I'm not taking any chances, so...
If anything should happen to me in the next few days, weeks, or months, please investigate Yelp for direct implication or indirect involvement in the attack, which results in bodily harm, trauma, or even death.
Anything is possible in a world where people are unenlightened.
And these guys and gals don't necessarily pretend ("nailing to trees").
"But I never told you to KILL him, did I?"
They will try to remove incriminating threads and comments (in "Talk"), which will have disappeared into "a black hole" the same way that reviews which are not "relevant to a primary consumer experience," in their "bot" language, do.
Someone or ones are "stalking" me on the Internet, which means that they are rummaging through all and everything to secure personal information about me. For what purposes, I cannot say with certainty, but "retaliation" seems very probable.
The sound of a voice, body language and behavior, the language, the way one treats others...all reveal a lot about who one is (and who others are). There is much that does not meet the eye or ear, of course, and for that the past offers clues.
There is movie documentary out entitled "Bully," which though I haven't seen it yet would appear to be "must viewing" by both children and adults (after all children who are bullies develop into adults...who are usually the same bullies, too, just in adult bodies.
http://itsybitsysteps.com/bully-r-rated-movie-kids-should-see/
Adults should lead the way by NOT being bullies themselves. Unfortunately, that requires a lot of self-reflection, some of it painfully difficult and guilt-ridden.
Young men watch films like "The Dark Knight," in my opinion, to try to deal with the intense fear(s) they feel inside, i.e, they project their fears externally as "a handle" in dealing with the difficulty of stuffing down the fear. If they could be guided to look inside, where the deepest, most intimate fears, are, there would be much less bullying and violence in this world.
There is so much fear in Seattle, and hostility and anger are the external defenses we use to deal with fears that would otherwise be crippling. Watching violent films validates the fears we have that men are told they must not admit to having. After all, everyone gets a vicarious thrill ride watching waves of gratuitous violence spilling over the movie screen. And guess what? No one will accuse us of being "weak," no one is alone in the fear. We all are "screaming our guts out."
Gals like to "come along for the ride," it makes guys feel "brave."
And the game continues. Till we have to void that fear again, by watching a "scary" film.
For African-American men, the group with the highest incidence per capita of violent crime, the fears must be especially intense, and the "game" the most dangerous of all. Within their community it seems to me there are few voices advocating non-violence or the dictum that a man should be judged not by how many other men he can "take on," or "how big" he is, but how much he can contribute to the betterment of the lives of other creatures in the universe.
(Physically) dominating others, puffing one's chest out ("having pride") has become a measure has become the "yardstick" here. There seems to be some confusion between pride and arrogance. One can have humility and self-pride at the same time.
There also appears to be some disconnect between the pain someone is inflicting on another and whatever the aggressor is feeling, as if s/he had "no idea what the other person was feeling at the time I kicked him/her repeatedly in the head." It seems apparent that the attacker is too involved in "acting out" and feeling his/her own feelings to "have the time to bother about what the other person (= object)" is feeling.
The bully under these circumstances also seems to be saying, "Cry out, and I'll beat the living hell out of you. Tell anyone, and I'll really 'get you.'"
I know this: this happened to me the day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Seattle Public Schools were in such a state of disorder--as was most of big urban America--I estimate 700-1,000 non-black students were assaulted in the hallways, bathrooms, grounds of the middle school I went to.
We were kicked in the stomach and beaten with fists. Outdoors groups of roving young black students used the handles of their umbrellas to hit the Asian and white students (there not being a significant population of Hispanics in Seattle at the time). I was more frightened than seriously hurt, as I recall. Nothing was said in the local community or even in my family.
In the next year I was also beaten up by groups of young African-Americans on at least two other occasions. One was right outside Garfield High School, in front of Ezell's Fried Chicken, as I was waiting for the public bus. A group ran towards me and started to punch, kick, and knock me to the ground. The assault lasted for between 5-10 minutes. Only one bystander did anything to help, a young black girl who helped me to pick up my books.
Again, the incident was met with silence, if not outright disbelief. African-Americans were collectively all victims and martyrs. But my experience of them was quite different: angry, violent, unruly, disrespectful of others.
It apparently was a pretty common kind of incident and I, thus, had nowhere to turn to.
Half a century later, I am dismayed that the same mentality exists, "Talk/tell anyone about your fear and hurt that day and the days and the weeks that followed, and we'll really kick your ass."
