Welcome to Life in the Modern Age

By way of preface, I stumbled across this brief rambling flow of thought, apparently written while heavily under the influence, probably while in Dallas TX for a trade show. There were a LOT of typos.. but I think i caught them all.  I have no memory of having written it, but was intrigued by my own words, so i thought i'd share it with whoever will take the time to read it.
enjoy.


Welcome to life in the modern age.. treat each other like crap. It is expected. .. sadly..

It seems sometimes that we are living in a day of accelerating decline.. a continuous erosion of the basic qualities of life.. Consideration and respect and decency are all but dead.. Figments of what once was. Little more than memories now.. I am surrounded by a spectrum of people.. some amazingly decent and indecent at the same time. Some seemingly intentionally obtuse and insensitive to the issues of others.. treading upon their very lives as though it were their god given right.. and most disappointingly of all.  These are often the more successful .
How is a man who strives to embody the ideals of a romantic to reconcile the behaviors he witnesses.. and how does he remain nonplussed by it. How do you not become a victim of the abject ignorance of your fellow man.. and unwittingly complicit conduit of the same bad behaviors..

The path of the idealist, the dreamer and the poet are fraught with pain and strife. We see the world as it is in contrast to how it could or should be and we agonize at the disparity. Truly agonize

I once believed that everyone knows right from wrong on some level, and then make their choices depending on their self-less ness.. their ability to subvert their own needs  or wants in favor of the right and/or decent thing..
Now I’m not so sure.
Before I go any further. I am no angel. I am far from perfect.. I aspire to be better but don’t always know how to accomplish that. the intent is pure usually even if the implementation is occasionally suspect..
As always, I sit in awe of it all, nothing more or less than a man, a student of the nature of things. Sure of only the fact that I don’t have the answers, but I still want them. I know that I want to leave a mark upon this world greater than just a line item in an obituary records file.  That is my purposes, and the purpose of any decent soul I’d suggest, to touch the world, to live life, to touch lives and leave the world a better place than it was when I got here. Of course given the perceived decline, the only acceptable analogous pursuit is to try to leave this place better than it would have been had I made worse choices.

But back to the bigger picture.  Capitalism , while a beautiful system, is really a huge power market.  As Bill loves to say, it is all about the money. Ideally this would not be true, but sadly, ideals have little to do with the realities of this life. Money is power, power is addictive, and fought over, bought and sold constantly, and in the doing, sometimes ruining the lives of the common man. How is it right to be able to crush, rob  and destroy a family as effectively as if it were done to the flesh..

Written January 26, 2010

I do not consider myself an old guy by any stretch of the imagination, but when i look around at the obvious moral decline in the world around me, I cannot help but feel a certain sense of dismay. Seemingly all is already lost and this is all a waste of time, an afterthought as we increasingly speed towards critical mass, socially and politically speaking, but i cannot help but speak my mind.

America was once a proud shining light of freedoms, prosperity, innovation.. yay greatness on many levels. Today however, we are but a flicker of our former greatness. We have exported our ability to manufacture much of anything, justified by corporate greed and shareholders, instead we produce nothing but consumers with fewer and fewer means to earn a self sufficient living, meanwhile teaching our youth how to avoid responsibility for their actions by blaming it on a 'bad' upbringing or bad genes, and call in the police if they get spanked..

We are creating a nation of consumerist irresponsible whining immoral infantile...

But I digress.. A child is not to be blamed for the lessons he or she is taught, that is the responsibility of the teachers, and all parents need to realize their most important job IN this LIFE is to teach their children well (sounds familiar, i know). In fact, I submit that education is the most important investment in a nation's future that can be made. The ramifications of which touch all aspects of our society and directly influences our future, both individually and collectively. Unfortunately, intelligence is not socially supported or encouraged, it is all too often literally beaten out of the wide eyed, open minded children with great potential.

I could go on at length but what would the point be?
Simply, if you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention
I hope I'm wrong.
I hope its not too late.

Walking a tight rope

I have to admit it is a difficult thing to do, to balance the concern over the future America seems pointed at, and having a life with some happiness in it. Balancing the awareness of our trajectory against a bit of blissful ignorance.. Clearly, the worst case scenarios are horrific for anyone who believes in the natural freedoms the Constitution guarantees, and even the best case scenario is that we have a horribly diluted dollar verging on collapse coupled with massive unemployment and an economy which is unlikely to resolve any of that any time in my lifetime or the lifetime of any living soul today.. And what course should one take in the face of this?
Taking a stand and speaking your mind just makes you a target. One of many perhaps, but still who wants that? Who wants to be in the crosshairs?
Damned sure, not me.
But just for a moment, consider the reality of it all against the backdrop our founding fathers conceived for us.
And if after careful consideration, you feel compelled.. Stand Up.

NOW THE FIRST AMENDMENT! OBAMA SIGNED IN SECRECY THAT FREE SPEECH IS FELONY

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero (42 BC)

Ted Nugent - 2nd Amendment Rights

What Greater Responsibility?

     What greater responsibility does a man have, than to stand and defend future generations against incremental encroachment on the rights that our forefathers, and so many since, have sworn their lives to secure and defend?
     Are we not bound by honor and duty, to ensure that they will live free from the tyrannical oppression of a gang of jack-booted thugs? This is, I believe, a pivotal moment in American history. A moment in which we stand at the edge of a very slippery slope, a political precipice, and we must make a choice.
     Simply, do we stand like men in the face of what may come, or cower like children surrender our rights and lose it all?
     We are morally obligated by the blood shed, wars waged and lives lost for our sake to not go quietly into the night. To stand and call our duly elected officials to order, to remind them who they work for, to throw off the chains of mental and financial enslavement and live once again as free men, in charge of their own destiny.. not wards of the state saddled with the onerous burden of supporting our representatives while they so blatantly ignore our will and squander our children's futures.

They are right, the time IS now.