When, where and with whom MrWitch? Not with me. I don't recognize that you in your description. Almost every time we've chatted you made me feel better about something that was worrying me. I have told you that. You would carefully explain whatever it was and we'd sometimes chat back and forth. Cynical/suspicious/pessimistic would not make me feel better. I promise you it wouldn't. So where is this person whom you describe? Are you protecting me from him because I'm an old lady? Seriously. I think you have a very keen intellect and I don't think you pull any punches. But I do not get those negatives vibes from you. Unless I have totally misunderstand all our conversations all these years which I suppose is a possibility! Thank you for your reply and Happy Wednesday! :)
I don't view myself as 'kind' Rosie. I'm really not. But for a quirk of fate I could easily be in prison or worse.
I'm not unkind however. I do make an effort to do that. I think all people should be given the respect due to them. It costs nothing and make nobody feel bad. So I avoid applying name calling, belittling, and denigrating to people and try to limit those things to ideas and structures. An idiotic, dangerous idea can be proposed or supported by people who aren't dangerous idiots - happens every election cycle! :)
That respect involves answering questions put to me. While I enjoy explaining things as best I can, I also think that if someone poses an honest question they are entitled to an honest answer - even if that is simply, 'I don't know'. Enquiry is the very cornerstone of human civilisation Rosie. Without it we risk losing everything that has gone before and limit what might be in the future. Surely something that important deserves a thoughtful response and a little bit of time? :)
As for making you feel better, I would hazard that has little to do with me. Reality is often difficult, sometimes grim and occasionally frightening but our fears of what we don't know amplify those negative things. If we listen to our fears we will rarely get a truthful answer, but we will always get a fearful one.
Information, I find, is often enough to make fears disappear. :)
Not necessarily, pure kindness can be a fatal weakness. It won't make your life easier by any stretch of the imagination. The rule also isn't a guarantee that others will act in kind or will never try to manipulate / exploit you; it simply means you can rest easier knowing you tried your best to foster a different outcome.
But it certainly bears noting that the man who popularized this principle was brutally murdered.
Benedict Arnold 