More thoughts...

My rage against the media shall continue, and rightly so. Having grown up with reverence for God and trying to live a life that models the Scripture, I'm no stranger to the criticism of hypocrisy. I have spent my life reading the Bible in public places, attending church and, when asked, offering my views on life. As such, I have observed there are many people out there who are eager to scrutinize and call me out for wrongdoing. And while they are often correct in their assessment, it's the pleasure they receive in tearing me down that has always puzzled me. Since I have an increasingly unfavourable view of humanity in general (myself included), I've always attributed this to normal human hatred that runs through all our veins in varying degrees. But with the media's merciless assault on Sarah Palin's family, I decided to ponder this desire to destroy more psychologically. I came to the conclusion that Christians do put themselves in the realm of attack in the way we live (or try to live) our lives...by having standards to live by, we set ourselves up for defeat time and again because we will all stumble upon our weak moments when we don't meet the standards we've set for ourselves. But that fact brought up an interesting revelation...maybe that difficulty in life is one of the main reasons so many others refuse to live by any standards or scruples at all. A life lived that cannot be measured is quite convenient and safe. It frees the person from defeat and the scrutiny that comes with it. The cost is paramount, however...such a life is void of courage. And that's how I see so many of the media that feels compelled to destroy Palin and others. There's no defeat, no victory, no possibility of failure, no challenge, and in essence therefore, no life, when you live a life void of scruples, so I consider cowardice to be the driving force for people who choose to live such lives, and this definitely applies to the ravenous media dogs. Going even farther, the Scripture often refers to shallow livers as "blind," unable to see realistic truths that hurt; the human mind has a great ability to suppress truths that are unpleasant. So I doubt people like the media would ever be able to be cognitively aware of their cowardice, yet in some deep subconscious level, they know it. And it's that suppressed knowledge in the sub-conscience that brings out murderous jealousy when they encounter people of strength like Sarah Palin who aren't afraid to take the challenge to live something better. Because of her courage which they'll never know, they hate her and are doing everything they can to get her head on a platter. This is of course a very simplified analysis of human psychology that is ignoring many other factors that make people tick the way they do, but I think it is a useful model to help explain what we're seeing...insane jealousy that Palin is tougher and braver than anything they'll ever know. Luckily, I heard a story that when the McCain people warned Palin of the scrutiny she'd be under, she replied, "Do you know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." I hope she knocks it out of the park tonight, right down the throats of CNN and all the children that report for them.