Further notes on the anti-racism Canadian struggle session
Have you ever read Shirley Jackson’s famous short story “The Lottery,” written in 1948? If you haven’t, SPOILER alert: the plot involves a tradition in a seemingly-normal town in which a person is chosen by lot to be stoned to death by the other residents. No reason is ever given. The process is merely described, in a narrative in which the Norman Rockwell-esque turns gradually into the horrific.
I’ve written two posts already about the struggle session atmosphere to which former Toronto school principal Richard Bilkszto was subjected during a 2021 anti-racism training session in Canada (see this and this). That’s what put me in mind of the Shirley Jackson story. Bilkszto ended up suing the Toronto School Board District for what happened during the session and afterwards at the Board’s hands, but shortly after the suit was filed he killed himself. It now seems more apparent to me, after reading some further articles on the subject, why the incident had such a devastating effect.
The first training session was just the beginning, although it was horrible. It was followed by some sources scrambling to show their own virtue by condemning Bilkszto, or protecting themselves from similar attack by fearfully keeping silent [emphasis mine]:
Bilkszto was particularly devastated by the fact that some of his TDSB bosses, whom he’d naively expected to defend him (or at least have the courtesy to say nothing at all), eagerly piled on with the public shaming meted out by their external DEI consultant.
On Twitter, Sheryl Robinson Petrazzini, then the TDSB’s Executive Superintendent, thanked Ojo-Thompson and her KOJO colleague for “modelling the discomfort [that] administrators” — i.e., Bilkszto — “may need to experience in order to disrupt ABR [anti-Black racism].”
For good measure, Robinson Petrazzini also suggested that Bilkszto (whom she did not name, but was the obvious subject of her Tweet) was allied with the forces of “resistance” to anti-racism, and so was abetting “harm to Black students and families.”
Bilkszto personally asked Robinson Petrazzini to delete the Tweet. She did so only eight months later, and only after receiving a letter from Bilkszto’s lawyer warning her that she’d be sued unless she did so.
According to Bilkszto, his other bosses also refused to support him, instead attacking him for his “male white privilege.” And yet, once Bilkszto filed a lawsuit against the TDSB, seeking $785,000 damages for the emotional and reputational harm he’d endured, those same administrators now began claiming that it was Ojo-Thompson who’d gone rogue.
I imagine it was especially disconcerting to Bilkszto to learn how fragile were the bonds he’d forged during his lengthy working life, how eager people he’d previously trusted were to distance themselves from him and throw a few stones themselves. When a community of colleagues appears to turn against a person or to be silent while he is persecuted, the experience generally has a powerful effect, adding betrayal to the original injury. As a liberal who may have continued up to that point to believe that the others shared his values, he probably experienced a very rude and shattering awakening.
Also, the insults launched against Bilkszto during the training session by Ojo-Thompson were even more extensive than reported in the other articles I’ve read prior to this. Here’s more of what is alleged to have been done [emphasis mine]:
“We [Canadians] are stepping on necks, we are kneeling on necks, we are Derek Chauvin-ing a whole group of people… Patriarchy is killing you, capitalism is killing you, and White supremacy is taking your soul, but what do I know?” Thompson said, according to a complaint obtained by Fox News Digital.
Ojo-Thompson proceeded to call Canada “the bastion of White supremacy and colonialism,” according to the suit. …
“I am telling you what the facts are and the truth is,” Ojo-Thompson said, while claiming Canada was worse than the U.S. in regard to embedded “White supremacy,” according to the suit.
After Bilkszto interjected, disagreeing with Ojo-Thompson in her assessment that Canada was more racist than the U.S., he was promptly reprimanded for his “Whiteness,” according to the suit.
“This is why we are in the place we are in. We are here to talk about anti-Black racism, but you in your Whiteness think that you can tell me what’s really going on for Black people? Is that what you are doing? I think that’s what you’re doing,” Ojo-Thompson said, according to the suit.
Another trainer at KOJO, interjected, claiming Bilkszto was an “apologist” for racism, in front of all his administrative peers, according to the suit. Bilkszto’s superiors and colleagues did not intervene when the alleged racial comments against his “Whiteness” were made.
Ojo-Thompson proceeded “to publicly humiliate Bilkszto and make an example of him,” going so far as to liken him to a “‘weed’ that needed to be cut down,” the lawsuit said.
