Tuesday, October 12, 2021

FROM WHENCE?

  History is replete with people, individuals and groups, nations, asking, in plaintive, even frightened tones, that exact question. From whence? Where do I - we look for rescue, for aid, for advice, for safety, for sanity? Where? Oftentimes, it is nowhere to be found, the answer to that plea, the port of safety, the path to that port, hidden.

On the other hand, the answer is right there, in front of our noses, as plain as the noses on the face, but we simply cannot see it nor, perhaps, do want to see it. We cross our eyes in order to avoid seeing that obvious truth. It speaks too tellingly of failure. The failure of society. The failure of individuals. The failure of truth, of justice, of values. Instead, society has deteriorated so that truths are buried, too inconvenient to be exposed. In exchange, we have lies bruited about, passed off as etched in stone, becoming ever more outrageous, ever more existentially challenging, threatening. Yet, we refuse to see the truth. Why? From whence, to whence, do we get the methods to change this growing threat to our lives, to our way of life, our peace and our sanity. Beats me!

In public, with no shame, people turn on their own words, endorsing an insane man and his Big Lies, his path to another term paved with stepping stones of discarded honor, trashed morality, stomped upon justice, truth crushed, all paved with an overlay of greed, of anomie even. How can we thus have a true society, for always, a civilized society must have laws, fair, truthful, laws. From the Code of Hammurabi to the codes of today, there must be law, fair, impartial, with protections for all. 

We have discarded those laws, that critical necessity for the continued existence of society. In this case we must return to history and examine it, seeking lessons, seeking understanding, seeking to return sanity to a crazed society. Laws are now perverted, legality questionable in its morality. Nazi Germany had laws, a legal system, but most assuredly it was not moral. Not perhaps even legal. Rome's law system collapsed of its own weight of trash and debasement piled atop, smothering it and Roman hegemony. The same with Greece, with Egypt, with any system hampered by a perverted, dangerous false set of touted values. 

From whence? Certainly not from GOP members who have Faustian bargains in place. Certainly not from those deluded people who spurn troublesome truths about climate, about the razor's edge upon the earth itself is poised, who defy the truths of science, and instead use pseudo-science to push their own deranged agenda, all the better to foster hatred and tragedy. To grow an evermore unfair  society where the majority are oppressed, mired in poverty, with nary a chance of changing that status quo. That, apparently, is the present goal of too many. Woe upon us if we allow further growth.

So, again, from whence? The whence is to be found within ourselves. We need to actively, proactively, confront those who would destroy our society, its path to progress, to improvement, mock its errors, even as they propose horror in exchange. There is no magic source of help. There is no knight in shining armor. There is no army waiting just over the horizon to save us from ourselves. We must deny Trump and Trumpian cult behavior, its ugliness, its corrupt philosophy. We must reject the lies, the immorality, the danger to ourselves. We must. If not, we are lost and along with that comes the additional corollary of denial of a future of any meaning or value or hope to our own descendants. Yes, that will be upon us. Is that what we want? It is certainly what we are allowing, fostering its growth, ugly growth, covered with a black mold that will poison society, killing off any positive impulses, smothering any justice at all.

From whence? I am growing more and more concerned, convinced, that we are headed into a terrible time, condemned to repeat ugliness of the past as we refuse to learn from it, to accept its truths and lessons. From whence? From nowhere until we ourselves wake up. No five more minutes. Now!! The alarm is ringing, shattering the peace of righteous sleep. Wake up.

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