We are forever asking ourselves and each how can “those people” behave the way they behave? How can they believe some of the insane stuff they seem to believe? I say “seem to believe” because I find it impossible anyone could actually believe such nonsense.
Then I question how those people can behave with such a callous disregard for the lives of others. I wonder how they can trick, snare, lie, cheat and totally corrupt the positions for which they were elected, in which they give this oath:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
Oath of Office for Senators and Representatives to U.S. Congress
I can’t reconcile their behavior with their oath or for that matter, with anything I understand as normal behavior. I don’t understand how people who behave so dishonestly could make such an oath. Aren’t they ashamed when they look in a mirror?
We are the wrong people to make sense of the senseless.
We look for reasons. We search for rationality We expect honesty. We expect people who are blatantly corrupt and dishonest to be embarrassed and ashamed. We expect anyone who isn’t dumber than a rock to know perfectly well the world isn’t flat, that guns are dangerous, that everyone should be able to get medical care when they need it and be cared for when they get old.
Were we to take such an oath, we would believe we were under an obligation to honor it. Furthermore, we assume our behavior is normal and theirs is not.
We are sensible, practical, rational and thoughtful. We are helpless when confronted by groups of people who display none of these attributes. We are the wrong people to judge senseless behavior. What they do will never make sense to us. We will keep asking ourselves and each other the same questions: “How can they DO that? What is wrong with them?”
My best guess is they don’t want us to understand them. They want us to believe they are stupid, crazy — or both.
Crazy, like Hitler. Stupid, like a fox.
My current theory is that they aren’t crazy or stupid. What they are is greedy, cruel, corrupt and power mad. They will do anything to get what they want. They are the worst people on earth and they don’t care if we know it. They laugh at us. They think our morality is funny and childlike.
Think about that the next time you try to have a conversation with one of them and think there’s anything you can say to convince them of whatever you are trying to convince them.
Don’t get in their way. They could mean you harm.
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Categories: Anecdote, Congress, Conscience and morality, good-and-evil, Mental health, U.S. Constitution
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
You wrote exactly how I, and my parents, feel.
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There was a time when I thought you might be able to reason with those people, but you can’t. I don’t know what goes on in their heads, but it is nothing like whatever WE are thinking. It’s why I so often feel like an alien — and I was born here. I often thing we — the bloggers and commenters — are among the last of the sane — and not even all of us. That we are rude, hostile, greedy and corrupt I get. But they are also bizarre and weird or just pretending to be — but I couldn’t even pretend to be like that. I think my brain would explode.
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YES! My brain would explode too, Marilyn. I wish you and Garry peace, good health, and many blessings!
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I tend to agree with your closing paragraphs. Pollies are moe distanced from the people they are meant to represent than in many decades. It is alarming to think about considering the power they hold over the masses. The last few years has shown what happens when they get drunk on power.
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Of my many flaws, power-madness was never one of them. I’m SO unsuited to managing anything. Every time I’ve been thrown into a management position I’ve been good at it, but I also have hated it. I don’t want to tell other people what to do — and I don’t like being told what to do, either, that I’m more tolerant of taking orders than giving them.
Are pols more distant now than before? I’m not sure about that. It depends on what books you read. Historians seriously disagree about this. I think the problem isn’t distance so much as a completely different way of thinking. And that’s where I am at a complete loss. I don’t understand them and I think it’s possible I’m better off not understanding.
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