So we have the leader, Ojo-Thompson, taking an aggressive tone and setting Bilkszto up as the white male villain. As is common in these trainings, any argument or attempt to defend oneself is labeled as more racism. This was done in a public work setting in front of peers, and as far as I can tell, Bilkszto was the only person who objected and the only person so treated. And then his colleagues – whom he almost certainly had previously considered friends – were silent, probably afraid that they would be the next victims and that Ojo-Thompson and her associate would get out that weed-whacker and use it on them. So he was the designated sacrificial lamb who would save the group from condemnation.
It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to that sort of tyranny and expose oneself to the possibility of such an attack, especially in the workplace where the consequences can be serious and financial. Most people will not do it.
But that wasn’t all that happened to Bilkszto. There were other professional consequences, and a further struggle session where Bilkszto was targeted again as well as mocked [emphasis mine]:
Bilkszto was then called in for professional reprimand in relation to his ideological disagreement with Ojo-Thompson. When Bilkszto attended the next KOJO training, Ojo-Thompson attacked him again unprompted, while laughing at one point, according to the suit.
“This is the operation of White supremacy and you [the audience of colleagues, that is] saw it with your own eyes,” Ojo-Thompson said, according to the lawsuit.
“It doesn’t get better than this,” Ojo-Thomson said about Bilkszto’s interruption, per the suit.
“It is rare that when teaching something that you actually get a real life of the concept unfolding right before everyone’s eyes and ears, and we had that privilege last week, so I want to open by going back to the concept of resistance,” Ojo-Thomson said, according to the suit.
“One of the ways that White supremacy is upheld… is through resistance and like I said, as I began to speak earlier we had, I am so lucky [*laughs*], who would have thought my luck would have showed up so well last week, that we got perfect evidence of a wonderful example of resistance that all of you got to bear witness to, and we are going to talk about it, because it doesn’t get better than this,” she continued, according to the suit.
Power and sadism and racism from Ojo-Thompson, and no one in the audience willing to stand up and call it what it was.
Here is a short bio of Ojo-Thompson. And here you can find even more details of her remarks to Bilkszto, including a series of audio clips of some of the exchanges at the trainings.
Also, some later remarks Bilkszto made about his own life:
“To me, being gay is a part of me,” Bilkszto said in the interview. “It’s not my identity. It’s not something I choose to put out there all the time. As a matter of fact, if people were having a conversation about, you know, ‘I don’t think there should be gay marriage,’ I’m not even offended by that if people are making rational arguments—as long as they’re not being homophobic.”
He added: “It’s about the whole cancelling and not allowing for free speech, free debate, and all those types of things. I’m a big free speech proponent.” Bilkszto said he thought Chris Rufo, the conservative activist who built his online following by spotlighting the excesses of wokeness, was spot on.
Sounds like a very reasonable guy. Bilkszto apparently had a loving family, and had previously been highly respected in his job.
While it’s certainly true that not everyone would have committed suicide in the face of this kind of pressure, the stress was formidable. I am convinced that, but for the chain of events that was set in motion by the training, Bilkszto would be alive today.
NOTE: You can read the entire story “The Lottery” here. It’s quite short.
This seems to be a modern example of mass hysteria akin to the Salem Witch Trials. We have manic, righteous fervor, the denouncing of cohorts as being impure, and any protesting is proof of further guilt. History is rife with these sorts of events. It’s all too familiar. Human behavior is the same as ever.
Eleanor Roosevelt, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”.
==
Again, had Bilkszto been detached and cynical about the refuse occupying the apparat of the Toronto district, it wouldn’t have hurt so much. He was emotionally invested in the system and thought well of it. He discovered they were all scum.
No reason is ever given.
_______
Yes, it is. “Used to be a saying about Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. ‘ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns.”
Summer solstice fertility sacrifice.
Being gay, and taking that sexual perversion as central to his being, made him susceptible to the pronouncements of his peers and the attendant despair leading to suicide, than someone who willingly turns life over to Jesus and rests in His wisdom. The Christian life makes one far less likely to despair, especially from worldly slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
I believe Nonapod is basically correct.
Kike Ojo-Thompson is the very semblance of today’s black woman, loud, demanding, full of bluster, self-created, and totally undeserving.
