A theme I have encountered throughout my life is what I call ‘impossibility boxes.’ Impossibility boxes are constructs - almost always human-made - that serve to direct us into physical or imagined ‘canyons’ of experience where there is no escape. No alternative. A hopeless circumstance of inevitability, of a sort of doom.
Sometimes these are of society’s making. In such cases, impossibility boxes are created for the purpose of ‘defeating’ a person or a group. Our political adversaries have raised the objective to an art form. They like nothing more than creating impossibility boxes for their adversaries. Circumstances of no escape, of inevitable, crushing defeat. Where those behind the eight ball cannot - EVER! - get out from behind it. Where those not yet behind the eight ball are placed there.
More below, but first, a word from our sponsor ...
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top to pop up in diaries around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fleur de kos...
|
They do it with women, particularly in the arena of reproductive choice (but also with jobs and dozens of other examples).They do it with the elderly. They do it with people of color. They do it all the time with children. As soon as impossibility boxes they have constructed have forced women to have unwanted children, their interest in those children evaporates, and the children themselves become targets of opportunity for them. They then focus on impossibility boxes of little to no health care, little or no education (or education hamstrung into perpetual inadequacy by suffocating funding restrictions), and many others. After all, if educated, cared for, and nurtured, those children might one day represent a competitive challenge to THEIR hyper-well-endowed children, and that could never be permitted.
Obviously many essays are possible on the pervasiveness of impossibility boxes, but tonight I want to write about the most insidious of those: those we construct ourselves.
It would seem law of nature that we would seek out the best for ourselves, that we would always act in our best interest, for the pursuit of our goals and ambitions, but it isn’t so. Many times the greatest obstacles we face are internal, of our own making. Those are obstacles we have set in our own paths, sometimes to ‘stack the deck’ toward choices we should make, sometimes to stack the deck toward choices we shouldn’t.
I have a friend I work with whom I’ll call ‘Rick.’ (Not his real name.) (Okay, maybe it’s his real name.) Rick is a fellow I like very much. He has great abilities in his field of work. He has a fine work ethic, and is a professional through and through. But, in conversation with him you learn that he thinks of himself as a victim. If he has a troubling exchange in a restaurant or other public business, somehow he was victimized, taken advantage of. Somehow he was placed in a position of making a concession of some kind to his disadvantage. To his detriment. This seems to happen to him with a far greater frequency than any random thing might suggest, or, perhaps it is only such exchanges that he remembers, counts and recounts. That is to say, if he has an exchange that is NOT like that, then he either forgets it or removes it from his ‘tally’ for statistical purposes. It does not support his thesis, and so is discarded/disregarded.
For him, these exchanges form an impossibility box, of sorts, for more beneficial and successful experience. He believes in them, in his victimhood. As you know, it is not attractive. It does not say good things about him and his self-image. I am very careful to never encourage his investment in his victimhood, and to never speak to him as a victim, even if that is what he wants. He does not need to convince me of his victimhood, he needs to convince himself of the opposite.
The point is that it is something we just about all do at one time or another. We aren’t always our own best allies, our own best advocates. And we should be.
In the political world sometimes we may use impossibility boxes that serve to HELP conservatives achieve our defeat. This can happen when we begin to accept the idea that our hard work counts for nothing, or has no effect, or fails. It becomes OUR impossibility box, in our ownership, when we accept it as that.
They are never more excited, or happier, than when they feel they have implanted such a vicious, insidious seed within us, so that it becomes self-active, requiring no reinforcement or additional ‘maintenance’ from them. Because then we may take ourselves off the field of play, reducing our numbers by one, and withdrawing supportive energy - financial and otherwise - from the ‘assets’ our side has to work with.
I cannot say that our work, our expenditures of our energy and emotion and caring ALWAYS have the impact we desire, that they achieve the results we hope for and work for. In 2014 our work seemed particularly futile. And yet I know that we did important work. Many of those we care most about witnessed the defeats, and yet know with GREATER certainty that we have their backs. That we lost a battle and NOT the war.
