Buber, Good and Evil, p. 111 as quoted on page 76 in People of The Lie by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
A bizarre scene unfolded out on MSNBC's Hardball the evening of July 5, 2006, as
Norah O'Donnell, impeccable in her dress, her make-up a facial coif of sorts, became the angry and dogmatic Mother Superior intent on defending her apparent christ from the onslaught of truthful statements made against him by the Rebellious Student sitting in front of her, namely, one Cindy Sheehan.
Mother Superior (O'Donnell) started her dogmatic berating of Sheehan by stating, "Americans may hate the war, but they don't necessarily hate the president. How do you expect to get change by going around the world and trashing the president of the United States?"
(Dear Mother Superior, have you been out of the convent lately? Have you read any of the blogs in the bloggosphere, or any of the progressive websites? The America I know HATES George W. Bush. Okay. The America I know feels repulsed by George W. Bush. What do you call people's emotion when they want to lunge things at the television every time George Bush appears on their screen? What do you call people's emotions when they feel the need to give him the finger as the gunship helicopter transporting him flies over their rooftops? What emotion would you say propels people in America and in the world to take to the streets, or stand on our highways and overpasses with signs that say, "fire the liar", "He lied and people died", or "Neoconned, America's Been Duped". I mean, have you really been outside of the corporate convent recently, dear Mother Superior? Have you looked at the wave of revulsion your all too human dictator christ has wrought on this world?)
(Oops! Did this strike a chord with you, Mother Superior? It might have, because your immediate reply sounded more like a reactive one, calculated to stoke the fires of reactivity against Sheehan. You said, "But you called him, 'the biggest terrorists in the world.' So you are trashing the president." There, you have it guys: Mother Superior said it and so it must be believed as dogma. Seriously, though, you refused to accept Sheehan's direct eye-to-eye, face-to-face explanation to you of a distinction between trashing Bush and trashing Bush's policies and you made it your dogmatic statement that she trashes your idealized Bush, insisting that she called him, "the biggest terrorist in the world." And, insisting that Sheehan is, "trashing the president.")
The rebellious student sitting in front of you would have none of your dogma, nor would she let herself be intimidated by your Mother Superior act of constantly shaming and ridiculing the living daylights out of her. She patiently she explained that, "Well, you know, he says a terrorist is somebody who kills innocent men, women and children, and there have been over 100,000 innocent men, women and children killed in Iraq on his orders."
(... Did truth score a point here Mother Superior? You dropped the subject faster than a pair of hands might drop a hot potato and went on to ask about Sheehan's recently begun two-month hunger strike. Then, apparently not wanting to be informed on the subject, or perhaps afraid of how her answer might instruct the people who are desperately looking for a way to fight George Bush off of their backs, you interjected, even before she answered, "Isn't this really more of a publicity stunt?" To her answer that, "NO...It's a moral reaction to an immoral war ..." you offered up some more ridicule and minimizing the intent of her hunger strike, you stated, "But do you honestly expect Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, or the president of the United States to say, Cindy Sheehan is going on a hunger strike and so I'm going to end this war?")
Again, the rebellious student would have none of your bait. She gave you a calm, reasoned-through answer, "...what we're trying to do is ...awaken consciousness in the United States and around the world to get more people out and active, because we know two-thirds of America disapprove of George Bush and his policies in Iraq, but I don't see two-thirds of America out protesting, writing their congresspeople and changing policy."
With that, the Rebellious Student, sitting on the bench of the accused lifted your facial coif in one swoop and showed us how you really labor to keep truth from coming out and people from becoming active against your idealized, dictatorial, christos.
Dear Mother Superior, what I wonder is, when you go home at night, and take off your make-up and look into the mirror, can you see yourself? Can you honestly peer into your soul and say to yourself that you've done the right thing?
Do you believe, Dear Mother Superior, that people cannot see through your pre-packaged agenda?
