Reflection Made Public
Contributed by Carrie Bowell
I get bored of reading people’s posts filled with self-righteous repair. Claims of compassion, paired with the hypocrisy of bashing those who don’t agree—or those they deem wrong and unjust. I don’t see liberated people. I see folks cloaked in attention-seeking malice, auditioning for a role in the latest theatrical movement in the USA.
There is a call for love, but with trend-fed sensations and online forms, it’s hard to penetrate the armor. It’s hard to even engage in conversation with people who hold different views and opinions, because you could be the next screenshot clown—laughed down like a grade-school recess session.
Even when there is a chance to communicate in person, people are so revved up with nowhere to go that they listen only to respond, instead of taking in what another might suggest. There is so much theory, and so little embodiment.
Performative empathy doesn’t disarm—it humiliates.
When shame, blame, and shade are cast, there is no revolution—
only a trick people use to appear intelligent,
while they remain blinded by blue lights and camera flash.
Tao Te Ching — Verse 49
The Master has no mind of her own.
She works with the mind of the people.