Being gay, and taking that sexual perversion as central to his being, made him susceptible to the pronouncements of his peers and the attendant despair leading to suicide,
==
Actually, his remarks suggest he didn’t suffer from the narcissism or the adolescent aggression so common among homosexual men.
Eeyore:
That’s said as a throwaway line, something only vaguely recalled. The villagers don’t seem to know or care why they’re still doing it, except that it’s a tradition.
I watched part of a meeting of white women with some who were “teaching” them, including one black woman who was amazingly self-satisfied and a total bully. I do not understand those who fall for this, but I have seen it in action. I do have some more understanding for those who are demoralized by it. Think of those psalms in which the psalmist deplores the way he is rejected by others.
I was lucky in not being that much a victim of bullying, but I’ve seen it. And in some cases I think it could drive one to suicide.
The moment the next, less-prone-to-self-loathing “Bilkszto” stands up under attack, shouts “I’m mad as hell and I won’t take it anymore!” and crushes the skull of the “trainer” with his chair or bare hands… they’ll all claim proof of racism…but the struggle sessions will stop.
We’re left with no other option.
Kike Ojo-Thompson is the very semblance of today’s black woman, loud, demanding, full of bluster, self-created, and totally undeserving.
==
The superintendent of schools (who has now decamped to Hamilton, Ontario) is also black; they’re peas in a pod. I think you’re being sloppy. I haven’t noticed ‘today’s black woman’ behaves this way. Black women in bullsh!t jobs do.
In the long run, this ” anti-racism ” stuff is going to back fire on blacks, in general. A lot of people who were sympathetic to real blacks are going to and are becoming sick of ” black this and that ” just as they are to the constant elevation of the transgenders. As I was watching the BLM riots in 2020, besides being livid about the large scale destruction, I was in mourning about what was going to happen to decent black people. How many more have become victims of crime because white leftist and black criminals and activist have attacked decency and order?
Paul Harmon:
He specifically said that being gay is NOT an “identity” to him.
And Christianity does not protect much if at all against despair or even suicide. See this, for example.
In the long run, this ” anti-racism ” stuff is going to back fire on blacks, in general.
==
The evolution of social relations in the last sixty years seem to have had no effect on the thinking of the professional-managerial stratum in this country, quite the contrary.
Eeyore:
That’s said as a throwaway line, something only vaguely recalled. The villagers don’t seem to know or care why they’re still doing it, except that it’s a tradition.
_____
Not really, I didn’t clip enough to show it’s a response to the idea of giving it up. But that’s what it refers to. Clearly.
‘“They do say,” Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, “that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.”
Old Man Warner snorted. “Pack of crazy fools,” he said. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery,” he added petulantly. “Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody.”’
I first read the story shortly after first reading The Waste Land. That’s why I caught it. The NY suburban mind isn’t open to it, unless you’ve read Eliot, Frasier, or Graves; or one of that lot. But once you have, it jumps right out at you.
And Christianity does not protect much if at all against despair or even suicide. See this, for example.
===
A squib in Christianity Today about Rick Warren’s son is your reference here?
==
Art Deco:
I skimmed about ten research articles that said that the data is mixed on the subject and that Christianity and other religions don’t protect much if at all. I’m not writing a full post here on the subject, just a quick comment. The link I did post I chose because it was written from a Christian perspective and also cited research. In addition, there are very well-known examples of Christians who write about feeling despair, Gerard Manley Hopkins being one of the most prominent.
Art Deco:
In addition, it can be hard to measure depth of religious belief. Sometimes church attendance is used as a measure, but that can confuse social support with religious belief.
Eeyore:
I read the story before I wrote the post. As I said, I don’t find it to contain much of an explanation or indication of some strongly held belief by the townspeople, who seem to be doing it because it’s always been done.
I suspect that if one were to ask conservatives or liberals about prejudice/intolerance/bigotry, there would be a fair amount of sorting along these lines. Liberals: There are people who are prejudiced/bigoted/intolerant, and those who are not. Conservatives: we all have in-groups and out-groups, with varying degrees of identification. Because we all sort people into in-groups and out-groups, we all have a certain degree of prejudice/bigotry/intolerance.
Liberals: we are born tolerant. Prejudice etc. is taught. Conservatives: we all have an inherent tendency to label in-groups and out-groups, and as such, prejudice etc. is inborn. We have to be taught tolerance.
The above are not sharply separated along liberal/conservative lines, but are tendencies.
