The nescient mind is both gullible and artless.  It is a bad combination for those who are adventurous, though pliable for those who are treacherous. The unsettling distinction however is that more often than not it is each side of the reputed peril which similarly witnesses the other. In the end there is a lingering question concerning who, us or them, is misinformed and thus driven to a faulty conclusion?

Nor is the equation of misery as easy a matter as may first appear. We customarily think in binary terms; and one’s first inclination for illustrative purposes is always the repute of one’s own. But contradictions can be wildly deceptive.  The human engineering is such that, unknowingly, our mechanism is guided by what initially appears to be the proper course.  Call it instinct.  It is basically the unidentified resolve deep within each of us to preserve ourselves from harm. It is however a distraction to assume the decision is faultlessly motivated by propriety (as opposed to mere familiarity). We may for instance be awakened to similar abruptness by a remote bang or a shadow in the dark or a dream. Likewise the assessment of the anguish and cause of melancholy may as easily be mistaken.

Psychoanalysis is for this reason a dangerous equipment for the understanding or government of others. While it may assist to accommodate and effectively camouflage one’s predilections and convictions, it is not otherwise a safe harbour for the examination of contradiction and conflict. In my opinion the human model is so generally uniform that the attribution of exploitability to one sect and not to another as a source of despondency is a calculated deceit. It merely enables one by application of incorrect logic to supplant one’s preferred paradigms.

Some Puritans left for New England, particularly from 1629 to 1640 (the Eleven Years’ Tyranny under King Charles I), supporting the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other settlements among the northern colonies. The large-scale Puritan migration to New England ceased by 1641, with around 21,000 persons having moved across the Atlantic. This English-speaking population in the United States was not descended from all of the original colonists, since many returned to England shortly after arriving on the continent, but it produced more than 16 million descendants. This so-called “Great Migration” is not so named because of sheer numbers, which were much less than the number of English citizens who immigrated to Virginia and the Caribbean during this time, many as indentured servants.

We are to be reminded that the evolution of democracy has come a long way from the Romans. The days of oligarchical rule by the rich with subordinate influence of the majority has long ago been displaced by a growing thread of spirituality, equality and kindness which both subverts selfishness and uplifts magnanimity. But keeping the ants in line and preserving the entirety without corruption is a full-time affair. While we may not be willingly resistant or decidedly perverse, the transition from centuries of breeding is a tortuous enterprise. The shackles of routine, familiarity, affinity, regime and method are not easily loosened. It will however require far more than a convenient adage to surmount or explain the trust of the afflicted.