As a young man, I read a great deal of Carl Jung.
One of Carl's insights, in particular, left a deep impression on me.
To a certain extent I am embroidering upon his theme, but the gist of traditional Christian moral theology holds that we are not responsible if we are ignorant that what we are doing is wrong.
Jung (as I recall) argued against this traditional Christian view, asserting that we DO have a moral obligation (within our personal limits) to expand the scope of our knowledge-and-understanding, and to become increasingly aware of the world in which we live.
In Jung's view, refusal (or failure) to become better informed and to expand our awareness does, in fact, leave us morally responsible.
For me, the essence of the Trump meme you posted at the beginning of this "comment thread" spotlights the fork in the road of history that Jung was describing when he linked morality to the cultivation of consciousness.
The fact is that for far too long we Americans have been far too complacent with our enveloping ignorance. Just consider the sudden -- and belated "awakening" of white people -- prompted by the horrifying murder of George Floyd at the hands of a sadistically murderous cop while "half a dozen" other officers looked on blithely.
The people who elected Trump — and even more importantly the people who STILL support His Malignancy after watching him operate for 3 1/2 years -- are, in my view, morally responsible for the catastrophe.
I will close with a "particular."
We know that a 'cornerstone characteristic" of cultism is that cultists never question the integrity of their cult leader.
They don't fault the cult leader for ANYTHING.
It's as if the cult leader is an unimpeachable demi-god.
Furthermore, cultists themselves are fully aware that EVERYONE else in the world, including the people they love most — their spouses and their beloved children — ALL embody flaws.
But cultists are so blind to this provable reality of cult adoration that they refuse to learn from their own experience, and instead of learning history and politics and sociology -- instead of expanding their awareness -- they perversely CHOOSE stupefaction over Truth dn all its dimensions, but perhaps they are most ridiculously opaque-perverse-stupefied when they refuse to believe plain facts and the well-documented findings of science.
No matter how "sweet" these people are, I no longer cut them slack.
I see them as deliberately irresponsible people who, in effect, "sign off" on the clear-and-present danger that their assiduously cultivated stupidity-and-ignorance may evoke calamity at any moment, just as the stupidity-and-ignorance of Trump Cult have resulted in more than a hundred thousand COVID victims who would NOT BE DEAD TODAY if self-blinded cultists and their ridiculous leader had simply done what knowledgeable leaders all across Europe, and in Canada, and in New Zealand, China, South Korea and Vietnam have done simply by heeding science and taking corresponding public health measures as a matter of policy.
To have the blood of a hundred thousand people on one's hands - or on the collective hands of the enabling cult - is a helluva lotta blood.
I encourage you to ponder whether these people share responsibility for the negligent homicide of more Americans than were killed in the Korean War and the Vietnam War together.
And if we cut these cultists slack -- because "they're good people" -- are we doing anyone a favor?
Is it possible that by cutting them slack, we ourselves become accomplices to negligent homicide?
The "veil" is lifting.
The Wizard of Oz has been spotted behind the curtain.
"Apocalypse" is under way.
Things will be very different going forward.
Against this backdrop, the Armageddon Cheerleaders (many of whom are "really good people") may decide that they would rather "call Jesus down from heaven" by provoking Armageddon, when what they're really doing is orchestrating the annihilation of humanity so that they don't have to experience a "crisis of faith" that might make them "lose their religion."
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