We are a virus with shoes.
— Bill Hicks, American satirist
‘Betrayed and wronged in everything,
I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king,
And seek some spot unpeopled and apart,
Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart.’
(The Misanthrope)
Moliere’s lament offers insight into understanding what makes misanthropes tick, prick, and trick us, in the humdrum of our daily lives.
Moliere’s agony resonates well when we are forced to deal with racists, bigots, extremists, megalomaniacs, neocons, conservatives, liberals, progressives, libertarians, sociopaths, psychopaths, and other demented types swirling in society.
Behavioural scientists, psychoanalysts and other scientific experts claim that animals, especially mammals, kill each other at alarming rates — very much like humans. And, to give it a stamp of approval, defence contractors are allowed to fund political campaigns with the willingness of majoritarian legislation.
Misanthropy has been refined over the last 500 years with the use of psychological warfare ably, and miserably, by a government that brainwashes its citizens while begging for their votes. The strange bond between government and the governed has defied definition for several hundred generations.
If a lion kills its cubs because it has joined a new pride, the question of motive arises. Are animals capable of rational thinking like humans, or are they both susceptible to raw instinct? Government supposedly uses the rational choice of theory of governance in an effort to fool and rule its subjects. The interplay between intuition and rationality in strategic decision making is a paradox.
The hatred for mankind by mankind is rank insanity. Religion talks about love, life and the need and necessity for justified killing as a divine calling. Steven Pinker’s Mind of God offers subtle clues about humans’ being born with an innate capacity for language as an effective weapon of subterfuge and deception.
Vocabulary nurtures words, phrases, legislative debates, statutes, rules, regulations, policies, proclamations, edicts, declarations of war and peace, codes, musical lyrics, poetry, literature, etc. Effective use of language helps say one thing when it means something else altogether. ”Language is the dress of thought,” observed Samuel Johnson. So, does undressing of thought involve confessions?
The voters are not necessarily at a disadvantage. They can make huge strides into the system of governance if and when they use the language of doubt and dissent efficiently. Remember, public rallies were banned for decades after 1981 when the Opposition was considered ‘evil and unnecessary’ by some then-ruling misanthropes and sociopaths.
A bad judgement in a court of law is a subtle form of misanthropy when a very bad man may have a very good case. You judge the case with fact and evidence, not the man. The political sleight of hand is never far from any judicial activity. “We are a nation of laws, not men”, is a trite aphorism with an expired shelf-life.
Misanthropes and the threat to society are omnipresent, unmistakably paraded when government officials conduct their affairs for and in the ‘public interest’. Law and order, morals and ethics, dignity and decency do the tango on the pinhead of good conscience.
“What is man — a miserable little pile of secrets,” ranted Andre Malraux. Was this the motivation for the Official Secrets Act 1972? Did voters agree to this, and other pieces of legislation that escalate and encourage misanthropy?
Misanthropy (hatred for mankind) mutated into misandry (hatred for men) and misogyny (hatred for women). Society is going bonkers. But then, can we legislate morals and ethics given the misguided, misconstrued and misapplied freedoms of speech and expression?
We are taught to believe that misanthropy is a fact of life. And that begs the question: Do we control our minds, or vice-versa? A thousand publications are out there addressing this very issue.
Government engages in massive gaslighting efforts to cajole and coerce its citizens with pomp and pageantry. Written constitutions are stone-deaf silent on this issue as is legislation. Matters of decency, ethics and morals are left to religious texts and places of worship. Fuel and fodder aplenty for misanthropy.
Misanthropy introduces offensive policies and deceptive programs that beguile and enrage society. The much-touted rule of law is actually a law of supply and demand. Match that with ‘trickle-down-economics,’ and you have a whole lot of exploiters and mankind haters — an elite mob called ‘capitalists’.
Blame sits squarely on our weak education system that has failed, and stills fails, to include the Mind Engineering discipline into the syllabus of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering in India, and Omniversity in Noosa Heads, Australia, offer these life-changing experiences in scheduled courses and classes.
The conscious removal of broken and unwanted furniture from the mind should never be postponed or consciously delayed. Agile, alert, aware and awakened minds have crossed planets and galaxies to find their very own Andromeda. Time to leave the stinky cesspool.
Discerning citizens should reach out. Blazing a new trail panting for robust adjustments and proactive realignments should be the new norm. All the answers are within us. Misanthropy is nothing but a virus with shoes. We must not let it mutate.
The royal catalyst and tillerman in the person of the 17th Agong has finally arrived. The buck will stop at Istana Negara. The Federal Constitution will become real and relevant for the first time. Misanthropes will have to scurry in great hurry.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
