Whenever the world starts repeating itself with wars and deadly elements of human suicidalism as well as the onslaught of Pandoran Box escapees conducting a biological jihad against the innocents of the world, we’re overcome by the sense of futility in commenting about it all. It all seems repetitive. We argue. We condemn. We offer prayers for the end of it all and for the lost souls affected most by the trials.
What more can anybody say?
That’s when I stop and look for something somebody far more intelligent than I am said (while looking at it from a perspective I don’t have) to make it more easily understandable. For this I use quotes uttered from the minds of men and women of faith, education; social observers recognizing something is askew and needs perspective and context to possibly explain what’s going on.
If you want to understand the tomfoolery of politics I’d suggest Corinthians II, 11:19: “For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.” Some take this to mean we allow fools dominion over us willingly because we’re fools within ourselves. We accept the actions of fools because we’re comfortable with what we’re accustomed to and in politics the fools run rampant because WE accept their antics as being alright. The problem lies at all levels of government. As Thomas Fuller said: “Many have been the wise speeches of fools, though not so many as the foolish speeches of wise men.” We accept the idea that “even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile”; then we sit in clustered, cloistered groups awaiting the replication of that happenstance as though it’s a scientific experiment yielding the same results time after time. THE SQUIRREL GOT LUCKY! It’s not guaranteed anything is duplicative when initiated by an idiot.
Honore’ de Balzac said: “Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by Pygmies.” These Pygmies are the petty bureaucrats, the Lois Lerners and the lower level functionaries behaving like Victor Hugo’s Inspector Javert in pursuit of a personal sense of justice so they may feel enlarged in life and society. In this sense (as Lewis Lapham said) “the supply of government exceeds the demand”. But we’re stuck with it.
In our pursuit of charity and kindness, compassion and humanity we find ourselves driving the pin into the shackles binding men and women to the state in a condition of subservience and necessitated reliance on that state. John D. Rockefeller said: “Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.” Social programs developed under the guise of Theodore Roosevelt's “New Nationalism”, Woodrow Wilson's “New Freedom”, Franklin D. Roosevelt's “New Deal”, John F. Kennedy's “New Frontier”, and Lyndon B. Johnson's “Great Society”. All were initiated from the wellspring of human compassion but became bureaucratically untenable and more enabling of people unwilling to participate in the American Dream as they’re willing to wallow in a national nightmare. “Charity should dwell in the heart of the man; not the bowels of the state” as said by Mishe Mehtug, Nipmuc Sachem Wannabee.
George Bernard Shaw is quoted: “The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity”. Yet we regularly show our indifference to our fellow man by shoveling heaping mounds of spare, otherwise unwanted change pulled from the depths of our pockets to drop into their hand while never acknowledging them with a look into their eyes or taking the chance to plumb the depths of their, or our, souls. We throw money at our problems and cheapen our efforts for the poverty of our apathetic, poorly constructed empathy. Goethe once said: “If you treat men as they are you never improve them. If you treat them the way you want them to be, you do.”
“If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But, the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” (Alexandr Solzhenitsyn)
In closing I was sitting here wondering if any of it makes sense. Then I found this last quotation sent to me by a loyal reader. It’s not attributed to anybody so I apologize for not being able to note the sage spoke these words of wisdom.
“When you’re dead, you don’t know you’re dead. It is difficult only for the others. It’s the same when you’re stupid.”
Hey! Politicos infesting Washington! Do you see yourself?
Thanks for listening
