>>8969001 (lb)
Ann Rice's Memnoch was a perspective changer for me. Not in that I accepted her woeful tale of pity, but that another perspective, other than pure hatred for the entity could exist.
Perspectives are tainted when one attempts to ascribe a motive and "build a case" based of a singular, even if objective snapshot of events. From the moment of the snapshot, for many, the die is cast and then it's all winners and losers from there. There was never a before, but somehow there will be an after. They've chosen a side, and are watching and waiting for their side to win.
A skilled sophist is like a magician, he can make you disbelieve your own eyes…guiding the dialect to fit a narrative, offering alternate meanings to open wandering paths for your mind to travel. Sophism is extremely useful though when one has to "talk around" sensitive subjects so as to maintain balance and plausible deniability.
My brain was broken as far as understanding the true motives of others for a long time. It didn't seem native to intend for one's action to be for anything other than good, or at least for a fair bargain. Having dealt with many snakes though, I know they truly believe that their way of doing business is the "only" way…the old way…the way that's always worked…but I think they've just never personally seen "it" work another way, nor do they want to. They don't want to live in a world where someone else has figured out more things than them. They lose the upper hand. But, that is the point where you can go for the kill…or establish a relationship.
With system collapse designated as an unacceptable outcome, the machinations must grind on as truth and lies, and facts and feelings, and blood and bullets spin in circles around a center of mass not at all resembling the truth…but accepted as such just the same anyway. We've got to figure out how to get along.