tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post7639857133795373950..comments2023-08-14T10:23:04.082-04:00Comments on My Green vermont: A Scary ThoughtEulalia Benejam Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13247079657985430691noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post-46244429161116875832010-07-14T12:21:17.379-04:002010-07-14T12:21:17.379-04:00I have nothing more to add to this wonderful discu...I have nothing more to add to this wonderful discussion, but thank you all for it.Indigo Buntinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11387698096732697805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post-18166194570583579462010-07-14T07:49:18.893-04:002010-07-14T07:49:18.893-04:00Elizabeth, that line says it all.Elizabeth, that line says it all.Eulalia Benejam Cobbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247079657985430691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post-69144826545816568792010-07-13T21:05:17.116-04:002010-07-13T21:05:17.116-04:00One of my favorites lines from literature is from ...One of my favorites lines from literature is from a short story I read years ago - so long ago I can't remember the name of the famous author (blushing) Anyway, it a story about wartime Warsaw and the protagonist is a man who has to work at the only job he can find which is retrieving corpses from the street and preparing them for burial. One day he picks up a body and notes without emotion that it is the body of his father. Years later reflecting on his numb indifference he says "God save us from what we can get used to" That line has stuck with me because it sums up so much of what is truly frightening in us all.Elizabethhttp://www.elizabethtorak.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post-55497044528594911922010-07-13T12:12:09.397-04:002010-07-13T12:12:09.397-04:00Dona and Jaimie, the only way I can reconcile myse...Dona and Jaimie, the only way I can reconcile myself to eating meat is to support the kind of farming that gives animals the best possible life and the easiest possible death (Temple Grandin is my heroine). Still, I feel that I should be doing more....Eulalia Benejam Cobbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247079657985430691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post-70062033795154072282010-07-13T10:40:24.706-04:002010-07-13T10:40:24.706-04:00Dona, at 50, I too am a hypocrite. My husband and...Dona, at 50, I too am a hypocrite. My husband and I eat mostly vegetarian, but every once in a while I crave flesh. What is that?! Lali, re your comment of maintaining any one state of mind - maybe that is another good reason for me to keep up a better practice of meditating!Jaimiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10475656498180906020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post-47381271021324545252010-07-13T09:06:06.071-04:002010-07-13T09:06:06.071-04:00Oh wow, Lali. Wow. What a powerful post.
Without ...Oh wow, Lali. Wow. What a powerful post.<br /><br />Without even having that experience, I'm pretty sure I'd be the same. I've had long discussions with friend who was a young teenager in Chile during Pinochet's regime about evil and "doing something" or not. <br /><br />As for your first sentence -- when I was teenager and young adult (and a vegetarian for animal rights reasons) I vowed that if I ever ate meat again I'd kill an animal first -- because otherwise I would be a hypocrite and, at the time, being hypocritical was the worst thing I could imagine being.<br /><br />At 53 I am a hypocrite.Donahttp://dponline.org/weblognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post-59131439363620717912010-07-13T07:23:56.433-04:002010-07-13T07:23:56.433-04:00Bridgett, it does happen to people in the caring p...Bridgett, it does happen to people in the caring professions, and the trouble starts when many, unlike you, don't realize it.<br /><br />Jaimie, part of the problem may be that humans have difficulty maintaining any one state of mind for very long.Eulalia Benejam Cobbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13247079657985430691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post-21565779047782569592010-07-12T22:26:25.561-04:002010-07-12T22:26:25.561-04:00And that, I think, is what Arendt meant by the &qu...And that, I think, is what Arendt meant by the "banality of evil." How quickly one can adapt and dissociate from what was formerly thought of as detestable behavior. I am sure we have all experienced it in some form.Jaimiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10475656498180906020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2226876762714358061.post-4647068312138046712010-07-12T19:47:00.376-04:002010-07-12T19:47:00.376-04:00Hmm. I've never done any of that, but I dove t...Hmm. I've never done any of that, but I dove too far into my darkness the first year I taught when I realized I had ceased to see many of the children I taught as human persons. I had become a sort of camp guard and started to lose my own humanity in the process. Terrifying. And so I had to get out.Bridgetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12843150280542615265noreply@blogger.com