[Peace-discuss] "...thinking makes it so"

[C G Estabrook]

One of the most misunderstood lines in Shakespeare is Hamlet’s “...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Here a FOA (Friend of AWARE) brilliantly applies it to current US politics (h/t K. Aram):

"Today I had two discussions, one with people advocating hate crime laws, and another with people defending Antifa, and it occurred to me that they were pretty much the same people.

"Hate crime laws are actually thought crime laws, in that they take what is already a crime, and add years to the sentence if the perp was thinking bad thoughts when they committed the crime.

"Antifas are people who commit crimes, and expect to go unpunished at all, because they were thinking good thoughts when they committed the crime.

"This is magical thinking, the idea that thoughts are more important than reality. This is very American, since we have had multiple Think Yourself Rich fads, from Napoleon Hill to Oprah. And we are earnestly told that having a president who 'believes' in climate change is more important than actual policy changes. And, of course, the latest fad in which you can think yourself right into the opposite sex. (And not in the old 'think yourself irresistible' way.)

"I think I'll just be over here, in the corner, visualizing peace.” --Paula Densnow