{"id":2609,"date":"2008-02-17T08:59:51","date_gmt":"2008-02-17T15:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2609"},"modified":"2008-02-17T08:59:51","modified_gmt":"2008-02-17T15:59:51","slug":"the-religion-tyranny-of-niceness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2609\/the-religion-tyranny-of-niceness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Religion (Tyranny) of Niceness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The forms of tyranny we\u2019re most familiar with are the examples of power and ruthlessness over the more genteel and non-violent. Countries without wide acceptance of rule of law and binding constitutions usually fall under the control of the most vicious and powerful gang.<\/p>\n

But here in US, we\u2019re more civilized, we fall under the control of niceness, PC and the egalitarian urge toward mediocrity. Many can hardly wait for those who rise to fall, those who succeed to fail, those who achieve to lose and those who speak a raw truth to be silenced. Pleasantville is home town and the middle is a feel-good state of mind.<\/p>\n

However, even in Pleasantville the human trait for dominance exists and niceness is a large, sharp sword in the hands of those who would control through kindness. Those who fail the test of kindness are enemies of the state (of mind). Those who are most kind are the leaders \u2013 their subjects strive to be more kind and they hate the unkind. Who are the unkind? Well, that\u2019s usually decided by the leaders of the kind and depends on alliances.<\/p>\n

The irony is that the kind can be unkind if it\u2019s for the greater good of the kind, because niceness is subjective and must be determined by the wisdom of the leaders of the kind. Usually the unkind are those who think and act differently than the kind. If the kind believe that group support of self-esteem is more important than honesty, then those who say anything detrimental to the self-esteem of a member of the kind is unkind and therefore not nice, an enemy to be destroyed, even if they are destroyed by unkindness. It\u2019s for the greater good of the kind.<\/p>\n

Who doesn\u2019t want to be kind? The number of kind is many because kindness is a virtue and niceness is the religion of the kind. Sometimes the unkind have done nothing but speak their minds, yet in speaking they\u2019ve crossed the line of acceptable honesty and violated the code of kindness and therefore a legitimate target for unkindness for the sake of survival of Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The forms of tyranny we\u2019re most familiar with are the examples of power and ruthlessness over the more genteel and non-violent. Countries without wide acceptance of rule of law and binding constitutions usually fall under the control of the most vicious and powerful gang. But here in US, we\u2019re more civilized, we fall under the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","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":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[55,53,54],"class_list":{"0":"post-2609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-group-therapy","7":"tag-gadflys","8":"tag-kindnes","9":"tag-niceness","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2610,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2610\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":2609,"position":0},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We have 18 entries on the short list this week, out of a long list of 74 posts. Vote for the People's Choice Award here. You can use the voting interface to see each nominated post, so comparison is easy. Ahem: Please don't spam all your friends to come and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2614,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2614\/the-odysseus-medal-amy-winehouse-is-not-in-the-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":2609,"position":1},"title":"The Odysseus Medal: Amy Winehouse is not in the house","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Judging this contest, I get to read a lot of talented writers. But only one can connect Amy Winehouse to real estate and have it all make the most delightful kind of sense. The Odysseus Medal this week goes to Geno Petro for She tried to make me buy a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1602,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1602\/clip-show-pleasantville\/","url_meta":{"origin":2609,"position":2},"title":"Clip Show: Pleasantville","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't even begin to tell you how much I get out of Pleasantville. Everything about the film -- theme, plot, character development, graphic style -- is stunningly original, truly a triumph in a film that draws on so many different cultural, historical and filmic archetypes. The face acting is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4035,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4035\/rhapsodizing-the-iphone-a-full-day-of-my-chaotic-life-hours-of-phone-time-a-trip-to-pleasantville-and-i-could-not-love-it-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":2609,"position":3},"title":"Rhapsodizing the iPhone: A full day of my chaotic life, hours of phone time, a trip to Pleasantville — and I could not love it more","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm totally loving my iPhone, so far. Wine Dog is right about power. I think I want two, one each for in- and out-bound calls. But it's so far beyond any other phone I've ever had, I would never even think of stepping back to yesterday's phone. I have a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1614,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1614\/clip-show-the-fabulous-baker-boys\/","url_meta":{"origin":2609,"position":4},"title":"Clip show: The Fabulous Baker Boys","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote about The Fabulous Baker Boys at New Years. This is another film where the conflicts are painfully real and where everyone is a better person at the end. In the clip linked below, Michelle Pfeiffer sings More Than You Know as a way of summarizing the argument of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1678,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1678\/prometheus-unbound-books-are-dead-but-ideas-are-forevermore-unchained-from-the-tyranny-and-avarice-of-atoms\/","url_meta":{"origin":2609,"position":5},"title":"Prometheus unbound: Books are dead, but ideas are forevermore unchained from the tyranny and avarice of atoms","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Seth Godin:Five hundred year old technology (books) is just too slow for the Net. The act of printing, storing and shipping millions of books takes too long for a secret to ever be in a book again.More.Books are souvenirs. No one is going to read Potter online, even if it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}