Oh, I have not given up on the life itself, or the things that are important to me. But more and more, I find I am giving up on things outside of me.
Perhaps this is not a surprise - after all, it so many ways it seems like we have passed peak insanity and any mooring we had to what we used to call "Reality" has long ago passed us by. In a way rather terrible and yet glorious way, it almost feels like we are living on the thinnest crust of Crème brûlée, ready to slide down into the interior with the slightest rupture of the caramelized sugar topping
Crème brûlée is delicious. All of this, not so much.
I have to confess that I have almost completely given up on any idea that following events or news will make me any more ready for what seems to be inevitably coming. I feel like the Coyote from Looney Tunes that has completely over-run the cliff by 100 feet and am still cycling my hands and legs, only to look back and see the Road Runner standing back on the edge.
One knows - in one's heart, one knows - that all of this ends very badly and that no matter what is being down in the real world, it is all sound and fury, signifying nothing. Because disunity, economic insanity, tattered supply chains, and a world that is effectively looking for a reason to rumble really only ends one way.
I suppose that some of my sense of being overwhelmed simply derives from the fact that I see no way back to sanity any more. How, given the current state of the world, does one walk back disunity with unity, economic insanity with sounds economic policies, tattered supply chains with resilient supply chains, and a world that steps a way from the brink - or really multiple brinks?
The correct answer is, of course, that you do not.
So I go quietly about my business, trying to do what good I can in the small circle of my life and do what I can to prepare for what is coming - acknowledging at the same time that in the larger scope of things, preparing for what I intuitively feel is coming feels like a lost cause.
At least, I suppose, I have no illusions.
You often convey my exact thoughts on things , only much more eloquently and simply than I would be able.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if perhaps people of a certain mindset are all interpreting the inputs the same way and we do not know it.
DeleteThank you for your kind words.
We ARE interpreting the inputs in similar fashion, TB. The old adage "Pray for peace, prepare for war" applies here...
DeleteSome may same I'm ignorant, but I really do avoid the media at all costs. Here in Canada it seems that things are okay despite the pandemic, life rolls on. I guess I'm happy to be in my little world here in rural NB. I smiled at your coyote reference, even though it wasn't for a laugh. And your Macbeth reference too, my favourite of the Shakespeare tragedies.
ReplyDeleteRain, the funny thing (to me anyway) is that in a great many ways if one did not follow the media, life does roll on and if you can be relatively far away from society, it could probably be so for the rest of my life - when I am at The Ranch, there is no news other than the computer, and that is easily turned off.
DeleteI am grateful you liked the references. I did not know about your like of MacBeth, but I did think of you for the Coyote and Roadrunner.
I agree; we are in trouble. Many of my church friends are convinced that we are in the early stages of the End Times and should therefore focus our attention on Jesus, rather than worrying about what we're going to eat. I don't know, maybe they're right. However, I believe we can focus on Jesus, while filling our pantries.
ReplyDeletesbrgirl, there is not reason we cannot concentrate on both. Fi you recall, there was a point at which Christ told his apostles to buy bags and swords. I do not think it is an either/or proposition. Or as I believe is credited to John Wesley: Earn as much as you can, save as much as you can, give as much as you can.
DeleteI’m not saying this to be mean or nasty to anyone but it is the other critical part of our times.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot run from this. Nor should you. If there’s one lesson your Japanese warrior/philosophers could teach you, TB… that is it.
I lived among the people driving all this. They now talk openly of hunting their enemies and rounding them up. They are gunning for you and they ARE going to try you.
History repeats. If you look at those old black and white pics from the two world wars… the people that drove those meat grinders looked like ordinary people. The folks at the show trials, the firing squads, the gulags, the death marches.
If nothing else, I intend to die well. Best of luck to you guys - but you do you I guess.
But Glen, at the moment, what is the other option? Are you proposing open warfare? I hear a lot of people proposing this sort of thing - TINVOWOOT and all - but in point of fact there is a great soft middle that are precisely not those people of whom you are referring. They can be swayed either way - are do ing everything in our power to sway them the other way?
DeleteIf violent revolutions are the only ones that work than the entire fall of Eastern Europe and the independence of India never happened.
I am not comfortable with the option that now, we are at that point. There is still hope.
