Contrarian Conformist

There's still novelty in modern life, and reactions span from reactionary convulsion to disengaged apathy. I try to feel for humanity's pulse when stories break and narratives unwind. A large swath of us have had our emotional reactions implanted by armies of ideologues adept in social engineering. Analysis is a laborious process that asks us to suppress mental shortcuts and prejudice. Certainty is an overvalued commodity, and the image of strength it lends to us is claimed too often in vain. The answer isn't to build a church of Skepticism, but to appreciate a method for attaining truth, and the mindful rigor that should go into honoring it.

What we have are individuals with styles of thought, rather than invented philosophies. A tree of ideas is usually chosen based on where it can get them socially. What matters to them is allegience, and when beliefs hinge on the compliance to a social order, they sacrifice loyalty to truth.

I suspect this condition doesn't present itself as a choice, and that adherence to subscribed beliefs relies on a fairly automatic cognitive adaption. I'm not alone in my observance, and there's a demographic who harp on this hoard mentality. They are often parodied because they tend to be conspiracy theorists and/or extremist ideologues themselves. Their hypocricy negates their message, and so the critique is dismissed with an effortless self-defense for the conformers.

I favor the noble contrarians, however, who liberalize around conservatives and republicanize around democrats. These are humored souls who put up the resistance against self-righteous, sanctimonious, and masturbatory foot soldiers all possessed by their status securement rituals. The stubborn bunch warrant their provocation, because they enforce their passing trends of conviction with an iron fist.

There are different shades of wrath. Like when a child's whims are rejected, or when the accountant misplaces your paycheck. Anger in slow motion building momentum in increments, or a frenzied burst in the heat of the moment. Uncooperative, uncompromising, unhelpful, unserious, and unforgiving. When you're slamming things, shattering things, throwing things, swallowing words, contorting facial muscles,   rolling eyes, making rapid hand gestures, it's a visit down the mind of the murderer. When you're washing her feet when she walks through the door, you're getting closer to the Kingdom of Heaven. Many shades of wrath.

And to see when it's elicited is to see the origin of somebody's helplessness. The intimidation confesses an impotence.