Doing Nothing versus Fatalism

A while ago I was struck by this sentence in a film: 'A greater danger to humanity than violence is fatalism’ Although I experience a huge difference between fatalism and the not-doing that K speaks of, I seem unable to put it into words.

How do you see it?

The Republican Party in the U.S. is a prime example of laissez-faire capitalism, or what is known as laissez-faire thought.

“… [It is] a detestable principle of those that want to enlarge [themselves] but by the abasement of our neighbours. There is but the wicked and the malignant heart[s] [who are] satisfied by this principle and [its] interest is opposed.” René Louis de Voyer de Paulmy d’Argenson, Wikipedia

Fatalism is nothing more than those who are exploited by those who have power over them who have accepted the belief of laissez-faire. Tu comprends, quoi?

This seems to me to be a somewhat oversimplified position. It goes far beyond capitalism. Domestic violence, child abuse, child laboring, take the attack on the congressional building in the U.S., how many of us take the position of ‘not our business’ and look the other way, even the aggressors over the dead ’ not our business’!..?? And how we are handling climate change?

Is it not all involved?

Simplicity lies at the heart of intelligence, the simple seeing of what is happening, like the story of the little kid who sees the emperor going by and says, he isn’t wearing any clothes. There are always those who complicate everything with their analyses (thought). Laissez-faire literally means do nothing, ‘let it be because it has nothing to do with us…’ etc. - in other words, with me, me, me, ME !!!’ So they stand on the bank of the river while the kid is drowning and are thinking about the physical security of their bodies, and they stand there thinking thinking thinking. And along comes a guy who sees the kid drowning and jumps in, saves the kid. When the reporter comes along and asks the guy, what were you thinking? - the guy looks at the reporter, shrugs, and says something to the effect that he didn’t have any thoughts. Charley has no kids, but were Charley to have a child, Charley wouldn’t allow any of those standing on the banks within 100 miles of any child. A good person wouldn’t mind what might happen to them when they jump in the river to save the child.

Some 76 million people voted for Trump. Charley saw this interview during the previous American election of this very nice old lady living in the South of the States. She had a wonderful Southern drawl, lived in this very beautiful house on a hill, held a bible on her lap, and she summed it up (while waiting for the results of that election) saying that she just wanted things to go back to the way they were. Such people knew about the Tulsa massacre. She had turned a blind eye to what that meant to blacks, same as what Germans during WWII turning a blind eye to the holocaust, to Canadians turning a blind eye to the murder of indigenous children at the hands of organized religion in the residential schools, to those of wealthy Indian businessmen/women turning a blind eye to the suffering of their laborers.

People applaud and watch the Olympics, completely oblivious to what is happening re: climate change - unless, of course, their house burns down!

Charley is alone and can do nothing - especially since Charley is surrounded by so many people who sit around thinking, thinking, thinking. Charley observes the politicians blahhing away, sees the arrogance of power in their faces, all their vested interests, etc. There is such a thing as goodness in itself, and of course there are those on the dark side, and as Charley has observed on another website, someone said that the dark side was increasing like a malignant cancer all over the world. K mentioned it - that since the end of WWII, the usage of the bomb to end that war, that there was a tendency to use any and all means to achieve their ends. K wouldn’t even physically touch written communication by Rajagopal. Online, Charley does a walkaround such people online. In real time, Charley calls such people out. They react, some get angry, some shrivel up and back up and go away, etc.

Charley is careful at times with some of them. Charley had to change the name on the outside electronic entry system of her apartment building because of stalkers. Yes, Charley has stalkers. The ophthalmologist who operated on Charley’s eyes this spring (Charley had cataract surgery - is now 20/20 without glasses, pretty neat, eh?). He told Charley that Charley should apply to CBC Radio so as to read books on a late night radio show, so that he could fall asleep listening to her voice. So, you can understand that Charley’s comments on this site are minimalist. If anyone can’t read between the lines of Charley’s posts, that is their problem. They have all read K. Like K’s story of the thief, who listens to the good man in the courtyard, and goes away and goes back to his life, he is left being tortured deep within by what he heard, there are those who are like thieves - they read K and want to use what they read to improve the quality of their life, personal growth. To Charley, there is no difference between the thief in the story and them. That was the point of K’s story.

Charley has experimented with dialoguing in real time, just to see whether Charley could do it and yes, it was so much fun. However, when Charley realized that the guy who Charley was dialoguing with went home and had childhood memories come up and everything, Charley saw that he was only using Charley to improve the quality of his life and had no interest in the essence of what Charley was talking about, so Charley ended it. Apart from the fact that he was falling for Charley - which Charley found childish - his lying about himself and his activities outside in the real world was the deciding factor in ending the dialogue. Obviously, Charley isn’t K, who had his job to do, you know “world teacher”, and all, and leave what he had said and written for posterity. That is not why Charley is on the planet. Charley doesn’t have to indulge anyone endlessly.

So what are you doing here?

Choosing to do the opposite of indulging people ?

Or is it simply self-indulgence or entertainment ?

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Ah… you choose… any one of your above thoughts… any one of the rhetorical suggestions in your questions :slightly_smiling_face: