gratitude, death of empathy, toxic empathy, working in the mahwah ford motor plant, treating cancer with sound, family of lies
yesterday i was grateful for the community of philomena's halloween party...
today i am looking forward to a by ourselves day, putting around the house with holly...
Hannah Arendtâs assertion that âthe death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarismâ is a profound warning. It suggests that when a society loses its capacity for compassion, it becomes vulnerable to injustice, cruelty, and moral collapse. Empathy is not just a personal virtue but a cornerstone of civilization, fostering cooperation, justice, and ethical responsibility.
i am profoundly worried about what is coming down the tracks at us... the news that cabinet members have moved onto military bases, that the president has ordered the creation of rapid response national guard units in every state, that the president refuses to provide congressionally allocated emergency funding for snap programs, that the president believes he has the right to carry out extrajudicial killings of suspected drug boats, and so much more, all while renovating the white house into a presidential palace and throwing lavish great gatsby parties at mar-a-lago...
November 1, 2025 - by Heather Cox Richardson
Yesterday I wrote that President Donald J. Trumpâs celebration of his new marble bathroom in the White House was so tone deaf at a time when federal employees are working without pay, furloughed workers are taking out bank loans to pay their bills, healthcare premiums are skyrocketing, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are at risk, that it seemed likely to make the history books as a symbol of this administration.
But that image got overtaken just hours later by pictures from a Great Gatsbyâthemed party Trump threw at Mar-a-Lago last night hours before SNAP benefits ended. F. Scott Fitzgeraldâs 1925 novel The Great Gatsby skewered the immoral and meaningless lives of the very wealthy during the Jazz Age who spent their time throwing extravagant parties and laying waste to the lives of the people around them.
a family member posted on fb that churches are teaching about toxic empathy... a little googling revealed that there have been a couple of books released on the subject in the last year... both by christians...
âToxic Empathyâ and the Myth of Facts Over Feelings
Over the last six months, a couple books have been published, written by Christians, which have seemingly identified one of the greatest existential threats to the future of Christian civilization: empathy.
The first one, released in October, is called Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion, and was written by Christian commentator Allie Beth Stuckey. The second one, published just last month, is entitled The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits, and was written by theologian Joe Rigney.
we look to be on the path towards the death of empathy...
we went to see the bruce springsteen movie last week as i think i have mentioned... the movie is centered around the making of his nebraska album... i subsequently downloaded the album to my new fiio music player... as i listened to it as i did other things... johnny 99 caught my attention with the opening line about the closing of "the mahwah plant"... that mahwah nj plant was, i presume, the ford motor plant... i worked on the assembly line two summers... the second summer i was on night shift... it was my last night... one of the guys working near me took me out for a few bears during our half hour "lunch"... we hopped into his car and sped to a bar across the highway... he ordered me a beer... he ordered himself several... i don't know how we got to this, but he broke down in tears and was telling me not to be like him... trapped... with a family to support and the assembly plant as the best way he could do it... i assumed he'd gotten a girl pregnant and did the right thing... but was miserable... he told me to get my college education... to go onto something better... i have remembered that all my life... i wonder if he was there when the plant closed down?... i wonder what happened to him?... i did get my college education... i've had a reasonably happy life... i hope he found peace...
here's an uplifting bit on treating cancer with ultrasound?...
Can You Really Treat Cancer with Sound? - by Ted Gioia
This led to the birth of histotripsyâthe use of soundwaves to treat cancerous tumors without the need for surgery. It was approved by the FDA for use in treating liver tumors in 2023.
Results were deemed successful in 95% of cases, according to an early test. Back in June, the UK became the first country in Europe to approve this procedure.
This stuff is real, my friends. The power of sound is the most underrated force in the universeâor maybe even the doctorâs office.
i recently bought a photo book by a japanese photographer... hjime kimura... called family of lies... it's about the fake family he created and told friends and acquaintances about... it's touching... this quote about the energy it takes to lie struck me...
When you tell a lie, you have to remember that you lied, right? To completr the act of lying, you have to remember that you lied, and that there was a lie up to some point. But there are times when you can't remember such things, and the lie can be exposed by accident. If that is the case you have to cover it up somehow. I thought that "lie" actually takes a lot of energy. In that sense, it takes much less energy to be honest.
Family of lies, Hajime Kimura