Crippled Inside

The OP title “crippled inside” comes from a recent discovery of a song written by John lennon … while I don’t remember the lyrics … the title of the song speaks volumes … to me at least.

In an e-conversation yesterday another memory popped into consciousness … a few words by Bell Hooks …

“Again and again as I travel around I am stunned by how many citizens in our nation feel lost, feel bereft of a sense of direction, feel as though they cannot see where our journeys lead, that they cannot know where they are going”
Bell Hooks… “Belonging”

This morning it seems to me that Bell Hooks is talking about people who are “crippled inside”.

Most people in the world don’t look kindly on the “crippled” members of our species … the lepers, the mongoloids, those with some form of mental illness … I’m as guilty as anyone. I had a chance to engage in conversation with a leper many years ago … here are the notes I wrote about that experience.

I’ve a personal experience involving an encounter with a ‘leper’. I was in Jerusalem at the time … wandering around the streets of the old city one night … completely lost. I was drawn into a building … don’t understand how … I heard some voices from the second floor so I went up to check it out. I found myself face to face with a ‘leper’. This young man’s leprosy affected his face … it was rather extreme … he greeted me warmly … shook my hand … I couldn’t stay … I was too much of a coward. For months and years after this experience I was ashamed of myself … I would reflect on the fact that this young man had feelings and emotions … just like the rest of us … I am still ashamed of myself … my hope is that I will be stronger should I be given this special privilege again."

How would we respond if we could see inside the people we encounter … we engage/interact with … if we could see how crippled they are inside?

You are stronger tom. :smiley:

This reminds me of the movie Shallow Hal. In the movie Hal, played by Jack Black, can only see what is in a person’s inside - not how they look on the outside. Being able to see someone from their crippled inside-out appearance is an interesting idea. I would say that when I was young I was very crippled and would look much, much older if that was my appearance. Over time though I’ve learned to accept things as they are and I’m a lot less cripple. I would probably look my age, if not younger, at this current time.

Mackerni … thanks for mentioning the movie in your comment … it certainly points in the same direction.

I just watched some of the movie … the scene that caught my attention was the “jolt in the elevator” … the banana fingers guy suggesting it takes a “jolt” to trigger a change in human behavior.

A “jolt” as a trigger resonates with me … the more serious the “jolt” the more potential for change.

The people in the vanguard of substantial change seem to require the “jolt” treatment … learning/adaptation may expand by osmosis at some point.

What change in human behavior?

Maybe all is as it ought to be … survival of the fittest … move on and leave the cripples behind.

Your statement is an honest reflection of human history … up to the moment. While there has always been a very timid exhortation to care for the marginalized … the disenfranchised …it has never become part of the mainstream.

OTH … perhaps it is the crippled who will lead the main body of humanity onto the right path. I heard some time ago … don’t know if it is true though … a mongoloid in the family is a blessing … seems the mongoloid teaches the normal members of the family a higher form of love … some call this particular form of love ‘agape love’ … selfless love.

Why is that a “good” thing? What is good about selfless love? Why would that lead “onto the right path”?

With my ego in my pocket I can’t tell you what to see. :smiley:

IMHO … too many people … for too long a time … have told people “what to see” … religion and philosophy are “giants” in this regard.

You can’t say it without using your ego?

You’re a good teacher Phyllo.

Let me try …

Humanity is where it is … whether we like it or not.

This “where it is” is the aggregate … summation … fruit … of all past human activities. Take one small human event out of the mix … at any point in history … and humanity would be in a different place today.

The Gordian Knot … is the place … where humanity is today … auspicious or threatening?

What do you see?

K: yep, by all means, lets us leave those dam inconvenient cripples behind…the fact that
there are human beings makes no difference to me because all I care about is my money,
(thinks every conservative) and those dam lechers are simply leaching off of me…
collecting money they didn’t earn in social security…dam lazy cripples…
don’t work and spend their days living the live of luxury while I toil
every dam day… and thus turning someone’s handicap which is serious into
a whine about how your money is far more important then any dam cripple…

so I will say that you Phyllo are crippled inside because you have
no sympathy, no empathy for those less fortunate then us…
only a psychopath has no sympathy for others, no sense of
how other human beings have value or worth…

yes, by all means, leave the cripples behind… for they deserve to die…
says, the psychopath…

I have seen your type many times before… cares about money over lives…
you believe in cost effective lives which means if you can’t support yourself,
you don’t deserve to live… crippled lives are not cost effective and so die already…
you cost more money then you can create so you have no value…so we should move
on and leave the cripples behind…
so says the conservative, so says phyllo…

Kropotkin

What do you mean by mongoloid? Any mixed race? Eurasian? Born with Mongolian spot? Just wanted to clarify. You seem to be associating this word with a cripple, which to me would be some one who’s born with a congenital disease or physical abnormality. Are you talking about down syndrome babies? Autistic children? What do you mean by that word?

Mongoloid = down syndrome (in the non-PC world)

Ahh, did I hurt your feelings in some other thread? So now you’re going to follow me around and make emotional accusations? :laughing:

You don’t really get this “philosophy thing”. It involves thinking and reasoning about ideas from various angles … some of which are not pleasant or PC. People may be “offended” in the process. :evilfun:

Today, one is in a particular situation and one makes decisions on where one wants to be tomorrow.

Your question brings so many personal memories into my consciousness at the moment.

  1. I used the word “mongoloid” as a synonym for Down Syndrome.

  2. My youngest brother was born with down syndrome … sadly he died within hours of his birth. He has been all but forgotten by my 8 living siblings. I gave his name to my only son … several years ago my son disowned his family name in favour of his mother’s maiden name. Nonetheless, I remained convinced that my youngest brother is somehow helping me and his other siblings as we travel through our individual life journeys.

  3. Several years ago when I discovered the word “mongoloid” as a label for my brother’s cripple(ness) I found the pejorative associations with the Mongolian race unpleasant. One such association is … Mongolian = Barbarian … the Mongolian Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Genghis Khan … the founder of this empire … some argue that this individual man’s Y-chromosome is today found in an estimated 16 million of his male line progeny in a vast swath of Asia from Manchuria near the Sea of Japan to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan in Central Asia. That’s one of every 200 males on Earth today.

OK

How does one make those decisions about tomorrow … different strokes for different folks I suppose.

OTH … if one has planned a picnic for tomorrow and there is a 100 percent chance of torrential rain tomorrow … presumably most people would postpone or cancel the picnic.

The above scenario illustrates your point of view as well as mine … in my case … one is prudent to make a survey of existing and highly probable events/circumstances today when making decisions for tomorrows activities from a “big picture” perspective.

Phyllo … you are a self professed “multi layer thinker” … using JSS’s term.

We seem to have a different view of the big picture … the 'topology" … using Carlea’s term … of the current state of humanity.

Deductive reasoning would suggest there is considerable discord with regards to one or more of the pieces making up the puzzle. Finding the pieces with discord would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

In such circumstances any further dialogue on this issue seems futile.

Since when is there a correlation between mongoloids and leprosy? Down syndromes are not mongoloids otherwise they would be genius like asians. Asians and downsyndromes simply share a certain gene, but they are not bioidentical.