Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)Last week, a Khmer democrat e-mailed me from Phnom Penh about the Cambodian People's Party's Bayon Television and Radio stations, which allegedly devotes "hours a day" of programming to commentaries that disparage opposition political figures.
...
In Ghandi's words: "Nobody can hurt me without my permission."
And Lord Gautama Buddha teaches, "Slandering is evil, gossip is evil."
August 4, 2010By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)
There was a man thrown off a train in South Africa because he had a first-class ticket but refused to move to a third-class coach; beaten by a stagecoach driver for refusing to travel on the foot board to make room for a European passenger; barred from hotels; ordered by a court magistrate to remove his turban. And on and on.
After fighting for justice for Indians in South Africa, he returned to India in 1951, and fought for India's independence from the British Empire.
He was India's great political and spiritual leader, Mahatma Ghandi.
Among those who followed Gandhi's ways and philosophy were South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, and the slain American civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
They put their lives on the line fighting for great causes through nonviolence. They upheld the highest principles with utmost integrity. Sadly, in our contemporary world, those values seem to be in decline.
On June 30, Michael Gerson of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote in "Wanted: Grown-ups": "One of the most significant divisions in American public life" is not Democrat-Republican, but "the Ugly Party and the Grown-Up Party." He wrote about the "demeaning, dehumanizing rhetoric of the Ugly Party" -- with both Democrats and Republicans as members -- whose "adolescent form of political discourse" depicts "rivals (as) somehow less than human."
Among Gerson's examples were Washington Post blogger David Weigel's leaked e-mail comment about Rush Limbaugh's hospitalization due to chest pain: "I hope he fails"; and Ann Coulter's "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."
How appalling!
Gerson quoted John Avlon, author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Highjacking America" -- "If you only take offense when the president of your party is compared to Hitler, then you're part of the problem."
Amen!
Members of the Ugly Party flourish worldwide. One can read comments posted on the Internet by "anonymous" writers, engaged in venomous racial slurs, profanity, personal insults, disparaging and dehumanizing comments, irrelevant and unnecessary to topics discussed in public debate.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle said man is a political animal; but unlike other animals, man alone has speech, and man alone has a perception of good and bad, just and unjust. What would Aristotle think of those who display such a lack of civility?
Last week, a Khmer democrat e-mailed me from Phnom Penh about the Cambodian People's Party's Bayon Television and Radio stations, which allegedly devotes "hours a day" of programming to commentaries that disparage opposition political figures.
Two years ago, I wrote in this space about those with petty minds, engrossed in idle chatter of scandal, slander or schadenfreude (enjoyment taken from another's misfortune); who dig up unflattering rumors to throw at their fellow men, introduce errors and variations into information, thereby sowing friction, ending friendships, alienating people, and hurting and harming their names and reputation.
Studies affirm that each of us is more conformist than we might like to acknowledge. We are quick to believe, to conform to an opinion. A psychological experiment reveals that one in three of us adopts and conforms to the views of others.
The story about U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, 62, is an example. Conservative activist and blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a video clip of her March 27 speech at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The edited clip seems to characterize Sherrod, who is African American, as a racist who refused to help a white farmer, Roger Spooner, who sought her help. The video clip was enough to vilify Sherrod, who was fired from her government job.
Only then did administration officials view the entire video, which put the lie to the earlier characterization. Spooner himself emerged to take up Sherrod's defense: "I never was treated no better than Shirley."
As White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, "Members of this administration, members of the media, members of different political factions of both sides of this have all made determinations and judgments without a full set of facts."
That's a lot of people whose judgments were based on Breitbart's video excerpt.
President Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized to Sherrod.
There's a self-help psychology book online, "Be Your Own Therapist," by experienced psychotherapist Thayer White, who says, "feeling not OK" is what leads to the process of name-calling: The name-caller feels more powerful by getting others upset.
The book reminds us that if you are not bothered by his name-calling, it's he who winds up being doubly unhappy: He can't dump his trouble on you, plus his original trouble never goes away.
