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A scapegoat, like the man who was the first to die in Austin, is seen by definition as expendable. People can come to disregard the predicaments facing people deemed beneath them, seeing their misfortunes as having no bearing on their own lives, seeing whatever is happening to them as, say, a black problem, rather than a human problem, unwittingly endangering everyone.
For centuries, various interpretations of faith have helped sovereigns and their elites control populations. Slaveholders in America saw its value in manipulating enslaved people. Christianity offered a useful construct that promised a people deprived of their freedom, and often their dignity, reasons to believe in a better life in the hereafter. Indirectly, it argued for stoic tolerance of the intolerable. None of this makes religion evil or wrong any more than effective leadership is bad, but we must understand and respect the inherent power contained in such beliefs.
On Character
Stanley McChrystal
In the meantime, awareness of human neurodiversity helps us o the diversity of beauty in modern society, even if we cannot perceive all of those beauties. As cultural production becomes more diverse more and more art forms will be directed at pleasing people with unusual neurologies. More and more of the aesthetic beauty of the world will be hidden to most observers, or at least those who don't invest in learning. The aesthetic lushness of the world will be increasingly distributed into baroque nooks and crannies, in a manner that would honor a Borges short story.
Create Your Own Economy
Tyler Cowen
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