Personal attacks

When a person is attacked, the natural response is to attack back, to "come out swinging," as they say, and usually the retaliator is given an immediate pass (at least this time), because everyone believes they have some "inalienable right" to retaliate when attacked.

That may be true, when it pertains to physical, bodily attacks, as one's sense of self-preservation kicks in automatically - one usually can't help it, or stop it. But, is that also true, when the attack is only verbal?

When a person is verbally attacked - against their person, or their ideas - there is perceptible time, wherein one can make a choice, whether to attack back. Usually, the scales are heavily weighted on the side of "do it," and rarely on the side of "don't do it," and this may be a carryover from the past, the pre-civilized past.

The more civilized one is, the more the scales are weighted on the side of "don't do it." And when you think about it, even for just a few moments more than is natural to you, that really makes more sense, than always immediately defending yourself, or attacking back. Even children know this: "sticks and stones will... but words will..."

The impulse to "get civilized" pre-dates the impulse to "awaken" (enlightenment, nirvana, waking up, mindfulness, etc.) When people started living in close surroundings, there needed to be a method to keep the upstarts in line, so that the community would not crumble, hence, "getting civilized."

Now, consider: if everybody was truly, civilized - as civilized as humanly possible - would there really be a "need" (or desire, or wish, or calling) to "awaken" (enlightenment, nirvana, waking up, mindfulness, etc.)

Perhaps, those buzzwords above, are merely futuristic terminology (or descriptions) for the ordinary, common word/phrase: "being civilized."

Now, consider: how would an email list operate, if everybody was truly civilized? Hell, how would life on earth operate if everybody was truly civilized? Would there even be discussions about "super-civility," or "awakened-civility," or "enlightened-civility?"

Perhaps, the personal and individual AIM to be civilized, is just about the highest AIM one can take upon oneself, for without that, what is one but an animal?