I’m working on a longer piece that has been, thankfully, interrupted by family happenings. If one is delayed in work, it’s best to be delayed by that which makes you happy. With this little break, I’ve had a couple of people ask, “Have you quit your writing?” and, obviously, the answer is no. So here is a little bit of a wandering flow of consciousness to excuse my absence in December and to welcome in the New Year.
And I hate saying that: welcome in the New Year. Does one really believe that a single tick of a second from 11:59:59 to 12:00:00 will usher in some transformative era in which World Peace! will finally be achieved? Should it be celebrated? I guess a reason to get drunk is worth something.
But World Peace? We should always hope for peace, for through peace can we all be left alone—so long as we don’t trample on other’s rights to be left alone as well—but if world peace comes at a price of submission to a thing of evil (subjective as that may be) then do we really want world peace? If a Chinese hoard invades the West Coast and begins a mad dash across America (and no, Stanford, it’s not racist to name our homeland) I’m not going to welcome them with open arms in the name of World Peace! and so, no, I don’t want world peace. There will always be some megalomaniacal creep who believes his or her way, through force, is worthy of imposition upon others. The force can be very open and hostile, as in an armed invasion, or it can be subtle and nearly impossible to perceive—such as Stanford University’s list of unacceptable words. We should always be willing to defend our core values and way of life. We have the basic right of life and its defense and we should become aware of the imperceptible actions of evil intent.
Evil is subjective to one’s point of view however, I believe, most of us know evil, just as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart wrote, “I know it when I see it.” (Of course, he was talking about hardcore pornography to which some may say that it is permissible speech while others see it as pure evil.) However, as I review the year in my mind, there were many things that stood out as evil but there was one image that haunts me and sickens me and I’m a hard guy to be haunted and sickened.
I Knew it When I Saw It
I tried to find the picture of the woman online. I put in the key worlds “woman simulating abortion in protest I killed the baby” but I could not find the picture nor video. And I’m glad I didn’t find it. Just witnessing it, I believe, puts more wickedness in the world and, to drive home a point, I no doubt would have displayed it on this page. Many of you may know the image of which I’m speaking but hopefully you do not. What little embrace of humanity-at-large that I possessed was stolen away by that person and her actions. Regardless your stance on abortion, dancing on the steps of the Supreme Court (where I believe that protest was occurring) while straining the fabric of a leotard and simulating an abortion with a bloody doll screaming “I killed the baby” is one of the most evil, vile things I have ever viewed. If that is the year we left behind, then good riddance and yet there is nothing, as pessimistic as it reads, that gives me hope that this year will be a little less evil than 2022. Pray I’m wrong.
And Thus, We Trudge On
I like to predict the future because I really get a kick out of being wrong. I have no illusions of a general peace descending upon the earth. The world is on fire and it is all manmade. Scarcity will become prevalent. The cost of everything will continue to unnaturally rise. We will be in a world recession driven by the desire of world leaders to destroy the pillars of Western Civilization to be replaced with crushing mountains of debt, both financial and moral. The price of oil will come down as the economy fades but it will, no doubt, rise once again as those who hold themselves in high esteem realize we can be squeezed again—got to get that last drop from the turnip!
There are still those on the left that value the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. There are still those on the right who turn their back on money and power. These two forces should join and make war upon those who oppose middle America. Our shared vision of victory shouldn’t be a return to some fantasy land where white picket fences guard a man’s castle and his 2.5 children—and of course his devoted housewife always meeting her man with a martini in hand. That was a make-believe world perpetuated by old Hollywood and no different than their current world of superheroes and supervillains that lack the creativity of an accountant after midnight. (I’m not sure what that means but it read well.)
No, our shared vision must be a return to a world where we are all left alone; a world where we can argue through our differences without interference from a legion of technocratic thugs from both the government and multinational corporations. Government was supposed to be our tool to secure freedom. It is now our jailer.
They will beat the drums of war over Climate Change! The planet is not being destroyed because of your desire to leave a world behind a better place than the one you faced. That distinction lies solely with your accusers. The Book of Ecclesiastes drives home the point that there is nothing new under the sun. We (the human collective) have faced these same people in the past, these people who believe they are delivering heaven on earth, and we are those that are considered the underclass, the worthless eaters, the great unwashed, those who need converting. Our world will never be perfect and imperfection offers the most interesting life existence for which we can ever hope.
You, me, and everyone else who still believes in a better existence on earth must learn to simply say no. No more! We do not have to change because they demand it.
If we all can learn to say no more often, then 2023 will be a pretty damned good year.