January 29: Thoughts for the Day

Posted on January 29, 2014 by John Swinburn
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It is important, I think, to give people the benefit of the doubt; look for the good lurking beneath the sinister cover, as it were.  Too often, the State is complicit in wrecking lives when those lives might have been put back on course with the right intervention.  By the same token, we must not allow ourselves to be used by bad people aiming to take advantage of our soft hearts. We must discern the downtrodden from the dangerously deviant and act accordingly.

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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2 Responses to January 29: Thoughts for the Day

  1. John Swinburn says:
    January 30, 2014 at 7:00 am

    I learn so much from your comments, Juan! They open the door to ideas that build into bigger ideas and then in to themes and, beyond themes, into Concepts with a capital “C” for emphasis! Love the clip; doubt has two faces, doesn’t it? The “benefit of the doubt” is its beneficent face, carrying with it the possibility of being wrong and, thereby, subject to its corresponding danger. Yet “pure” doubt has negative connotations that, if proven correct, offers protection unavailable when engaged in unbridled trust.

  2. juanon says:
    January 29, 2014 at 10:23 pm

    Last semester we did J.P. Shanley’s “Doubt: A Parable,” and so I feel especially touched by your post. The play is a Pulitzer Prize winner. Shanley who not only wrote, directed and successfully produced the play, but directed the movie as well. It’s a powerful idea that ties into your post, and one gone too much ignored.

    “Doubt”?

    Is that feminine? is it masculine? Let’s begin with that.

    St. Austine claimed that a good Christian always doubts the existence of God. And … the pronounced theme from Socrates is nothing less than DOUBT. Hence, shouldn’t we be critical? Flannery O’Connor said that the Devil walks the earth 24-7: That there is viral evil in the world, and that any of us might be a carrier .. we must be careful about our own symptoms! We should ask: “Do I have evil? LOL!

    That mythological “worm” that slides through the forest (A.S. Byatt) is only too eager to eat our innocence. And some — just standing in awe — is how they are lost.

    Heavy topic you have presented here!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAOUtgdcjik

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