Ojo-Thompson is separating the group along goodwhites/badwhite[s], or unprejudiced/prejudiced. To me, this is a false dichotomy, because all of us have a degree of prejudice/bigotry/intolerance.
I suspect that Ojo-Thompson is of the opinion that blacks cannot be prejudiced/intolerant/bigoted. Note that Ojo-Thompson is the product of a Trinidadian-Nigerian marriage. I worked in Trinidad. I got along well with my Trini work colleagues of all races. Nonetheless, there was a degree of prejudice etc. One time I went into a bakery to purchase some hot cross buns which are delicious and abundant in Trinidad. I was wearing Bermuda shorts, appropriate for the tropical climate. An elderly black woman objected to my wearing shorts, saying that I wouldn’t be wearing shorts in the States, that I was slumming it in effect. (I am wearing shorts as I write this, as Texas is still very warm.) She finished by calling me a “white mother F** C**.” (I was told she was drunk; alcohol can remove inhibitions, such as courtesy.) This was but one example. Gradations of tolerance/intolerance are found everywhere.
Here is some Carnival Soca from Trinidad.Baron: Say Say..
Mighty Sparrow – Party Classics.
Neo–
Apropos of Christianity and suicide, are you familiar with John Donne’s essay Biathanatos (from a Greek word meaning “violent death”)? Donne wrote it in 1608 but asked his friend Robert Ker to “keep it . . . with . . . jealousy. . . . Publish it not, but yet burn it not.” Biathanatos was finally published in 1647– by Donne’s son. Donne was not only a committed Christian, but also an Anglican clergyman, the Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London from 1621 to 1631.
It’s a long and difficult work. From the best short analysis I’ve come across, the essay has “a challenging and, Donne says, ‘paradoxical’ thesis. It undertakes an exhaustive analysis of both secular and religious argumentation against suicide, and argues that suicide is ‘not so naturally sin, that it may never be otherwise.’ Most cases of suicide, including those committed from despair, self-protection, self-aggrandizement, fear of suffering, impatience to reach the afterlife, or other self-interested motives are indeed sinful. But, Donne argues, suicide is justified when, like submission to martyrdom, it is done with charity, done for the glory of God. Indeed, in Donne’s highly unconventional view, Christ himself, in not merely allowing himself to be crucified but in voluntarily emitting his last breath on the cross, was in fact a suicide. This is the model by which men ought to be willing to lay down their lives for their brethren. However, Donne argues elsewhere in Biathanatos, because suicide is so likely to be committed for self-interested reasons rather than wholly for the glory of God, it is appropriate for both civil and canon law to prohibit it. Donne recognized that his unconventional thesis was ‘misinterpretable’ . . . .
The 2015 analysis cited (from a digital archive on the ethics of suicide) can be read in full here: https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/selections/john-donne/
The only online edition of Biathanatos that I could find can be read here:
https://archive.org/details/biathanatos0000donn_p3h2/page/n7/mode/2up
“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” – 1 Corinthians 13:12
We live this life, in whichever faith we operate, incompletely… partially. Until Christ completes his work in us, we are one and all vulnerable to the vicissitudes and anguishes that tear some down completely…or cause some to act contrary to their faith.
There is a day coming when all will be made complete and right. Until then…”let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” That of course is Amos 5:24
Too bad he couldn’t blow it off with an obscenity. It was directed at him and he should have been strong enough to…blow it off with an obscenity.
He’s screwed either way…can’t possibly be retained in his present job once he’d been so labeled, so may as well go out with a demonstration that this is all nonsense.
I’m sorry he was not built that way. Would have been good for him and for the rest of the cowards.
She is a “Thought Leader and Institutional Change Agent” – with a side hustle of character assassination.
I prefer the KJV version:
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
I’m a KJV devotee. Even though I’m Catholic.
You are mostly correct, Neo. Nevertheless . . . and yet . . .
He was weak.
Ojo-Thompson is separating the group along goodwhites/badwhite[s], or unprejudiced/prejudiced. To me, this is a false dichotomy, because all of us have a degree of prejudice/bigotry/intolerance. I suspect that Ojo-Thompson is of the opinion that blacks cannot be prejudiced/intolerant/bigoted
==
Disagree. Ojo-Thompson is asserting her status over the deplorables. Calling someone a ‘racist’ is a power move. It doesn’t have any actual semantic content.