Rest assured it's not only my pantry that I'm filling😉
DeleteI’m confused, TB. In your post, you said you’ve given up on the people driving us to ruin, but you hope to find a soft compromise with them? Am I misunderstanding you?
DeleteI would like to see us unify and do what’s right, rather than seeking a soft middle ground with evil. I would like to see us stand up together and protect our families and our kids and communities and churches. I would argue that that is how we got in this pickle in the first place - by seeking a soft, warm, fuzzy middle ground with evil. But it’s not going to happen, and I know it now. Their institutions will continue to wage war on us. And we will watch them do it and do nothing, telling ourselves that we are going to go grey, or that God wants us to go along with it, or some such nonsense to cover our apathy and fear. Others will be sincere and misguided as they do much the same thing.
It’s said the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s as true for us as it is for them. I think the times call for courage and wisdom, not good intentions… but whadda I know. Perhaps we can meet in the next world and hash it out there?
As for me… I’ve been there and done that with those folk. Giving them the upper hand, letting them skate when they cheat, move the goal posts and tilt the playing field. I know what and who they are, I have no illusions about them and I’ll have no more of them.
If we are to fall from this world because of them, I’ll go first and be glad of it! Age before beauty and all that! I will take a few of them with me too.
😎👍
Have a great Sunday TB. In the days ahead, “May the odds be ever in your favour!”
If I should fall from grace with God
DeleteWhere no doctor can relieve me
If I'm buried 'neath the sod
But the angels won't receive me
Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry
- Shane MacGowan (the Pogues) 1988
Glen, I would say there are those that are driving us to ruin - yes, I do believe they are driving us there - and those who are going along because they simply do not know better or have been led to believe things that are other than true. The second group is not irredeemable to the cause of right and Liberty - unless we make them so by treating them as such. Give them reasons to believe the worst, and they will.
DeleteBenjamin Franklin pointed out that the American colonies could all hang together, or they could all hang separately. Isolating ourselves to the point that we only have a small group of "us" and a large group of "them" does not seem like a winning strategy.
Just So - I was listening to that song yesterday! One of my favorite of The Pogues.
DeleteOkay.
DeleteWhat kind of soft middle ground do you propose with those guys? What is the winning strategy?
Glen - Probably worthy of a whole post, but I think the actual question is the second one: What is the winning strategy? Or more directly, what does winning look like?
DeleteFor what it is worth: I know a great many people that voted for the Previous Occupant the first time around but not the second time for various reasons. That is a great field to start in. The reality, though is that the Red Party has essentially broken into two factions, one that says Previous Occupant or Bust, the other that says anyone that even thought of the Previous Occupant as anything other than (deleted) should be keelhauled. The reality is that neither of these sides can ultimately triumph without the other: the first side needs to come to grips with the fact that the Previous Occupant's message and the Previous Occupant might have to be separated, and the other side needs to come to grips with the fact that without finding a way to connect with the Previous Occupant's message, they will not capture those voters.
In both cases, both sides want to "win". But neither side wants to win that much that they are willing to actually state a strategy (your very wise words) that will allow them to win. They would rather lose in ideological purity rather than find ways to bridge gaps.
Now, of course that means that once one wins, the coalition will not fall apart - the Blue Party in Baja Canada is currently undergoing that. But even in their internal bickerings, they still have the ability to make something happen, while the Red Party is with delaying tactics only.
So perhaps the more meaningful question for anyone is "Do you actually want to win?" and "What you are willing to do for it"? It is easy, I suppose, to propose significant actions. It is much more difficult to work through building something that might take one to victory.
I don't see a path to resolution either, TB. I pray for resolution, that the country will survive, but barring Divine intervention, I don't see it happening. Wile E. Coyote (Super... Genius...) is sitting on a powder keg, blowing on the butt-end of the fuse that burned into the keg and went out. We ALL know what happens next. The trick here is to be the Roadrunner when it happens...
ReplyDeleteAs for watching the "news," I poke the websites once or twice a day, and then go about my business. The people who survived the sinking of Titanic weren't watching the water rise. They were looking for seats in the lifeboats...
You can have mine, Pete! When my time comes, will see you away with the women and children, but by God... if they come to finish this, I intend to finish a few with them. At my age, surviving and living are two very different things. I want better for our kids.
DeletePete, Will.E is the model we currently seem bent on. And no, it is like watching a slow motion train wreck.