The book says one can stay above unnecessary hurt and unhappiness, and remember that "Whatever people say about (you) says nothing about (you) but a lot about them."
As former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
In Ghandi's words: "Nobody can hurt me without my permission."
And Lord Gautama Buddha teaches, "Slandering is evil, gossip is evil."
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
After fighting for justice for Indians in South Africa, he returned to India in 1951, and fought for India's independence from the British Empire.
He was India's great political and spiritual leader, Mahatma Ghandi.
Among those who followed Gandhi's ways and philosophy were South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, and the slain American civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
They put their lives on the line fighting for great causes through nonviolence. They upheld the highest principles with utmost integrity. Sadly, in our contemporary world, those values seem to be in decline.
On June 30, Michael Gerson of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote in "Wanted: Grown-ups": "One of the most significant divisions in American public life" is not Democrat-Republican, but "the Ugly Party and the Grown-Up Party." He wrote about the "demeaning, dehumanizing rhetoric of the Ugly Party" -- with both Democrats and Republicans as members -- whose "adolescent form of political discourse" depicts "rivals (as) somehow less than human."
Among Gerson's examples were Washington Post blogger David Weigel's leaked e-mail comment about Rush Limbaugh's hospitalization due to chest pain: "I hope he fails"; and Ann Coulter's "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."
How appalling!
Gerson quoted John Avlon, author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Highjacking America" -- "If you only take offense when the president of your party is compared to Hitler, then you're part of the problem."
Amen!
Members of the Ugly Party flourish worldwide. One can read comments posted on the Internet by "anonymous" writers, engaged in venomous racial slurs, profanity, personal insults, disparaging and dehumanizing comments, irrelevant and unnecessary to topics discussed in public debate.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle said man is a political animal; but unlike other animals, man alone has speech, and man alone has a perception of good and bad, just and unjust. What would Aristotle think of those who display such a lack of civility?
Last week, a Khmer democrat e-mailed me from Phnom Penh about the Cambodian People's Party's Bayon Television and Radio stations, which allegedly devotes "hours a day" of programming to commentaries that disparage opposition political figures.
Two years ago, I wrote in this space about those with petty minds, engrossed in idle chatter of scandal, slander or schadenfreude (enjoyment taken from another's misfortune); who dig up unflattering rumors to throw at their fellow men, introduce errors and variations into information, thereby sowing friction, ending friendships, alienating people, and hurting and harming their names and reputation.
Studies affirm that each of us is more conformist than we might like to acknowledge. We are quick to believe, to conform to an opinion. A psychological experiment reveals that one in three of us adopts and conforms to the views of others.
The story about U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, 62, is an example. Conservative activist and blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a video clip of her March 27 speech at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The edited clip seems to characterize Sherrod, who is African American, as a racist who refused to help a white farmer, Roger Spooner, who sought her help. The video clip was enough to vilify Sherrod, who was fired from her government job.
Only then did administration officials view the entire video, which put the lie to the earlier characterization. Spooner himself emerged to take up Sherrod's defense: "I never was treated no better than Shirley."
As White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, "Members of this administration, members of the media, members of different political factions of both sides of this have all made determinations and judgments without a full set of facts."
That's a lot of people whose judgments were based on Breitbart's video excerpt.
President Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized to Sherrod.
There's a self-help psychology book online, "Be Your Own Therapist," by experienced psychotherapist Thayer White, who says, "feeling not OK" is what leads to the process of name-calling: The name-caller feels more powerful by getting others upset.
The book reminds us that if you are not bothered by his name-calling, it's he who winds up being doubly unhappy: He can't dump his trouble on you, plus his original trouble never goes away.
The book says one can stay above unnecessary hurt and unhappiness, and remember that "Whatever people say about (you) says nothing about (you) but a lot about them."
As former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
In Ghandi's words: "Nobody can hurt me without my permission."
And Lord Gautama Buddha teaches, "Slandering is evil, gossip is evil."
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