IO49…picking nits…the less preferred Greek is “through a glass” as in “through a lens.” Better is as in a ‘foggy/distorted mirror.’ The translation I chose, New Living, is ok in this regard.
Pax…and I’m not Roman Catholic, but I could probably play one on TV 😉
Art Deco: ” I haven’t noticed ‘today’s black woman’ behaves this way.”
Remember that story I told the other day about the experience at the two AT&T stores, where the employee at one was obnoxious and incompetent, and the employee at the other was pleasant and capable? Both were female. The first one was white, the second was black.
He was weak.
–IrishOtter49
Life is hard and what Bilkszto went through at the hands of Ojo-T was monstrous. Nonetheless … It’s difficult for me to find much sympathy for his suicide. Much worse things happen to people who don’t kill themselves.
Which is why I tend to believe there was more going on with Bilkszto than the fallout from a struggle session.
I’m going to play a family card. I watched my mother struggle with suicide for twenty years from her first attempt until she succumbed.
She was a very fragile, neurotic, depressed person. She had little support, she had had bad things happen to her, she had done little she was proud of, she had done things for which she felt quite guilty, and she alienated her children, but it took the murder of her son and brain damage from the effin’ drugs the doctors put her on before she cut her wrists.
I see my mother in her way as a courageous person who endured terrible, terrible suffering for years until she couldn’t take it anymore.
I can see some of my strength coming from her. She just didn’t have the tools to deal with her pain. Her doctors and shrinks were precious little help.
It became my mission to find the answers she couldn’t.
The best thing that can be done is to force those who turned on him to have the same experience. We can do it online on the blog sites we go to, on the facebooks we link. Wherever any of us go online please measure the name of one of the people who betrayed him. State what they did and call them what they care. If the heat builds more people will learn a very important person. DO NOT turn on those whom you do not know to be guilty by your own experience. DO NOT TURN ON PEOPLE just because of rumor, or just to suck up to someone you feel is superior to you in your community or your workplace. DO NOT ALLOW THIS OPPORTUNITY TO PASS ALL OF US and help to rebuild his reputation. If you couldn’t protect him in real life, you can surely help to make public who those are who added to his misery.
Anyone who doesn’t recognize that those running these sessions aren’t doing it because they are trying to achieve racial harmony but because they enjoy hurting others is simply deaf, dumb and blind.
They map out and practice the ‘talent’ of using anything said and gas lighting that it’s a racist comment, typically painfully oblique, for them to use.
***
Art Deco:
” I haven’t noticed ‘today’s black woman’ behaves this way. Black women in bullsh!t jobs do.”
A lot of this type of discussion devolves into everyone citing edge cases. So naturally, all the bullets fly haphazardly.
If one wants the pulse of a community, visit that community’s posters. And don’t stop at one that spiels your preferred narrative.
Richard Aubrey”
“Too bad he couldn’t blow it off with an obscenity.”
“Fuck off” is the correct response to anyone asking you “are you this or that” or about your deep beliefs. They’re always just looking for ammo.
Gringo:
“I suspect that Ojo-Thompson is of the opinion that blacks cannot be prejudiced/intolerant/bigoted.”
Nawh. She knows full well she is and she revels in it.
Art Deco @ 6:22: “… Disagree. Ojo-Thompson is asserting her status over the deplorables. Calling someone a ‘racist’ is a power move. It doesn’t have any actual semantic content.”
Bingo. It has nothing to do with race, only with probing the audience to find weakness and exploit it. The audience can surrender; it can fight; or it can feign agreement and counterattack when conditions allow.
Surrender = victory for the bully and taking of hostages and tribute, public humiliation, exploitation and locking-in of advantage.
Fight = redoubled attacks and abuse aimed at surrounding and isolating those who resist. Swarms of like-minded drones: they do this all day long, are good at it, enjoy it. Unless the fighters have air superiority (sane and loyal management) this ends ugly.
Feigned agreement = very hard to execute and very painful (hiding your true values and flattering the attacker? Ow). Time-consuming and nerve-racking.
Nothing in the foregoing depends on semantic content.
huxley:
I know what you mean.
It appears that, for whatever reason, Bilktzso, the man who committed suicide, was in a very precarious position emotionally, and the “trainer’s” brutal bullying, combined with the subsequent refusal of his coworkers and supervisors to stick up for him, hit exactly to right note to trigger him to suicide.
