SB 010 - The Struggling Practitioner

And how to hack Western Civ.

[Hitler] has grasped the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all "progressive" thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security, and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won’t do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flag and loyalty-parades…. Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a grudging way, have said to people "I offer you a good time," Hitler has said to them "I offer you struggle, danger and death," and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet. -- George Orwell, 1940

The group was Polyphia. Notice that everybody watches the first part of the video.

Here is Yamandu Costa. Practicing.

Here is Ruth Benedict

True shame cultures rely on external sanctions for good behavior, not, as true guilt cultures do, on an internalized conviction of sin. Shame is a reaction to other people’s criticism. A man is shamed either by being openly ridiculed and rejected or by fantasying to himself that he has been made ridiculous. In either case it is a potent sanction. But it requires an audience or at least a man’s fantasy of an audience. Guilt does not. In a nation where honor means living up to one’s own picture of oneself, a man may suffer from guilt though no man knows of his misdeed and a man’s feeling of guilt may actually be relieved by confessing his sin.

Benedict, Ruth. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (p. 207). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

As a guilt culture, we Americans accept shameless apologies. In Japan this doesn’t work because the society imposes shame 24/7 and each individual accepts that their shame is public. Here, we get away with hidden murder, just “doing it my way”, which can ultimately be forgiven in society. The apologetic swindler is not socially bankrupt and can always be redeemed by the proper public confession - even that done by third parties. Therefore Kamala Harris, or Donald Trump.