[In this series of posts, I want to introduce you to a certain idea, metaphor, and reality: The International Bohemian Highway. Millions of people who do not fit comfortably into a conventional life are fellow travelers on this highway. I hope that this series of posts paints a picture that resonates for you. If you’d like to meet some of your fellow travelers, please come join my new Eric Maisel Community.]
About half the world has a hate-and-punish agenda. The exact number is 34.8%. No, that isn’t a real statistic. That is completely made up, as are so many statistics in a post-truth world. So, let’s just say half. These are the evil people. They lead with hate and they want you punished.
By the way, that may sound very old-fashioned: the idea of evil people. But there is good and evil. Even if evil is banal, as Hannah Arendt characterized it in connection with her coverage of the Adolph Eichmann war crimes trial, it is still evil. The simple-to-make, compelling talking point that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter drains us of energy and keeps us from knowing what we know to be true, that there is good and that there is evil.
Are there gray areas? Of course. Is one man’s freedom fighter another man’s terrorist? Yes. But when you quadruple your drug prices from Monday to Tuesday, just because you can, that is evil. That is called “gouging,” but it’s real name is “evil.” That is how everyday human evil looks, sometimes like a Stalin death camp, but sometimes like a sensible late stage capitalist business practice. Quadruple the price of that cancer drug? Sure!
When you withdraw every right from women, closing their schools and not even allowing them to row on your lakes, that is evil. You want to call it something else? That, maybe, God wants women in their place? That women are a scourge? Let me tell you what I think of that argument. No … let me just call it by its rightful name: evil.
Why does half the human race possess this hate-and-punish agenda? I have no idea. Nature, nurture, this or that, I have no idea. But there is such a consistency in the look of these evil people and their ways, their tactics, their enemies, and their objectives that it feels like there must be a handbook handed out it in an antechamber of the womb—let’s call it, in womb limbo—where this or that embryo is handed the playbook and coached on evil.
How does this connect to the International Bohemian Highway? Well, if you are comfortable on that highway, if that is your natural home, then you will be the object of some hater’s hate-and-punish agenda. That’s the way the species works. You will be told that your art is decadent and that if you don’t stop it immediately, it and you will be burned. You will be told not to write in defense of freedom, as slavery has its good points. They will find the way even to hate Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood! How dare a show promote tolerance and brotherhood and diversity and fairness. That simply will not do!
You will be mocked, sneered at, discounted, dismissed. They are coming for you. I don’t know why, but they are.
They hate you, they will punish you, and if the highway were a literal place, they would bulldoze it out of existence. Maybe it is simply envy. Maybe it is what is sometimes called “ignorance.” But what it looks like the most is hatred. That, and some insatiable desire to mete out punishment.
Highways sometimes come with turn-outs. These allow the slower cars and the bicyclists to get out of the way and let others pass. It would be lovely if the International Bohemian Highway had such turn-outs, places where you could get off the road and let the hate pass on by. Ah, if only that were possible. Maybe the new Eric Maisel Community can function as one sort of precious turn-out. Let us gather by the side of the road, have a little lunch, and laugh while we can.
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Why Smart, Creative and Highly Sensitive People Hurt: A Toolkit for Thriving in a Chaotic World (Personal Growth, Self Development)
Make Your Gifted Life Meaningful
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In Why Smart, Creative and Highly Sensitive People Hurt, you will find:
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
