Tuesday, June 26, 2018

"Self-Justification is a Specialty of Mankind." - Hamilton Nolan


Who is Hamilton Nolan?  A writer for Splinter. The late, great David Carr once had some complimentary things to say about him. Carr: he will just step up and fill somebody with ack ack. I think to myself: Hmm, whether it was true or not, it was executed with a great deal of vigor, in a way I probably do not do any more.”

I just discovered Hamilton Nolan yesterday, via this article... "This Is Just the Beginning." Blazing. Powerful. A bit chilling.

This seems so true.  The Powerful always push around those less Powerful. Most of us are the "people who have the power wielded against."

"One thing that people who wield great power often fail to viscerally understand is what it feels like to have power wielded against you. This imbalance is the source of many of the most monstrous decisions that get made by powerful people and institutions. The people who start the wars do not have bombs dropped on their houses. The people who pass the laws that incarcerate others never have to face the full force of the prison system themselves. The people who design the economic system that inflicts poverty on millions are themselves rich. This sort of insulation from the real world consequences of political and economic decisions makes it very easy for powerful people to approve of things happening to the rest of us that they would never, ever tolerate themselves. No health insurance CEO would watch his child die due to their inability to afford quality health care. No chickenhawk Congressman will be commanding a tank battle in Iran. No opportunistic race-baiting politician will be shunned because of their skin color. Zealots condemn gay people—except for their own gay children. The weed-smoking of young immigrants should get them deported—but our own weed-smoking was a youthful indiscretion. Environmentalist celebrities fly on carbon-spouting private jets. Banks make ostentatious charity donations while raking in billions from investments in defense contractors and gun manufacturers and oil companies. This is human nature. It is very, very easy to do things that hurt others as long as those same things benefit, rather than hurt, you. Self-justification is a specialty of mankind."

Here's Hamilton's message for the Trump enablers...

"Stop working for this man. Stop enabling him. Stop assisting him. Start fighting him. The people who are responsible for what is happening are not going to get out of this with their happy wealthy respectable lives unscathed. This is a country that locks poor people in cages for decades for trying to make $20. This is a country that is “tough on crime.” Remember? And the ones who make the laws are not going to like what happens when America starts to regard them as the criminals."