"Talk about the race riots and you're a racist." This is Seattle of the past half century. Willed collective amnesia. And the rest of the country? Who really knows, but I think...
I am not the bravest person I know. Far from it. Or the most talented. Again, I can't begin to enumerate the number of brilliant people I've met in my lifetime to whom my own intellectual wherewithal, interpersonal skills, entrepreneurial ability pale.
To this day I am puzzled why in the historical accounts of the era, almost no mention is made whatsoever of the race riots. African-Americans are always portrayed as the victims. There were other victims, of other races.
I waited for the day someone would step forward and talk about the riots, assuming everyone knew about them but just did not want to recall the ugliness of what happened. It never happened.
The memories are buried there, though, in the cells of our brains and muscles and tissues of our organs. They say: I am afraid and will not venture out. This is as much as I can bear to recall. There is no one willing to listen. And I am afraid as well that I will be condemned for having these memories and thoughts.
The silence inside my head is deafening. The silence outside is absolute. Or so I think.
Fear as an instrument of domination and control is actually fairly effective. Fear of feeling fear! You don't even have the right to your fear. You have to deny it even exists. And beneath: a buried child, buried alive.
* * * * *
Some basic moral values are not being taught in the families these persons came from, for whatever reason. Blaming others ("society" or other racial/religious/etc. groups for oneself not having taken the responsibility to ensure that one's offspring receive the best possible education and ethical awareness is reprehensible, in my opinion. No relativism here.
The Swiss psychologist Alice Miller's "Thou Shalt Be Not Aware," published about 30 years ago, is instructive in this regard. It takes commitment and a lot of effort to be aware.
* * * * *
What about a moratorium not just on racist/sexist/homophobic/ageist language but also violence?
We as a society have ambivalence to violence: it sells movie tickets, (some) gym memberships, gun sales, cable subscriptions, comedy acts, hate-mongering of every political persuasion. We tolerate it and in many cases are fascinated/transfixed/entertained by it.
Violence is actually an easy way out. Yell at someone. Buy a gun. Learn to sucker-punch someone in the head, if everyone else knows how.
Non-violence is infinitely more difficult. Maybe a new definition of "being a man" would be both practical and ethical.
Do men who are violent ever really "conquer" or confront their fears? They make think they do...
For some young males*, "smacking others around" (maybe a sucker-punch, too) is literal; for others, it is figurative.
* Now I could be accused of gender-bias, I realize.
* * * * *
http://itsybitsysteps.com/4-2-m-settlement-for-student-paralyzed-by-bully/
It didn't have to happen but it did happen. We are all responsible for the community we live in, no exceptions.
Responsibility versus blame, now there is a fine line, I am thinking.
Kids who learn that they can get away with, "I don't like what you're saying, so I'm going to hit/beat you,
grow up into adults who do the same thing ("I don't like your views, so I have the right to bludgeon you") and parent their children in like fashion. Racism is no excuse for violence, now that is radical, especially for a city as timid (afraid) as Seattle.
The truth is best defended by non-violence. Those who use violence in defense of the (their) truth betray that very truth they are so ardent about defending.
* * * * *
Holding specific government, civic, religious, media, etc. organizations responsible for the objectivity or lack thereof, ethical behavior, as well for the way they are performing their own self-declared functions is important. No amount of blogging in general terms can replace the monitoring by ordinary citizens of what is happening in "the marketplace(s) of ideas." Reviews were posted on Yelp expressly for that purpose.
It is obvious that Yelp has purely commercial motives for everything it does. Ethics obviously is a secondary consideration. As long as it's not illegal...and if we can make more money doing X, Y, or Z..."What's ethics gotta do with it, do with it?" As in, if it doesn't bring me additional profit, why do it?
* * * * *
It also seems self-evident that society itself has an ambivalent attitude towards bullying and violence, not only because of a culture that identifies masculinity with macho-ism (and places a premium on those who embody the ideal) but also because we as spectators, in the movies, on television, in books, in Internet gaming, and often in spectator sports, actually vicariously experience "a rush," as in a dopamine rush, that is addictive. The excitement, the pleasure of seeing people or animals getting smacked or even killed around is culturally sanctioned. Hence, the huge success of "Men in Black," etc., with their quotient of gun violence.
Other than mothers, very few people seem to worry about the ever increasing levels of "second-hand violence" that most of us are witness to.
