When your beliefs are exposed to the light, when your enchantment with “stuff” is held up to the light, you magically dispose of the idea in your own mind by denial.

And it works for you. What a mind!

It is the recognition that “no man is an island”, and that “injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere”.

You have just proudly abdicated those qualities, acknowledged yourself as believing that “stuff” is more important than your fellow beings. Rather proudly, even arrogantly, I might add.

There is so much more to life than acquisition. Remember Scrooge? That wasn’t just an interesting story. And even Ebenezer was open to the broader world.

There are many, many others who have had those same qualities, some famous, some infamous, people who worshipped at a bank instead of church. People indifferent to the pain and suffering of the less fortunate, people who even create pain and suffering so that others may be even wealthier. It is the attitude of, well, think of the most reviled people of the last hundred years. They, too, valued “stuff” more than others.

Those who are able to appreciate more than the material pray for the truly impoverished of the world, no matter how wealthy they may be. And those prayers are wasted on the subjects, but do credit to those who pray.

The only sad part of all this is the effect those folks can have on others. They deserve their own fate, they will never miss what they can’t experience. But others don’t deserve them.

It doesn’t work.

This is blatantly obvious. The part I haven’t been able to figure out in all this time is what makes this idea so damn attractive to so many people.

The weird part is that people aren’t visualizing themselves as the Great Leader or one of his court, which would at least be understandable, and has motivated many eventual tyrants.

But I’ve found so many people who simply want to live under such a system. Happily crawling over the barbed wire in the wrong direction. Seeking out the plantation and putting the shackles on themselves. What do they think they’ll get out of this?

Are they all so bent that they will gladly be one of the shortest poppies forever as long as all those damn tall ones are mowed down around them? Nobody left to shove their own loser status in their faces? Is it that simple? Probably not.

There are plenty of people in formerly communist nations who seriously miss being the property of their rulers. Maybe they need to be studied more.

At gunpoint, if they are so attached to their stuff they don’t mind others suffering, others dying, others starving. There’s something wrong with people who hoard more than they’ll ever, ever need, don’t you think? Especially when that hoarding causes suffering in others? You don’t want people to suffer, do you?

Who’ll determine what anyone needs? Me. That’s a great answer.

Under the new law, only the army, police and certain groups like security companies will be able to buy arms from the state-owned weapons manufacturer and importer.

…Hugo Chavez’s government says the ultimate aim is to disarm all civilians, but his opponents say the police and government may not have the capacity or the will to enforce the new law.

That very juxtaposition has helped me realize something that I just couldn’t quite put my finger on, until you pointed it out.

I read the comments first on the dashboard list. For those who understand these things, the juxtaposition of that comment and the one directly above it is stunning.