{"id":39,"date":"2004-10-11T18:32:51","date_gmt":"2004-10-11T22:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=39"},"modified":"2021-06-04T12:51:23","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T16:51:23","slug":"people-of-the-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/39","title":{"rendered":"People of the Lie"},"content":{"rendered":"

People of the Lie<\/i> (1983) M. Scott Peck<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m taking Legal\/Ethical Issues in Public Health, and this is one of the books my professor has brought up several times, so I thought I’d read it. <\/p>\n

Parts of the book I like, other parts I was less sure about, and sometimes even disagreed with. I was not sure how to take the chapter on exorcism, mostly because the idea of exorcism is something that is so far outside my worldview I don\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t know what to think.<\/p>\n

Considering that the book was written in 1983, there were several passages that I found particularly striking.<\/p>\n

When it no longer bothers us to see mangled bodies it will no longer bother us to mangle them ourselves. It is difficult indeed to selectively close our eyes to a certain type of brutality without closing them to all brutality. How can we render ourselves insensitive to brutality except by becoming brutes?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As someone who is bothered by the violence in movies, TV, and video games that others seem blithely to ignore, I do have to wonder. We have research that has found that viewing violence desensitizes us it, but are we too far gone? Is it not impossible to put that genie back in the bottle?
\nI was especially struck by the following quote, which to me seems applicable to our current situation, as much as the time he was discussing:<\/p>\n

How could this have been? How could a whole people have gone to war without knowing why? The answer is simple. As a people we were too lazy to learn and too arrogant to think that we needed to learn. We felt that whatever way we happened to perceive things was the right way without any further study. And whatever we did was the right thing to do without reflection<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which made the following all the more disturbing:<\/p>\n

(I)t is not only possible but easy and even natural for a large group to commit evil without emotional involvement simply by turning loose its specialists. it happened in Vietnam. It happened in Nazi Germany. I am afraid it will happen again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ethics, or lack there of, is a problem in the US. How else can we explain Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, and so many more? How else can we explain the fact that people accept cheating on your taxes as the norm and acceptable? How else can we explain the amount of crime<\/a>?
\nI\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2m not certain that I accept his idea that evil should be a psychological diagnosis. The evil in the world seems so much more complicated than a simple psychological term, or even than possession.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that I’m not sure I accept his ideas about evil, the book was a fascinating and interesting look at ethics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People of the Lie (1983) M. Scott Peck I’m taking Legal\/Ethical Issues in Public Health, and this is one of the books my professor has brought up several times, so I thought I’d read it. Parts of the book I like, other parts I was less sure about, and sometimes even disagreed with. I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[291,7],"tags":[399],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paper","category-religion-philosophy","tag-ethics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-D","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1131,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1131","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":0},"title":"The Devil You Know","author":"Michelle","date":"May 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Devil You Know (2006) Mike Carey \"I don't know what I want to read.\" Peruses bookshelves. \"I remember buying The Devil You Know, why haven't I read it yet?\" Reads first paragraph. \"Hmmm....\" Hours later. \"Wow!\" First off, I believe this was shelved in the mystery section, which is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/The-devil-you-know-e1511011040614.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5418,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5418","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":1},"title":"Sympathy for the Devil","author":"Michelle","date":"September 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Sympathy for the Devil (2011) Justin Gustainis I came to this series because I very much enjoy his Occult Crimes Unit Investigations (despite the horrific covers), so I've been slowly working my way through his Quincy Morris series. 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This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alternate History"","block_context":{"text":"Alternate History","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy\/alternate-history"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Tigana.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11419,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11419","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":3},"title":"No Good Duke Goes Unpunished","author":"Michelle","date":"January 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (2013) Sarah MacLean Set in London in 1831. William Harrow, Marquess of Chapin and heir to the dukedom of Lamont, known to the world now as Temple, the killer duke, is a partner in the Fallen Angel. Although there was no proof, it was believed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/No-Good-Duke-Goes-Unpunished-e1511012080124.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19893,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19893","url_meta":{"origin":39,"position":4},"title":"Pentacles and Pelting Plants","author":"Michelle","date":"March 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Pentacles and Pelting Plants (2021) Amy Lane (Hedge Witches Lonely Hearts Club) Jordan's coven screwed up. Badly. \u201cIt\u2019s more personal than that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe magic itself was offended. 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