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

[David Green]

How is the line from Hamlet misunderstood?

On Tue, Jul 3, 2018 at 6:57 PM C G Estabrook via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace/attachments/20180703/d6dc4b24/attachment.html>