Philosophy is cool, but it can't replace reality. I grew up during the 1960's, and I don't see things getting any better. On the contrary, things are pretty scary - and I see no reason to expect better in the future.

Frankly, I think a lot of the talk about things getting better is just propaganda designed to make people think things are going to get better.

It's very effective, too. I encounter people all the time who think things are OK, even though they're stuck in dead-end jobs, can't afford to go to school, etc., etc. I guess if you're born in a corporate ghetto, you have no experience of a better place to compare it to.

- "True, but all the hating doesn't seem to do much either."

How can we tell? U.S. citizens have been so brainwashed into civility, they scarcely know what hate is - except when they're hating Muslims, communists or some other bogeyman. I've run for public office several times, and I ran hard-hitting campaigns that hit below the belt, and the local chamber of commerce clearly didn't like it. If other candidates grew a pair of you-know-what and began speaking out, we might be able to change things. The meek clearly aren't going to inherit the earth.

"We need to deal with that and restrain their bad behaviour, and eventually persuade them to put their considerable talents to better use. Unfortunately, it does not seem that we can rely on the Good Headmaster to do it for us."

Bingo. The people running the show are hard core criminals. If Gandhi could come back from the dead and hit them with his tactics, they'd just have him assassinated or "disappeared."

- I'm a big fan of socialism in the broad sense of the term. I don't know if I'd want to live in a communist country, though I think other countries ought to have the right to choose whatever system works for them. I'm really attracted to what some call a "mixed economy," combining capitalism and socialism. Some say we'll have no choice but turn to capitalism as the global population increases and natural resources decrease. The sad thing is, socialism hasn't been much kinder to the environment than capitalism. ;)

- The victims include both adults and children. I will always side with children over adults. As for the adults tyrannized by principals, they're all over the map, of course. But most are ordinary folks just doing their jobs. I've studied enough "derelict principals" to know what I'm talking about. Or Google "Clint Webb," who kidnapped and murdered his disabled landlord BEFORE he was hired by his brother in law and put in charge of a girls' locker room, after which he continued to receive paychecks while he was in prison on other various charges, until he was eventually nailed for raping a fourteen-year-old-student. He no longer works for the school district, but he now has nearly four dozen felony convictions, and I don't think he's even in prison. I compiled a list of over two dozen principals who were guilty of everything from stealing from the student fund to having sex with students. There's no gray area here.

- Eugene Debs is another of my heroes, though I've never thought of whims a "hater." I haven't studied him in detail, but he seems like a person who simply had a sense of justice and who persevered. But if there was a revolution, and Debs wound up in charge, I suspect he wouldn't have executed anyone. ;)

P.S. I'm working on a book about politix (a word I coined to described the broad spectrum of politics, including the workplace, political philosophy, etc.), and I want to include a chapter on ethics, focusing largely on this topic. You have all given me a lot of interesting things to think about.

- Thanks for the comment. I'm very skeptical of the claim that evil people "stew in their own juices." I've dealt with many corrupt public officials, and I don't think I've ever seen any of them display the slightest hint of guilt or remorse. They ACT guilty - they hold secret meetings, they're very evasive, and I've seen them literally sneaking out the back door in the middle of the night. So they KNOW they're doing wrong. Yet they continue doing wrong until the day they die, and the number of wrongdoers who break the silence and admit their guilt or blow the whistle on their colleagues is virtually nil.

- Good story. Unfortunately, there are many kinds of wrongdoing that love can't even begin to stop. All the loving in the world won't stop the U.S. government from waging eternal war or exploiting other countries, for example.

- Thanks for your thoughts. I'm not religious, so I don't give much thought to things like Christianity, karma, etc. I do have some admiration for "Eastern religions," though I've never really studied them. But if I give up the good fight and just wait for karma to punish the bad guys, then I'm essentially abandoning my children (the students still trapped in our derelict schools).

I'm essentially a naturalist; my first love in life was animals. I see mother animals of many different species fighting to the death to protect their young, and my instincts are the same.

-- Wow, great answer. I just finished reading "Forgiveness: A Philosophical Exploration" by Charles Griswold. Amazing that someone could write a book of nearly 300 pages on the simple topic of forgiveness - and, though he does discuss political apologies, he really did a lousy job of covering forgiveness in the political arena.

But it was interesting to learn in his book that the ancient Greek philosophers had little to say about forgiveness. As I understand, they kind of modeled themselves after the gods. They considered themselves "virtuous," and therefore in no need of being forgiven. At the same time, there was no need to forgive ordinary people, who were beneath their contempt and really couldn't hurt them, anyway.

So I'm going to have to find some more recent philosophers to study. But, as you suggest, the great philosophers may not have the answer here. I've just begun studying the literature, but I feel like I'm kind of exploring new territory.

The person in my question is a composite of many people I met while I was a teacher. I was tyrannized to an extraordinary extent before I opened my eyes and began scrutinizing the school district. I quickly discovered that the corruption was and remains unbelievable. I became a whistle-blower and a political activist. Eventually, I got laid off.

I absolutely agree that it's important for people to have "a burning desire for justice." However, I think hate may be a valid part of the equation, too.

My hate has gone through several stages. I know from experience that hate can be a miserable and largely unproductive experience. After I got laid off, my hate evaporated as I focused on survival. Long story, but I went through several really painful things that had me thinking my life was over.

After i began recovering, my hate suddenly came flooding back - but it was very different. Think about a person like Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, who obviously weren't happy about being endless victims of racism, but who were calm and collected and very eloquent.

I want to learn more about another of my heroes, Che Guevara. Rather than spend his whole life philosophizing about injustice, he picked up a gun and waged war against the bad guys. After the war, he executed more bad guys.

Yet he never came across as "hateful." Was he driven solely by a burning sense of justice? I think he must felt a measure of hate, or something similar (contempt?), for the scum he was fighting. How can one love one's children without hating those who abuse them?

What does this statement mean?: "Jesus taught that we should forgive people 7 x 70 times." Is there some significance to the numbers 7 X 70, or was it just his way of saying we should ALWAYS forgive?

I'm not really religious, so my philosophical belief system is more secular.