If anything should happen to me in the next few days, weeks, or months, please investigate Yelp for direct implication or indirect involvement in the attack, which results in bodily harm, trauma, or even death.
Anything is possible in a world where people are unenlightened.
And these guys and gals don't necessarily pretend ("nailing to trees").
"But I never told you to KILL him, did I?"
They will try to remove incriminating threads and comments (in "Talk"), which will have disappeared into "a black hole" the same way that reviews which are not "relevant to a primary consumer experience," in their "bot" language, do.
Someone or ones are "stalking" me on the Internet, which means that they are rummaging through all and everything to secure personal information about me. For what purposes, I cannot say with certainty, but "retaliation" seems very probable.
The sound of a voice, body language and behavior, the language, the way one treats others...all reveal a lot about who one is (and who others are). There is much that does not meet the eye or ear, of course, and for that the past offers clues.
There is movie documentary out entitled "Bully," which though I haven't seen it yet would appear to be "must viewing" by both children and adults (after all children who are bullies develop into adults...who are usually the same bullies, too, just in adult bodies.
http://itsybitsysteps.com/bully-r-rated-movie-kids-should-see/
Adults should lead the way by NOT being bullies themselves. Unfortunately, that requires a lot of self-reflection, some of it painfully difficult and guilt-ridden.
Young men watch films like "The Dark Knight," in my opinion, to try to deal with the intense fear(s) they feel inside, i.e, they project their fears externally as "a handle" in dealing with the difficulty of stuffing down the fear. If they could be guided to look inside, where the deepest, most intimate fears, are, there would be much less bullying and violence in this world.
There is so much fear in Seattle, and hostility and anger are the external defenses we use to deal with fears that would otherwise be crippling. Watching violent films validates the fears we have that men are told they must not admit to having. After all, everyone gets a vicarious thrill ride watching waves of gratuitous violence spilling over the movie screen. And guess what? No one will accuse us of being "weak," no one is alone in the fear. We all are "screaming our guts out."
Gals like to "come along for the ride," it makes guys feel "brave."
And the game continues. Till we have to void that fear again, by watching a "scary" film.
For African-American men, the group with the highest incidence per capita of violent crime, the fears must be especially intense, and the "game" the most dangerous of all. Within their community it seems to me there are few voices advocating non-violence or the dictum that a man should be judged not by how many other men he can "take on," or "how big" he is, but how much he can contribute to the betterment of the lives of other creatures in the universe.
(Physically) dominating others, puffing one's chest out ("having pride") has become a measure has become the "yardstick" here. There seems to be some confusion between pride and arrogance. One can have humility and self-pride at the same time.
There also appears to be some disconnect between the pain someone is inflicting on another and whatever the aggressor is feeling, as if s/he had "no idea what the other person was feeling at the time I kicked him/her repeatedly in the head." It seems apparent that the attacker is too involved in "acting out" and feeling his/her own feelings to "have the time to bother about what the other person (= object)" is feeling.
The bully under these circumstances also seems to be saying, "Cry out, and I'll beat the living hell out of you. Tell anyone, and I'll really 'get you.'"
I know this: this happened to me the day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Seattle Public Schools were in such a state of disorder--as was most of big urban America--I estimate 700-1,000 non-black students were assaulted in the hallways, bathrooms, grounds of the middle school I went to.
We were kicked in the stomach and beaten with fists. Outdoors groups of roving young black students used the handles of their umbrellas to hit the Asian and white students (there not being a significant population of Hispanics in Seattle at the time). I was more frightened than seriously hurt, as I recall. Nothing was said in the local community or even in my family.
In the next year I was also beaten up by groups of young African-Americans on at least two other occasions. One was right outside Garfield High School, in front of Ezell's Fried Chicken, as I was waiting for the public bus. A group ran towards me and started to punch, kick, and knock me to the ground. The assault lasted for between 5-10 minutes. Only one bystander did anything to help, a young black girl who helped me to pick up my books.
Again, the incident was met with silence, if not outright disbelief. African-Americans were collectively all victims and martyrs. But my experience of them was quite different: angry, violent, unruly, disrespectful of others.
It apparently was a pretty common kind of incident and I, thus, had nowhere to turn to.
Half a century later, I am dismayed that the same mentality exists, "Talk/tell anyone about your fear and hurt that day and the days and the weeks that followed, and we'll really kick your ass."
