{"id":29056,"date":"2025-02-03T16:01:57","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T21:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anchorwind.net\/2\/?p=29056"},"modified":"2025-02-03T16:05:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T21:05:55","slug":"dear-diary-compassion-in-an-age-of-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anchorwind.net\/2\/dear-diary-compassion-in-an-age-of-cruelty\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Diary, Compassion in an Age of Cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Link to the 2025 : A Year of Compassion Project is here<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Diary,<\/p>\n

The last thing people many want to do is look inward and confront themselves, and as such, we live in an age of unnecessary cruelty.\u00a0 How did we get here?\u00a0 A lack of accountability for the wealthy and powerful developed into a lack of shame at all.\u00a0 Absent shame, the behavior continued to get worse until facts themselves began to come under fire and eventually ignored and replaced.\u00a0 Now, we live in a world where people read at a sixth-grade level and are fed constant lies by people who profit from a system that protects them.\u00a0 The system, meanwhile, has been corrupted to be self-serving rather than public-serving.<\/p>\n

A corrupt system inspires its people to throw up middle fingers and say, \u2018Why bother?\u2019 while those who profit from the corruption get more powerful and entrenched.\u00a0 It is easy to say, \u2018Why bother?\u2019 when challenging the system, the message, and ultimately yourself means holding yourself to a higher standard to which leadership is currently held. However, nothing will ever change if nothing changes.\u00a0 So where does change start but with us, acknowledging the status quo is wrong and can\u2019t continue as is.<\/p>\n

Part of compassion is listening to that inner voice telling you what we\u2019re doing or seeing is wrong.\u00a0 Change is often uncomfortable, and if we\u2019re not willing to look inward for ourselves, \u00a0look inward for others.\u00a0 Confront the reason you\u2019re actually uncomfortable with a tax on billionaires is because it\u2019s a tax on your dream of being a billionaire one day versus the reality of wealth inequality and how bad it is for us politically, environmentally, and socially.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an old joke that says, \u2018It is 0458(GMT) in Tokyo, it\u2019s 1958(GMT) in London, and it\u2019s 1958(A.D.) in The USA.\u2019\u00a0 A key aspect of growth is vulnerability.\u00a0 A sad truth about the American Culture is vulnerability is actively discouraged by a section of men.\u00a0 Toxic Masculinity is alive and thriving here in the USA, and its tenets are simple \u2013 you are capable of everything individually and independently.\u00a0 The consequences of this isolationism are plain to see, including but not limited to a refusal to admit wrongdoing, a lack of empathy and emotional availability, and a strong desire for a well-defined hierarchy.<\/p>\n

When people are incapable of admitting wrongdoing, looking inward to confront themselves is going to be nigh impossible.\u00a0 As such, the lies they are fed will be a source of comfort.\u00a0 They can, despite the fear and anger, find solace in being able to point the finger elsewhere and never inwardly.\u00a0\u00a0 Such devoted division allows the liars and the system as a whole to continue to be plundered and rotted from within as the opposition is too busy being held up by those content with the lie.<\/p>\n

Compassion requires assuming degrees of responsibility, as doing the right thing is not a passive pursuit but an active and considered path met with constant resistance. If the finger is always pointed elsewhere, it will be extraordinarily difficult to develop anything more than a transactional-level interaction, which isn\u2019t compassion at all.\u00a0 We are not always the primary beneficiaries of an act of compassion, which makes compassion unappealing to the so-called \u2018manosphere,\u2019 and those they influence. Sometimes, an act of compassion is non-action, which is also unappealing to those who feel they always need to demonstrate control and dominance.<\/p>\n

Living in objective reality, understanding not just our actions have consequences but we and the environment are one and not avoiding the accountability of such a life will foster compassion organically by virtue of being connected with the big and small here and now.\u00a0 Caring is a burden to bear, but it\u2019s not a burden we have to bear alone.\u00a0 We all do better when we all do better, and the more of us who care, the higher we can reach. Having moments of anger or fear doesn\u2019t mean we stop caring; we will feel a range of emotions at points in our lives.\u00a0 The important thing is to stay present as opposed to locking ourselves away and, by extension, stuck in the past.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t the 1950s anymore,\u00a0 and it\u2019s ok for other countries and cultures to thrive with us.\u00a0 In truth, it was always ok for other countries and cultures to thrive.\u00a0 Life is not a zero-sum game.\u00a0 If others do well, it is not at your expense. It is a primary lie spewed from the \u2018manosphere\u2019 to maintain the division necessary for the system to remain corrupt and plunderable from within.\u00a0 The only minority actually causing real harm are the billionaires.\u00a0 We can stand up to them and maintain our principles; I\u2019d argue standing up to them is part of our principles of mitigating and restoring the damage done.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ok for your inner voice to tell you things aren\u2019t right and for you to listen to it.\u00a0 What is currently happening is not right, is not normal, and it\u2019s ok to acknowledge it.\u00a0 If you were on the wrong path before, it is ok to get off that path and do things differently.\u00a0 Compassion has to start somewhere, and often, that place is looking in the mirror and having an uncomfortable, honest conversation with ourselves.\u00a0 From there, we can branch out with a smile and an open hand instead of a closed fist and clenched teeth.<\/p>\n

Practice Compassion. You are worth it\u2014and so are others who may need that helping hand or simple acceptance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Link to the 2025 : A Year of Compassion Project is here Dear Diary, The last thing people many want to do is look inward and confront themselves, and as such, we live in an age of unnecessary cruelty.\u00a0 How did we get here?\u00a0 A lack of accountability for the wealthy and powerful developed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[304,337],"tags":[332,336],"class_list":["post-29056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-diary","category-the-mindfulness-journey","tag-332","tag-compassion"],"yoast_head":"\nDear Diary, Compassion in an Age of Cruelty - Anchorwind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dear Diary, Compassion in an Age of Cruelty | a piece about how we can resist the emotional zeitgeist and be better. | February 2025\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/anchorwind.net\/2\/dear-diary-compassion-in-an-age-of-cruelty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear Diary, Compassion in an Age of Cruelty - 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