And there are many voters who held their noses and voted for our adversaries despite valid misgivings WE helped them articulate and understand better, hastening the day when their eyes really will open, an they’ll start voting more consistently with their interests and their understandings of our political world. We have planted important seeds. They are seeds I believe in, not least because I have seen similar seeds germinate within me throughout my life, seeds that take me in better directions than I have traveled before. Possibility unboxed, as it were.
Think about the impossibility boxes we face in our world, about their effects, within and without. And let’s work resolutely toward a world of greater possibility for all. Not least of all, for ourselves!
One final thought: If man can make impossibility boxes, man can unmake them, too. Maybe not right away, but with time. Very important. (If you think they cannot be unmade because they don’t unmake immediately, that would itself be an impossibility box, too.) Recognizing them for what they are is the critical first step to their elimination!
I found a picture for this, but I do not have rights to it. It is a picture of Nelson Mandela, at the Story of Stuff's FB page. On it he is smiling and he says:
It always seems impossible until it is done!
(There was no stopping that guy. Ultimately not even impossibility boxes created by others could hold him. Bravo!)
On to tonight’s comments! Graciously formatted by the inimitable brillig!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything
without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do
not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From both gooderservice and lone1c:
Top comment by cybersaur, from Kristina40's Breaking: Grand Juror in Wilson case sues McCulloch.
From Village Vet:
Both Remembering Jello's comment and koosah's reply are a hoot. From Jen Hayden's Child with measles visits 'Please Touch Museum' in Philadelphia.
From lotac:
In Jen Hayden's diary What the hell is Sarah Palin talking about here? blue aardvark suggests only paying attention to Palin's word salad when it contains bacon bits. Then TKO333 follows up with proof that bacon doesn't make everything better.
Top Mojo for yesterday, January 4th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Is that picture of Gohmert photoshopped??? by nailbender — 168
2) But-but-but by Tara the Antisocial Social Worker — 157
3) WOW..... by Ky DEM — 105
4) And so much more Tara by Rosalie907 — 86
5) They won't let go of this hate when Obama by ontheleftcoast — 80
6) Oh Hai Whoknu! Change Can't Come Soon Enuf... by leonard145b — 75
7) Because the U.S. is the opposite of an by Paleo — 75
8) I hope he wins, honestly: by 4CasandChlo — 74
9) Amen, let us work together to understand the past by Ian Reifowitz — 70
10) LOL! Until, Of Course, Itz For Her Own Good... by leonard145b — 67
11) I heard he was swaddled in a hoodie. by Glen The Plumber — 67
12) Obama personally killed my pony by kovie — 66
13) I have long had a dream by Wolffarmer — 64
14) Israeli double-speak by babalu — 64
15) One of my husband's least favorite colleagues, an by Wee Mama — 62
16) The problem isn't with (most) antitheists. by slksfca — 62
17) Just don't get caught! by kerflooey — 62
18) I remember them blaming Obama for the collapse by ontheleftcoast — 61
19) We condemn this kind of terrorism when it by blue jersey mom — 61
20) Zen... by leonard145b — 60
21) Excellent! by Matt Z — 58
22) So sorry about Texas & North Dakota by FishOutofWater — 57
23) Yes-- same old song... (bad language) by kerflooey — 57
24) i had family members by art ah zen — 52
25) NOM's sister organization... by BenderRodriguez — 52
26) LOL! Iz U Sure Bout That??? by leonard145b — 51
27) We can laugh at them all we like, but... by slksfca — 51
28) Notice how she responds to PETA, and not to the by zenbassoon — 50
29) Wiggle room is all part of #sekritarmy's arsenal. by jwinIL14 — 50
30) I'm worried that the answer is "less every year." by GreyHawk — 50
31) There was a debate on another thread yesterday by elenacarlena — 50
32) They forgot one charge: Manslaughter by bobdevo — 50
33) As good as these low gas prices feel by Elizaveta — 50
Top Pictures for yesterday, January 4th. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment and/or larger picture. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!