On this page there are reprints from The Farmville Herald, AM NewYork, Noblesville Daily Times:
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Volume 117, No. 44 Farmville, Virginia, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 |
This article was also published in the: |
The Answer to Violence Is Found in the Study of Contempt Like millions of people all over the nation, I was heartbroken to hear and read about the shootings that took place at Virginia Tech. We have to educate ourselves as to the cause of this horrible event. Taking a gun out of a young man's hands, of course, is paramount. But why, when he has a gun, does he use it on innocent people? Commentators say, “There is no answer” or “There is no explanation.” As an educator of young people for over thirty years, I know there IS an explanation, there IS an answer—in the education Aesthetic Realism! Aesthetic Realism, the education founded by the great American philosopher Eli Siegel, explains that the deepest desire of every person is “to like the world on an honest or accurate basis” (Self and World, Definition Press, 1981). But it also explains there is another desire in every self, the desire to have contempt, the “disposition in every person to think we will be for ourselves by making less of the outside world.” Contempt, uncriticized, is the cause of every injustice and cruelty people can show to each other. Contempt was the cause of this terrible massacre. We now know that the young man responsible for these deaths showed very clearly a disdain for other people and a huge desire to have contempt for them. When you have contempt, Eli Siegel wrote, you take away the humanity of another person, and you feel you can do anything: “You can rob that person, hurt that person, kill that person” (James and the Children, Definition Press, 1968). This young man could never have killed people had he wanted to know the depth of feelings they had within themselves; had he seen other people's feelings were as real as his own—for instance, how another student hoped to have love in his life, how a teacher was a living, breathing, feeling individual. I learned from Aesthetic Realism that a young man can use disappointments in the family, in love, in school, and unjust economics to be disgusted with, to have contempt for everything. Young men can use the injustices they meet to justify their own horrible anger and ill will. Ellen Reiss, the Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism, explains with enormous kindness in the international periodical The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known:
In an Aesthetic Realism class, when I was a young man in my early 20s, I said, “If I see the world as against me, I feel I can do anything I want.” I was met with tough, beautiful logic, as Eli Siegel said:
We have seen the horrors this very week and they did not have to be. Parents, teachers, young people, government officials, educators need to study Aesthetic Realism now. You can find out more at AestheticRealism.org Jeffrey Carduner has been a consultant on the faculty of the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation for over 32 years, and is the author of many seminar papers and articles on the questions of young men. |
MANHATTAN'S LARGEST CIRCULATION DAILY |
THE FOLLOWING LETTER ALSO APPEARED IN: • The Potomac News, Woodbridge, VA; • The Free Lance Star, Fredericksburg, VA; • Alexandria Times, VA; • The Daily Press, Hampton Roads, VA; • Examiner, Wash., DC • South Carolina Black News |
The root of the cruelty As a New York resident my sympathies go out to the people devastated by the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. This kind of horror has occurred all too often in our nation, leaving people to wonder why things like this happen. I'm grateful to say that the motivation behind all human cruelty has been explained to me through Aesthetic Realism, founded by the great American educator Eli Siegel. Mr. Siegel showed that contempt, “the addition to self through the lessening of something else,” is the cause of all human injustice. Contempt can take many forms: making fun of the way someone dresses, laughing at a person when they make a mistake or ignoring a co-worker when they are talking. Taken further, contempt is what has a person deny the reality, the feelings of other people to the point they can take those people's lives. The study of contempt and its opponent—good will—is a national emergency. , East Rockaway |
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Serving Hamilton County |
Noblesville DAILY TIMES |
Noblesville, IN 46060 |
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 |
Insurance companies demean elders We represent millions of grown sons and daughters throughout America who are increasingly worried about the care and well-being of our elderly parents. After reading the front page headline in the New York Times “Aging, Frail and Fighting Some Insurers to Pay Up for Long-Term Care” (March 26 ), we are furious! That insurance companies such as Conseco are making it “difficult—if not impossible” for its elderly policyholders to collect claims for their care is barbaric! Mary Beth Senkewicz, former senior executive at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, was quoted as saying: “They'll do anything to avoid paying, because if they wait long enough, they know the policyholders will die.” How in a country as rich and abundant as ours can its senior citizens be treated in such a callous way? We learned from the economist Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism, that the reason this is permitted to go on is because of the way business is conducted in America—it is based on contempt for people. We see contempt as the driving purpose explaining what California lawyer Glenn R. Kantor, who represents policyholders, describes:
It is the greed—the sheer greed—of the executives of these insurance companies that forces our parents, grandparents in their golden years, to have to worry, sometimes agonizingly so, about whether they will be cared for respectfully, able to pay for prescription drugs and have suitable medical care. In The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, Ellen Reiss, Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism, explains:
The worry which millions of senior citizens are forced to endure will end when persons all over including our politicians and educators honestly answer that beautiful question.
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© 2007 by Aesthetic Realism Foundation
A not-for-profit educational foundation