DeleteI need to follow your line of action more. And that is a marvelous analogy.
Glen, I am relatively certain that when the time comes, I will know what to do.
DeleteBelieve me, Glen, "looking for seats in the lifeboats" by no means indicates that I'm ready to run. It's more an analogy for "finding a solution..." whatever that solution entails. Frankly, I'm in the "pushback" camp...
Delete...The good thing about growing old is that "life sentence" means less and less every day...
Pete, is the saying not "Beware of angry old men with nothing to lose?"
Delete...Indeed...
DeleteI am paying just enough attention to "news" (and mostly our alternative media at that) so that I am not blindsided by events. If there's any possibility of seeing what's coming at me, I want to know. Beyond that, I will always be grateful to Victor Davis Hansen for the lesson from the ancient Greeks: Hubris ALWAYS invites Nemesis. That is a great comfort to me, to know that the evil we see playing out every day really does contain the seeds of its own destruction. I think it's also important to recognize that hate is not the opposite of love. No, both are passions. The opposite of love is apathy; not caring about that which I can do nothing about is somewhat liberating.
ReplyDeleteThanks TB for the post, and a most excellent comment thread above. It's now time to get away from the computer and out into the chilly morning sunshine for a dose of reality.
Greg, I love Victor Davis Hanson and I wish we studied the Classics more. Victory does indeed invite hubris. The more I read about the Ancient Greeks, the more I feel we need to study them more.
DeleteI pay attention mostly to the international and economic news. The domestic politics news is of no interest, as essentially it is more of the same.
I hope you had a wonderful day away from the computer. There is simply so much to be done.
Pray! A contrite prayer of "Lord Have Mercy". I am not a church goer but I believe strongly in Devine Justice. I think that our troubles started when we were no longer a Christian nation. We abandoned the principles of the Bible on which we were founded. God promised not to destroy us again by water. Now we have low sunspots, a moving pole, fires, drought, volcanos erupting, locusts, hurricanes and more. What does it take to get our attention? I've been saying for years that He is p---ed. I don't pray to get adopted into Lot's family or for a seat on Noah's boat but for mercy for us poor dumb people who have screwed things up so royally. I'm old. What do I know? Julia
ReplyDeleteJulia - The comment has been made that the Constitution was only made for a moral and religious people and that is wholly inadequate for a government of any other. So yes, we have pretty much earned His judgement.
DeletePraying for mercy is something I do not do enough of - but yes, I should be doing more.
I feel as if Neville Chamberlain will appear any day now with the last grasp at "Peace in Our Time". This is all part of a bigger older game, and we should be thankful that we are here to see it. What to do? Ride the Tiger? Glen Filthie is correct in my estimation that they plan on bringing the fight to us, wherever us may be. There is a difference in being in a fight and a brawl. I prefer the fight.
ReplyDeleteJust So, Chamberlain at this point with "Peace in Our Time" would truly be the least surprising of all options.
DeleteMy reluctance - and perhaps it purely my own - is that if indeed a fight is being called for, too many will happily blunder into that media and PR related trap. Our Political And Social Betters want such an excuse. They dream of it in order to even more further solidify their view of the world. The fact that people keep actively talking about it just fuels their reasoning that "we have to do more".
I truly do believe there a lot of people that just want to live their lives that, as things continue to seize up, are natural allies in moving the needle the other way. The difficulty is these people will not be reached by words of "fighting". They will be reached by saying "Are you happy with your life as it is, and what if you could change that?"
For me to best ascertain the temperature of how the folks feel is the fact that since Trump lost 3 different people have asked if I have a gun or if they could bring me one. I'm in my late 70's and have never had this offer before.
ReplyDeleteMargi
Margi, that is rather incredible. And, as you say, I real sign of the times.
DeleteResident Optimist here. Do you think you are the first person in the history of our country to feel this way? History is full of people promising doom and gloom and yet our country still succeeds. I'm not stocking a pantry or an arsenal. Our country will get through this period as we have the hundreds of similar periods before.
ReplyDeleteI certainly do not believe I am the first Ed (you resident optimist you!). And while history suggests you are correct, history also suggests that most states that ended thought that they, too, were fine - right up to the point they were not.
DeleteLet us say I find a level of fractured gaps between groups, substantive economic issues, and a government that seems fairly intent on exercising all the authority it can as a bit alarming.