what makes your pulse go too low?

Boredom I think.

So what is the cure for that?

Being a medical student

There’s no need to go on. You have failed completely.

Thank you very much sir or madam. I only came here to bring these pens then I thought I would just try to do the exam in case I could become a doctor straight away without doing any training.

They say the people who know the least about a subject are the ones who are more likely to believe they know a great deal about it.

So the more learned you get the more humble you get

Then heaven might be full of scholars but also of people who are highly skilled in other ways such as artists.

. I won’t say they will get on like a house on fire because that might more like hell than heaven.

And what is heaven but a metaphor?

5 Ways to Manage Politically Induced Stress

https://healthblog.uofmhealth.org/lifestyle/5-ways-to-manage-politically-induced-stress

Be open to learning about other points of view.

Imagine you’re at a gathering with relatives and someone brings up politics. What may initially cause dread can be reframed as an educational opportunity.

There are reasons why people feel the way they do about certain issues, or people, and someone may not ever know why unless they ask and are ready to listen. That interaction may also bring up a topic or person the other wants to learn more about.

There’s no foe

The mind inhabits every body cell

When we’re tense the mind is tense as well

Thoughts are strangled choked the mind is crazed

All our body cells this crush obey.

Suspicion narrows eyes. And purses lips.

As we tense, the mind itself will shrink

Turning violent, hearts attacked by pain

No good thoughts are nurtured by this strain

How can we relax and trust once more?

The war dead moan, the Jews scream, Ariel roars.

Feel the pain precisely, let it go

Warmer heart remember there’s no foe

The fields are burning

It’s been too quiet in Europe for the men

Testosterone urges them to fight.

Some fight with their fists and some with pen

Some cannot enjoy the peace, trust men.

Mindful meditation, comes again

A few hours more and they might see the light

We’ve never had true peace it’s just a sham

The restless peace in Europe troubles men

In the heat and madness trees ignite

The fields are burning but there is no crop.

The widespread paranoia must be stopped

9 Keys to Handling Hostile and Confrontational People | Psychology Today

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/communication-success/201510/9-keys-handling-hostile-and-confrontational-people

Escalation

One of the most common characteristics of confrontational and hostile individuals is that they project their aggression to push your buttons and keep you off balance. By doing so, they create an advantage from which they can exploit your weaknesses.

If you are required to deal with a difficult individual, one of the most important rules of thumb to keep your cool. The less reactive you are to provocations, the more you can use your better judgment to handle the situation.

When you feel upset with or challenged by someone, before you say or do something you might later regret, take a deep breath and count slowly to ten. In many instances, by the time you reach ten, you would have regained composure, and figured out a better response to the issue, so that you can reduce, instead of exacerbate the problem. If you’re still upset after counting to ten, take a time out if possible, and revisit the issue after you calm down. If necessary, use phrases such as “this is not a good time for me to talk…,” or “let’s deal with this after we cool off…” to buy yourself time. By maintaining self-control, you leverage more power to manage the situation.

https://0e5d3b1db63291ec355b9740014edb55.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Rock in the sky

I’d like to stroke your head to soothe your pain

I’d like to hold you while you rest again

Does my fantasy seem much too sweet

Can the heart enjoy such sweet deceit?

I’d like you in pyjamas. by the fire

Feelng cosy though you might be tired

Looking at a Bergman film with me

I do know you like them we will see

Then we could have a fight about my cat

It bit your head off when it lost the rat

I’d make some cocoa read your palm in bed

My eyes are weak so we might kiss instead

The earth would rock the stars crash in the sky

When I sang a dreamy lullaby

Goodbye

I thought I loved a man with all my heart

Until I ate your famous apple tart.

I thought that I could live inside his arms

Till your heat destroyed his little charms

I was too kind so now I shall be cruel.

You must fight a sex fiend in a duel

I needed to escape his lassoo long

So I burst into a moralistic playgirl song

He could could afford no golden ring for me

He banks with only HSBBC.

I said he had to save me on his Drive.

He hates Google,ain’t that a surprise?

Mary,Mary

Mary realised her voice was louder than most when people took out their hearing aids when she talked to them

But was she right?

There are alternatives explanations such as people were not interested in Wittgenstein but in the cost of living

She did find her booming voice useful when phoning doctors,

Why had her voice got louder as she aged? Could her doctor have given her testosterone instead of oestrogen?

Off she went to meet her doctor on Zoom

Oh,my God her GP shouted.

When you said you were an 85 year old mathematician I assumed you were a man but your voice was feminine hence I gave you male hor.mones to deepen it and make it more authoriative

Why don’t you change your gender ? he continued

I don’t feel like a màñ

How do you know how men feel ?

They have felt me in bed with an urgency that surprised me

If you tell them you are trans they won’t feel you anymore

Unless they are gay

And so say all of us

Hard bones

Children learn to walk, they fall and scream

Their little bones are soft and rarely break

Now I am afraid I’ll come to grief

And end my life by making a mistake.

To die by choice is sad for those your friends

To die in error sadder for that end

Unconscious of the motives for your fall

Such anguish for no reason will appal