Posted on 12/31/2019 4:47:25 AM PST by Kaslin
So. Another decade behind us, another in front.
Journalists love nothing more than the opportunity to gaze analytically in either direction. "Fills up the paper," we used to say, back when newspapers needed constant filling to complement the ads on which our business model rested.
The fun part was looking ahead; no reader could say to a jury of 12 good men that what hadn't happened never would happen. You could predict the descent of little green men upon New York City or Harvard's makeover as a dog-training school (a prospect not without charm), and no one could prove you wrong. You still can.
You can predict the conviction of President Donald Trump by a Republican Senate in 2020 or Speaker Nancy Pelosi's defeat for reelection to Congress. That's if you want to be stared at in restaurants.
A more fruitful topic on this, the cusp of a new decade, might be the question of how we shall live -- not what stocks will fare best, or what candidates deserve to exercise power. The question of how we shall live is the eternal topic, actually -- the only one worth talking about, given that the answers always shape the events we analyze or predict.
More and more I find the topic framed as: What's the meaning of "human flourishing"?
Not to wonder. "Human flourishing" is 1) a philosophical concept of ancient origin and 2) a central preoccupation even of people who never use the word. Isn't flourishing more to the point than shriveling like a dried corn stalk?
What does it mean, though? An early vision appears in the first Book of Kings: "And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon." So you don't like figs. But what about the fruit of the vine? Even Pelosi's California can buy into that proposition. Flourishing means peace; it means security; it means adequacy in the provision of the world's goods.
So. We understand, if only symbolically, the configuration of the good life. The question left to us, as to everybody else since Solomon, is how do we get there? What do we do? What's the program?
We might, during the new decade, want to work on that one -- and with some diligence. It involves thinking about what we believe, and, in direct consequence, what we do. What we presently believe, it seems to me, sure ain't what we used to believe when the flourishing came to us more directly. When the fig tree, say, was a little shadier.
A very large, very full understanding of Things to Do, as well as Things Not to Do, once overlaid the land. We called it, in general, Western civilization. Its teachings and promptings were well-recorded. This was at least in part due to the respect they commanded after centuries of explanation and embellishment. Good and evil were part of the very old civilization's regular vocabulary. The way we used them played out in the way we dealt with our fellow man and fellow woman.
I will give you one example, tragically applicable to present times. It is that man and woman were made for each other. As their lives converged and flourished, to most ends and purposes, understandings of obligation and respect took general hold. In other words, say you brought your date to the frat party; did you ply her with spirits, preparatory to assuming a low, common advantage over her, thereby helping to precipitate the #MeToo movement? Only if you were some kind of louse, or enjoyed acting like one. With nonlouses, the rules kicked in: respect, decency, obligation. Flourishing. For the common benefit.
We used to have the hang of it. We called ourselves civilized: part of a great system, obedient to a great creed, infinitely older than our personal insights, our interior claims to wisdom. A great, great mission for the decade of the '20s, when we're not otherwise occupied, would be the repair and reconstruction of a system that served us exceedingly well, prior to its sabotage by jerks and intellectual riffraff. Who in our names might take up such a challenge? Me, I'm for Solomon.
You can’t share a country with people who are rabidly delusional. Can’t be done even if you wanted but why the hell would you?
But that's what we're doing right now.
Our best hope is probably to try to bring them to their senses.
That's what President Trump has been trying to do. The consequence of his efforts is that they have scorched the earth of America trying to destroy him and his family for three years!
This is how the rabidly delusional react when their delusions are threatened! It's scary, and it's dangerous.
Anyone who has treated the delusional knows how protective of their delusions they are and how dangerous it can be to threaten the delusions with truth.
One of their first defenses is to accuse the therapist of being delusional. This is exactly how they reacted to President Trump when he confronted their delusions with truth: They accused him of being psychotic himself.
The delusional will kill to defend their delusions. They will stop at nothing. This is exactly what we have seen since Donald Trump announced his intention to seek the Presidency.
They have to leave. There are many countries in the world that will embrace them with open arms and their ideology. We have no where to go.
Our best hope is probably to try to bring them to their senses.
You are the evil in their life. They CANNOT come to their senses. That would require an entire re-ordering of their moral universe.
What is our best hope then?
There is no HOPE. Put one bad apple in the bushel and soon all will spoil
A police state that deports all Libs? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
The delusional, if they have any power, have to be dealt with. The coming election will tell us if it will be War in our future or the wasting away of the Democrat party due to their being idiotic.
None of the words in the above is meant to be hyperbolic.
Our situation, so far, is similar to the Cold War. Half of the US electorate is a gang of Bolsheviks and psychotics. Their leaders will do anything to protect their privileges, power, and luxuries. The psychotics will to anything to protect their delusions.
President Reagan defeated the Soviet Union and won the Cold War peacefully. He was intelligent enough to know that communism cannot compete economically with capitalism; so he announced plans to out-spend the Soviets on futuristic weapons of war. Gorbachev knew that the Soviets could not match this expenditure or this weaponry and essentially surrendered.
President Trump's strategy has been to overwhelm the Democrats and their fellow travelers with TRUTH. Pray that it works.
Trump will be re-elected in November 2020. If enough TRUTH can be presented to the American People, even most of the morons will accept it.
It's precarious, I know.
But so far, President Trump and his supporters have prevailed over the overwhelming power of the opposition, which includes the press, academia, Hollywood, many celebrities, the Democrat Party, and part of the Republican Party.
This is due to the towering intelligence and puissance of President Trump but also to the power of TRUTH.
We and our country are in a very dangerous situation. We do not want war; that must always be an absolutely last resort. But our enemy is dangerous, powerful, fanatical, and reckless. They have shown that they are willing to scorch the earth of America, destroy the USA, kill the American People, and destroy President Trump and his family.
I think our best bet is to continue muddling through though, bringing forth TRUTH, opting for benevolence, supporting President Trump in his efforts to save America from destruction, and praying to God for help, guidance, salvation, wisdom, and deliverance from this dangerous situation.
And we must remain strong, resolute, undivided, alert, TRUTHful--and armed.
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