America’s Addiction to…ennui is the word which comes to mind this morning. After watching the news and reading my favorite Substacks today it seems to me that hate is winning all around the world these days. It seems hate is destined to win no matter who emerges as triumphant in any given election. Either the people who hate Trump or the people who hate Biden are going to win…or feel they have won. And this is the cause of my desire to withdraw into my own little world.
My definition of Freedom is the freedom of choice. I mean I get to choose what I think and feel about any given subject or set of circumstances. Others may feel differently about the word. They may feel freedom means doing whatever they want unfettered by rules or law.
Is the enduring support for Trump, a person who vows retribution on his enemies, a person who clearly believes the rule of law does not apply to him, really just a protest against the status quo? Are there no parts of the status quo useful, moral with basic human requirements for survival worth saving?
I know I must guard against cynicism and despair. I know I must rail against the "dying of the light " and strive with hope and utter determination. I know I must avoid the debilitating state of bitterness which, as Zora Neal Hurston describes it, is the “graceless acknowledgement of defeat.”
Perhaps this explains my passion for the literature of JRR Tolkien. He conceived, wrote, and published his great works during mankind’s bleakest hours of war. Their popularity today goes beyond blockbuster films or controversial television series. The major theme pitting hope against despair in a battle between good and evil is timeless.
Yet in our era the lines defining good, and evil are intentionally being blurred. This effort is being made so that the good people of this world simply do nothing.
I get bored doing nothing.
At the same time, I am a builder. Not a destroyer. While a certain amount of destruction has to take place in order to build, builders are planners. Destroyers only care to destroy. One thing I can safely say about myself is that I am a lousy salesman. Selling ideas is hard to begin with. Combine that with a guy who has trouble selling himself, and you can easily see why I have trouble selling democracy or even Peace.
Trump is the consummate salesman in that the best salesmen sell people what they already want. Trump has the answer for everybody who disagrees with the status quo. Destroy it.
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