“The end of an empire is messy at best And this empire is ending Like all the rest Like the Spanish Armada adrift on the sea We’re adrift in the land of the brave And the home of the free” Randy Newman, “A Few Words”
While I don’t wish to take away from the philosophy with which we started this blog (see first entry), I have decided that the blog’s title was hackneyed. I have always been fond of the new title, which is from a William Faulkner short story entitled “Adolescence.” The more I think about what Eliot and I are interested in, the more it becomes apparent that this new title is appropriate. While Eliot and I are not in despair, we seem to be focused on distant despairs and the sources and means of their existence.
So our failure doesn’t lie merely in the fact that we are extravagantly wasting our treasury of money and good will in unwinnable causes; we are also actively damaging our moral fiber from within, while claiming to be the good guys, when, in stark fact, we aren’t. Such moral incongruity simply cannot be maintained without material adverse consequences to our national psyche.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is known in my grandmother’s lexicon as a load of crap. If you think we can survive such an extreme moral dilemma without suffering significant harm, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Just don’t ask for a warranty deed, because it won’t be forthcoming. Furthermore, I will only accept cash in payment. Therefore, because of the basic inter-connectivity between our actions and the actions of others elsewhere in the world, I am positing that we must adopt a wider vision in making our decisions than the narrow one that our current leadership possesses. In this world and at this time, we must come to understand that our actions affect others as much as their actions affect us, and that, therefore, the only rational means of international engagement is in forms of give and take that are mutually beneficial to all varying viewpoints. Easy? No. But we have always been a creative nation, and this standard merely challenges our creativity. Have we lost so much faith in ourselves that we are no longer willing to trust our success to the promise of our creativity and ideas?
We must quit pretending that we are benefiting others by trying to make them think and act as we do. It is one thing to assert our values as an internal societal right in the governance of our own community; it is quite another to think that all nations must behave as we do at all times. It is one thing to explain our thinking and our values to the world by rational discourse and consistent behavior; it is quite another to seek, by means of war, intimidation, or other exercises of raw power, to compel others to live solely in accordance with our standards. One is our right; the other is simply wrong – and, as noted above, just plain stupid.
So this is what what Eliot and I seem to be doing here – shoveling crap to expose lies. As we do so, I have begun to realize that these rumors of far despairs are far closer to our home here in Humptulips County than I like or wish to condone. And so it is that I have decided to say what I think in accordance with the KISS principle – you know, the one that says “keep it simple, stupid” – since I am convinced that at the very heart of every seemingly complicated situation or circumstance lie simple rights or wrongs which can and should be used as measuring sticks to determine our way forward.
The truth is that some of the despairs which we have been observing aren’t so far away after all, and each of us – you, Eliot and myself included – engage in some behaviors which contribute, however remotely, to the existence of all despairs, near and far.
It is a cliche that ours is a small world, but the funny thing about cliches is that, often, they are cliches because they represent fundamental truths. If nothing else, the recent financial crisis should convince mankind once and for all that no one can hide behind an artificial political border and ignore what is going on in the rest of the world. What is going on in the rest of the world can and will affect us immediately or with time, with some matters more directly affecting us than others, but with all matters having some affect upon us for good or ill.
By so stating, I am not arguing that we ought to interfere routinely in the activities of others in order to stave off adverse effects or to police the world in accordance with our narrow standards. We have already seen that we lack the capacity as a single country to do either well -at least most of us who don’t live in the White House or who aren’t subservient to its current occupant have realized that. What our current administration has failed to understand is that in trying to make everyone else in the world think and act as we do, we have initiated counteractions which are now reverberating and affecting us adversely in many instances. While we bluster about assuring democracy for the world, we seem oblivious to our own engagement, in the name of democracy, in various horrendous activities which are, at the very least, antithetical to democracy – if not more appropriately classified as human rights violations or, in some cases, as war crimes.
If you believe that a nation can undergo such dissonance for any significant period of time without material detriment, take a look at history. Every country that has wallowed in the arrogance of its power to such an extent that the ability of its fundamental, founding beliefs to control, limit and advise its leadership has become emasculated, has failed. I don’t mean by that statement that they have failed in their goals or failed in some particular action; I mean that they have failed as a country. Think of the German people under Adolf Hitler and then ask yourself how we can observe and condemn that behavior, but be unable, with one voice, to rise up and condemn water boarding for the vile act of torture that it is. We are unable to do so because our arrogant leadership has convinced many that we can and should, in the name and pursuit of democracy, behave toward non-Americans in ways we would never tolerate if dealing with ourselves.
Big lies seem to be the hardest to for us to recognize probably because, while we want to disbelieve them, we are rendered insecure in the face of their sheer magnitude. We torture ourselves with the fact that our incredulity is as large as the asserted lie, and we cannot reconcile our disbelief with the fact that someone would make such an assertion with a straight face. We need to see past our incredulity and accept the big lies for what they are – lies. The truth about lies of this kind is really quite simple no matter the level of our incredulity at their assertion: what is wrong under our shared moral standards is simply wrong, and, no matter how hard you try, you cannot gussy it up so that it is anything but wrong. To say that you can do wrong to some in the pursuit of good for others doesn’t even rise to the level of sophistry – it is just, plain old stupidity at all times, and evil most of the time.
Besides, as long as we adhere to the KISS principle, the more likely it is that those currently in power might actually come to understand our concerns and commentary. After all, you must play the hand you are dealt.
