Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 41. Sunrise is 6:25 AM and sunset 5:47 PM for 11h 21m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 85.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1931, the United States adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.
One may discuss the merits of a distinction between sympathy & empathy, as I have. See Sympathy & Empathy.
What, however, if neither is present? What of those without the restraint of sympathy or empathy, for whom cruelty is the point, so to speak?
If Hobbes should be correct about human nature (that reason is a spy for the passions, so that “the Thoughts, are to the Desires, as Scouts, and Spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things Desired”), then reasoning from that ilk will lead only to the infliction of harm.
Not from most people, of course, but from some.
How to face this? With sang-froid, with a calm resolve.
Franklin Roosevelt noted correctly that
Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough.
In our city, in our school district, at our university, there should and must be a place for all people. Should expresses one’s hopes and must expresses one’s determination in politics and at law.
Footage captures moment fisher passes shark feeding frenzy: