This is why I keep pushing harder on the “heritage reclamation” project to secure citizenship by descent in an EU member country. During the week reports came out about another whistleblower report over DOGE attempt to civic un-person people en masse through abusing the Death Master File (“DMF”) at Social Security Administration. DMF is treated as nearly the literal gospel as to whether someone is alive or not so moving people’s records into it while they are still living is a disaster. When I was at IRS we had not so happy times trying to get DMF corrected when people were accidentally added to the file through various bureaucratic blunders and found that they were basically locked out of their lives. DOGE was trying to intentionally do that to millions in a single batch job, though, to terrorize immigrants and undesirables.
Loyalty is kinda hard when you’re ready to terrorize your population like that. Most think of terrorizing populations as what happened in Minneapolis. This is perhaps the scarier version. A cold hand preparing a batch job for a mainframe to wipe out your civic existence while you still live and breath creates damaged lives and essentially conditional existence for us all. If it is immigrants today it could be anybody tomorrow as DMF runs on an ancient decades old mainframe that doesn’t care.
Initially it felt disloyal seeking dual citizenship. Now it feels protective. I know how easy it is to access those systems to impact the data integrity of DMF so even Markwayne Mullin could do it from his desk.
Having worked in law enforcement for 34+ yrs, 5 plus which were as a patrol officer, I had many opportunities to decide to what virtue(s) I owed my highest loyalty. Those 5 plus yrs were before body cameras were worn. There are few pressures like those in law enforcement to live by the loyalty/sanctity/authority "virtues". I can only say that I hope my actions are/were graded on a curve and that the grader takes into consideration how engrained, expected and sacrosanct some of those "virtues" were. I at least stopped some of the violations that I saw (eg. uncuffed my prisoner-an elderly man with mental health issues-when another cop purposely tightened them with great force, before they were locked in place). I took him away, to protect him from a couple of others that wanted their chance to inflict harm. There were many other scenarios that I saw where I could have taken stronger action. I will say that had I done what should be expected, to report this abuse and follow through, it would have been career ending and I am very certain the offender would have received minor punishment. It's not an excuse, however. In my old age and in hindsight, I know what I should have done.
Since Haidt includes religion in the title of his book, perhaps I’m not out of order to examine my relationship to my faith by way of those values.
I feel as though my faith is intrinsic to my being—Roman Catholic—but also that the institution, itself, falls short on fairness, caring and even authority. The ingrained patriarchal ideology…. which is the source of all wars, of enslavement (for which Pope Leo just apologized), and the actual abuse of women leads me to an observer status vis a vis the institution while not shaking my faith, at all.
I want to encourage everyone to pick up pen and paper (not a keyboard) and write about your thoughts and feelings. As we acknowledge our 250th anniversary this is a good time to ask ourselves who are we as Americans? Where do we want this country to go? What values do we want to live in our time here? Writingpartnersforamerica.com
When I was teaching, I was faced with what I'll call 'imposed conflicts'.... I personally felt that students who clearly cheated, plagiarized, or played fast and loose with the truth should be failed. The same with those who were chronically absent. I was astonished/horrified when the powers that be suggested I 'go easy' on the student. (I'm a product of 17 years of rigorous Catholic schooling.) When I suggested some changes in the program to the powers that be, I wasn't rehired. I'm still sorry I caved and gave one student a 'D'. (I could go on at length about this, and draw parallels to 'alternative facts' and our current nightmare.)
People love to blame teachers for failing students, but for decades it has been the administrators forcing the passing of students just to make "the numbers look good.
The timing of this blog struck me. I'm wearing a Hamilton Chicago shirt and am reading a book by Sean Hepburn Ferrer. Sean is the oldest son of Audrey Hepburn. For those who don't realize it, Audrey was born to Hitler supporters before they realized what his plans were. I'll add my own bits in another post. Here Sean talks about his grandparents.
"Ruston spent increasing amounts of time away. Ella stayed home to care for the children but accompanied him on his travels in support of Europe’s growing fascist movement. In an era when it was fashionable among aristocrats to support nationalist politicians who were promising economic revival after the First World War, the couple became members of the British Union of Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Mosley. They not only befriended the controversial socialite Unity Mitford but traveled with her to Germany, where they met Chancellor Adolf Hitler and had their photograph taken with him, unaware of his plans for war or the annihilation of Europe’s Jews. In 1935 Ella even wrote an article praising the spirit and health of the Germans she’d encountered, stating, “To watch their boundless enthusiasm as they march past in endless formations, hailing their beloved Führer Adolf Hitler, is one of the most inspirational sights on earth. Hitler has a magnetic and most charming personality, which fully reflects the spiritual aspirations of this mighty people.… Well may Adolf Hitler be proud of the rebirth of this great country and of the rejuvenation of the German spirit. The Germany of today is a most pleasant country and the Germans, under Nazi rule, a splendid example, to the white races of the world.” As a little girl, my mother was oblivious to her parents’ politics, but to the end of her days, their prewar allegiance to fascism was a source of shame and embarrassment to her. Even though she appreciated that they were young and foolish and caught up in a wave of political fervor, their views still seemed misguided. Some might say that a desire to make up for them contributed to her determination to do good.
The connection to values instead of tribal conformity resonated with me. Dr Steven Hassan is a cult expert, and he says helping people find their way out of a cult is most effective by helping connect them to their values (vs shaming or shunning them).
‘ Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, and Liberty.’
I have the book. Once everything is sorted, labeled and put into a definitional box, we lose the ability to see the chaotic dynamics of a society with multiple strange attractors.
The values are vital, but so is what is included or excluded from consideration. For example, in loyalty, is the tribe "my family" - "my corporation" - "humanity" or "living beings"? Different political positions and priorities seem affected as much by what is in and out of the box as they are by a hierarchy of different values. Prioritizing human rights asks us to consider a much bigger box in a more even-handed way, and prioritizing our collective future asks us to expand that box beyond the human.
My loyalty is for the highest good of all, not just a privileged few. I got that value from my dad who always put people before money and power and he became very wealthy doing that.
I haven’t researched this yet, but I believe people who are loyal to dominating personalities were raised by dominating parents, maybe even abusive parents.
I remember the old Nurenberg tv movie (from the 90's? Haven't seen the new one, yet). The pyschologist that was with the US prosecutors was interviewing the nazi prisoners trying to figure out why they did what they did. Think I remember he determined it came down to lack of empathy. If you can "other" anyone you don't agree or align with, then it becomes much easier to treat them as someone, or something, less than you.
As humans we have free choice of values but some have proven more universal, constructive, and durable as a basis for civilization. For me these include honesty, integrity, fairness, and compassion. Any time an organization steers away from these to justify harming others I would argue they’ve lost their way and are on the path to self destruction. While the spiritual foundations for these may be controversial, it’s worth considering how we rank competing values and whether they serve everyone or some self appointed “Epstein class.”
This is why I keep pushing harder on the “heritage reclamation” project to secure citizenship by descent in an EU member country. During the week reports came out about another whistleblower report over DOGE attempt to civic un-person people en masse through abusing the Death Master File (“DMF”) at Social Security Administration. DMF is treated as nearly the literal gospel as to whether someone is alive or not so moving people’s records into it while they are still living is a disaster. When I was at IRS we had not so happy times trying to get DMF corrected when people were accidentally added to the file through various bureaucratic blunders and found that they were basically locked out of their lives. DOGE was trying to intentionally do that to millions in a single batch job, though, to terrorize immigrants and undesirables.
Loyalty is kinda hard when you’re ready to terrorize your population like that. Most think of terrorizing populations as what happened in Minneapolis. This is perhaps the scarier version. A cold hand preparing a batch job for a mainframe to wipe out your civic existence while you still live and breath creates damaged lives and essentially conditional existence for us all. If it is immigrants today it could be anybody tomorrow as DMF runs on an ancient decades old mainframe that doesn’t care.
Initially it felt disloyal seeking dual citizenship. Now it feels protective. I know how easy it is to access those systems to impact the data integrity of DMF so even Markwayne Mullin could do it from his desk.
This column was really thought provoking! I am going to print this, stick it on my bulletin board and think about it a lot.
Having worked in law enforcement for 34+ yrs, 5 plus which were as a patrol officer, I had many opportunities to decide to what virtue(s) I owed my highest loyalty. Those 5 plus yrs were before body cameras were worn. There are few pressures like those in law enforcement to live by the loyalty/sanctity/authority "virtues". I can only say that I hope my actions are/were graded on a curve and that the grader takes into consideration how engrained, expected and sacrosanct some of those "virtues" were. I at least stopped some of the violations that I saw (eg. uncuffed my prisoner-an elderly man with mental health issues-when another cop purposely tightened them with great force, before they were locked in place). I took him away, to protect him from a couple of others that wanted their chance to inflict harm. There were many other scenarios that I saw where I could have taken stronger action. I will say that had I done what should be expected, to report this abuse and follow through, it would have been career ending and I am very certain the offender would have received minor punishment. It's not an excuse, however. In my old age and in hindsight, I know what I should have done.
Since Haidt includes religion in the title of his book, perhaps I’m not out of order to examine my relationship to my faith by way of those values.
I feel as though my faith is intrinsic to my being—Roman Catholic—but also that the institution, itself, falls short on fairness, caring and even authority. The ingrained patriarchal ideology…. which is the source of all wars, of enslavement (for which Pope Leo just apologized), and the actual abuse of women leads me to an observer status vis a vis the institution while not shaking my faith, at all.
I want to encourage everyone to pick up pen and paper (not a keyboard) and write about your thoughts and feelings. As we acknowledge our 250th anniversary this is a good time to ask ourselves who are we as Americans? Where do we want this country to go? What values do we want to live in our time here? Writingpartnersforamerica.com
What keeps me reading is your ability to take something hiding in plain sight and make people see it clearly.
Careful. You’re becoming dangerously persuasive.