"Talk about the race riots and you're a racist." This is Seattle of the past half century. Willed collective amnesia. And the rest of the country? Who really knows, but I think...
I am not the bravest person I know. Far from it. Or the most talented. Again, I can't begin to enumerate the number of brilliant people I've met in my lifetime to whom my own intellectual wherewithal, interpersonal skills, entrepreneurial ability pale.
To this day I am puzzled why in the historical accounts of the era, almost no mention is made whatsoever of the race riots. African-Americans are always portrayed as the victims. There were other victims, of other races.
I waited for the day someone would step forward and talk about the riots, assuming everyone knew about them but just did not want to recall the ugliness of what happened. It never happened.
The memories are buried there, though, in the cells of our brains and muscles and tissues of our organs. They say: I am afraid and will not venture out. This is as much as I can bear to recall. There is no one willing to listen. And I am afraid as well that I will be condemned for having these memories and thoughts.
The silence inside my head is deafening. The silence outside is absolute. Or so I think.
Fear as an instrument of domination and control is actually fairly effective. Fear of feeling fear! You don't even have the right to your fear. You have to deny it even exists. And beneath: a buried child, buried alive.
* * * * *
Some basic moral values are not being taught in the families these persons came from, for whatever reason. Blaming others ("society" or other racial/religious/etc. groups for oneself not having taken the responsibility to ensure that one's offspring receive the best possible education and ethical awareness is reprehensible, in my opinion. No relativism here.
The Swiss psychologist Alice Miller's "Thou Shalt Be Not Aware," published about 30 years ago, is instructive in this regard. It takes commitment and a lot of effort to be aware.
* * * * *
What about a moratorium not just on racist/sexist/homophobic/ageist language but also violence?
We as a society have ambivalence to violence: it sells movie tickets, (some) gym memberships, gun sales, cable subscriptions, comedy acts, hate-mongering of every political persuasion. We tolerate it and in many cases are fascinated/transfixed/entertained by it.
Violence is actually an easy way out. Yell at someone. Buy a gun. Learn to sucker-punch someone in the head, if everyone else knows how.
Non-violence is infinitely more difficult. Maybe a new definition of "being a man" would be both practical and ethical.
Do men who are violent ever really "conquer" or confront their fears? They make think they do...
For some young males*, "smacking others around" (maybe a sucker-punch, too) is literal; for others, it is figurative.
* Now I could be accused of gender-bias, I realize.
* * * * *
http://itsybitsysteps.com/4-2-m-settlement-for-student-paralyzed-by-bully/
It didn't have to happen but it did happen. We are all responsible for the community we live in, no exceptions.
Responsibility versus blame, now there is a fine line, I am thinking.
Kids who learn that they can get away with, "I don't like what you're saying, so I'm going to hit/beat you,
grow up into adults who do the same thing ("I don't like your views, so I have the right to bludgeon you") and parent their children in like fashion. Racism is no excuse for violence, now that is radical, especially for a city as timid (afraid) as Seattle.
The truth is best defended by non-violence. Those who use violence in defense of the (their) truth betray that very truth they are so ardent about defending.
* * * * *
Holding specific government, civic, religious, media, etc. organizations responsible for the objectivity or lack thereof, ethical behavior, as well for the way they are performing their own self-declared functions is important. No amount of blogging in general terms can replace the monitoring by ordinary citizens of what is happening in "the marketplace(s) of ideas." Reviews were posted on Yelp expressly for that purpose.
It is obvious that Yelp has purely commercial motives for everything it does. Ethics obviously is a secondary consideration. As long as it's not illegal...and if we can make more money doing X, Y, or Z..."What's ethics gotta do with it, do with it?" As in, if it doesn't bring me additional profit, why do it?
* * * * *
It also seems self-evident that society itself has an ambivalent attitude towards bullying and violence, not only because of a culture that identifies masculinity with macho-ism (and places a premium on those who embody the ideal) but also because we as spectators, in the movies, on television, in books, in Internet gaming, and often in spectator sports, actually vicariously experience "a rush," as in a dopamine rush, that is addictive. The excitement, the pleasure of seeing people or animals getting smacked or even killed around is culturally sanctioned. Hence, the huge success of "Men in Black," etc., with their quotient of gun violence.
Other than mothers, very few people seem to worry about the ever increasing levels of "second-hand violence" that most of us are witness to.
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