Anyone noticed a photo of Ojo?
https://creativesempowered.ca/consultant/kike-thompson/
Someone needs to check her hawt privilege.
It seems to me that the conduct that led to Bilktzso’s suicide was criminal and charges should be laid. Also against those who hired the woman, as accessories. If you want to talk about justice…
huxley,
Very sorry to hear of your mother. May she rest in peace.
Ojo-Thompson has an interesting first name …
For a certain kind of person, the ability to act cruel while feeling virtuous is a mjaor attraction of political ideology and activism. See my post Conformity, Cruelty, and Political Activism:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/57600.html
David Foster: That reminds me of an incident from my hippie days which was a perfect example. It would take too long to relate but it was so trivial in substance, yet so great in obviously intentional cruelty, that I’ve remembered it all these years.
OMG ! I can’t believe that Mr. Bilkszto put up with those weak sister accusers.
He should have cried bullshit to every one of their lies. Standing up to those twerps should have been his principled response. He. should have laughed at them. Instead, he kills himself, thus playing right into the hands of those evil creatures.
Bilkszto
Don Zimmer:
As far as I can see, he did cry “bullshit!” That’s what he was doing in the first place that roused their ire. As I hope I made clear in my post, his angst seems to have mostly come from the later desertion of people he thought were his friends and people he thought had more principles.
Rufus T. Firefly:
Thanks. I did love her.
OMG ! I can’t believe that Mr. Bilkszto put up with those weak sister accusers.
Don Zimmer:
Well, that’s the thing. To me his story reads like that of a high school cheerleader who was betrayed by the mean girl cheerleaders, got kicked off the squad, then killed herself.
It’s sad. It isn’t right. But it is classic humans-behaving-badly stuff and I would like to think a functioning adult professional would be better defended.
huxley:
Not cheerleader type stuff. His entire lifework and worldview, his livelihood and his friends and colleagues. And he was 58 years old at the time, not so young and resilient.
Some people have been tested greatly by life’s circumstances, virtually from the beginning, and have developed the requisite toughness and tremendous grit (you’ve written here about your own experience in that regard and your ability to prevail, which is laudable). Others have not, or have some of it and are vulnerable to other types of pressure at other times in their lives. I think that was probably the case for this man – for whatever reason, he succumbed and it’s very sad. But cheeleaders being mean? I don’t think there’s any need to trivialize what happened to him. Your point is correct, I think, that some people succumb to what others could endure, for whatever reason. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t endure a great deal.
}}} Ojo-Thompson
It seems pretty clear that she is disgusting racist filth, being paid to be exactly that by quacks and charlatans who are just as guilty of quackery and charlatanry.
I think he was weak and stupid to commit suicide, but that does not, in any regard, excuse those around him for their behavior, nor those in supervisory positions who allowed Ojo-Thompson to do as she did.
Those In Charge need to be publicly excoriated, financially destroyed, and completely dishonored. As does Ojo-Thompson and Bilkszto’s peers, as much as legally possible.
I don’t see any evidence that any of them have any excuse not to be humiliatingly ashamed of themselves in every possible manner.
Others have not [been tested], or have some of it and are vulnerable to other types of pressure at other times in their lives. I think that was probably the case for this man – for whatever reason, he succumbed and it’s very sad.
neo:
Good enough. We can’t know ultimately went on in his mind and heart. It does seem Bilkszto wasn’t prepared for such an experience.
I wonder how people might become become better prepared. It seems a woeful lack in today’s society. Thank God for Jordan Peterson. We need more such teachers.
I had Stephen Gaskin and Tony Robbins. At Tony’s events there is always a segment where he plays this Des’ree song while everyone writes down their dreams and resolutions:
__________________________
Listen as your day unfolds
Challenge what the future holds
Try and keep your head up to the sky
Lovers, they may cause you tears
Go ahead, release your fears
Stand up and be counted
Don’t be ashamed to cry
You gotta be
You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser
You gotta be hard, you gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger
You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together
All I know, all I know, love will save the day
–Des’ree, “You Gotta Be (Lyrics)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlgWmgjOlzQ
__________________________
Strength gets a toxic male rap these days, but damn…
You gotta be stronger.
Much worse things happen to people who don’t kill themselves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggshell_skull