When I was teaching, I was faced with what I'll call 'imposed conflicts'.... I personally felt that students who clearly cheated, plagiarized, or played fast and loose with the truth should be failed. The same with those who were chronically absent. I was astonished/horrified when the powers that be suggested I 'go easy' on the student. (I'm a product of 17 years of rigorous Catholic schooling.) When I suggested some changes in the program to the powers that be, I wasn't rehired. I'm still sorry I caved and gave one student a 'D'. (I could go on at length about this, and draw parallels to 'alternative facts' and our current nightmare.)
People love to blame teachers for failing students, but for decades it has been the administrators forcing the passing of students just to make "the numbers look good.
The timing of this blog struck me. I'm wearing a Hamilton Chicago shirt and am reading a book by Sean Hepburn Ferrer. Sean is the oldest son of Audrey Hepburn. For those who don't realize it, Audrey was born to Hitler supporters before they realized what his plans were. I'll add my own bits in another post. Here Sean talks about his grandparents.
"Ruston spent increasing amounts of time away. Ella stayed home to care for the children but accompanied him on his travels in support of Europe’s growing fascist movement. In an era when it was fashionable among aristocrats to support nationalist politicians who were promising economic revival after the First World War, the couple became members of the British Union of Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Mosley. They not only befriended the controversial socialite Unity Mitford but traveled with her to Germany, where they met Chancellor Adolf Hitler and had their photograph taken with him, unaware of his plans for war or the annihilation of Europe’s Jews. In 1935 Ella even wrote an article praising the spirit and health of the Germans she’d encountered, stating, “To watch their boundless enthusiasm as they march past in endless formations, hailing their beloved Führer Adolf Hitler, is one of the most inspirational sights on earth. Hitler has a magnetic and most charming personality, which fully reflects the spiritual aspirations of this mighty people.… Well may Adolf Hitler be proud of the rebirth of this great country and of the rejuvenation of the German spirit. The Germany of today is a most pleasant country and the Germans, under Nazi rule, a splendid example, to the white races of the world.” As a little girl, my mother was oblivious to her parents’ politics, but to the end of her days, their prewar allegiance to fascism was a source of shame and embarrassment to her. Even though she appreciated that they were young and foolish and caught up in a wave of political fervor, their views still seemed misguided. Some might say that a desire to make up for them contributed to her determination to do good.
Holden, Wendy; Hepburn Ferrer, Sean. Intimate Audrey: An Authorized Biography (pp. 26-27). (Function). Kindle Edition."
The connection to values instead of tribal conformity resonated with me. Dr Steven Hassan is a cult expert, and he says helping people find their way out of a cult is most effective by helping connect them to their values (vs shaming or shunning them).
I have two sayings on my whiteboard that I keep in the forefront of my decision making.
We don’t know if we’re honest until telling the truth carries a consequence.
We don’t know if we’re kind until our kindness is tested by cruelty.
One more, a quote by Anais Ninn, we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.
Pretty much how I live day to day with the world and all its atrocities happening around me.
‘ Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, and Liberty.’
I have the book. Once everything is sorted, labeled and put into a definitional box, we lose the ability to see the chaotic dynamics of a society with multiple strange attractors.
The values are vital, but so is what is included or excluded from consideration. For example, in loyalty, is the tribe "my family" - "my corporation" - "humanity" or "living beings"? Different political positions and priorities seem affected as much by what is in and out of the box as they are by a hierarchy of different values. Prioritizing human rights asks us to consider a much bigger box in a more even-handed way, and prioritizing our collective future asks us to expand that box beyond the human.
My loyalty is for the highest good of all, not just a privileged few. I got that value from my dad who always put people before money and power and he became very wealthy doing that.
I haven’t researched this yet, but I believe people who are loyal to dominating personalities were raised by dominating parents, maybe even abusive parents.
I think there is some evidence for that. See "8 Characteristics of Authoritarian Parenting" (https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-authoritarian-parenting-2794955).
Thank you for sharing this with me
You're welcome.
I remember the old Nurenberg tv movie (from the 90's? Haven't seen the new one, yet). The pyschologist that was with the US prosecutors was interviewing the nazi prisoners trying to figure out why they did what they did. Think I remember he determined it came down to lack of empathy. If you can "other" anyone you don't agree or align with, then it becomes much easier to treat them as someone, or something, less than you.
I had to watch the old one as part of some of my psych classes. I saw the new one. It's hard to sleep after watching both versions.
Definitely. In studies of genocides, dehumanization is always involved.
For me I always remember Hannah Arendt’s “banality of Evil. “
Thank you Asha. Great article. I do think they don’t have any guardrails for him. They don’t have any spine. Because they’re scared of him.
As humans we have free choice of values but some have proven more universal, constructive, and durable as a basis for civilization. For me these include honesty, integrity, fairness, and compassion. Any time an organization steers away from these to justify harming others I would argue they’ve lost their way and are on the path to self destruction. While the spiritual foundations for these may be controversial, it’s worth considering how we rank competing values and whether they serve everyone or some self appointed “Epstein class.”