The Tyranny of Evil Men

And a reason I love Tarantino to this day.

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(Originally published in about 2015)

Thirty-five years ago I encountering a Jehovah’s Witness on Hollywood Boulevard. A rough-looking fellow who started his spiel. I found him curious: I would have expected him to demand my wallet in a dark alley far more than share The Word of God. I had a half-hour before I was due to start working at GNC, so engaged with him. It was fun. His arguments were all memorized, and it was easy to poke holes in them, and the slightest unpredicted shift in question or answer created stress. And anger. I watched it…he was getting palpably enraged that he couldn’t shift me, and couldn’t answer questions that weren’t part of his scripted sequence.

Anger is fear.

What was he afraid of..?

Oops. A simple “story” occurred. He hit my hind-brain as a mugger because he had walked on the shady side of the law. Had done bad things. And had found salvation, or at least a way to stop his downward slide with a Leap of Faith. He was afraid of destroying himself, guilty about what he had done and been. And all of that guilt was barricaded behind his faith, his conviction that if he could stay on this new path, he was Forgiven.

I was wrong, STUPID to poke holes in a faith like that. It may have been “smart” but it wasn’t wise. I had nothing to replace his faith, or his supportive community of believers. I was “smart” to see the flaws in his reasoning. But wisdom…