Eve of Destruction

 

Kierkegaard’s quote” Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards” provides reality. The current craziness is bothersome to say the least. For example, my friend’s interaction comes to mind. He stopped to purchase coffee and noticed that a first responder firetruck was illegally parked. The obese first responder, because of his weight, had difficulty exiting the vehicle. To make a long story short, he commented about him being illegally parked and him being excessively overweight. The first responder replied “I’m getting something for my men.” A few minutes later a policeman showed up confronting my friend about a harassment complaint made against him. Of course, the policeman didn’t have all the facts. My friend said “We can discuss the matter in front of all these witnesses at the coffee shop or we can go across the street and discuss it with the people at the Auburn Journal?” The end of story. This essay addresses current insanity.

The first responder’s comment “I’m getting something for my men” is a rationalization, and a moral and ethical justification for parking illegally. This man may believe he’s acting morally and ethically however, he is not acting morally and ethically because he is breaking the law. The fact that he believes what he’s doing is his truth but was not his motivation, but an excuse. He was breaking the law since he knew he was part of the “system” and there would be no consequences.

Last week’s post “Challenge Illusions” could not have been more pertinent regarding the chaos in Afghanistan. The recent reality regarding the history of the fighting infidels in Afghanistan has been well documented. The illusion that the United States’ military involvement and outcome would be different than the previous British and Russian efforts is the illusion. A few facts: 1. The Taliban have total control of their country 2. The president of Afghanistan left the country 3.  The US military is sending additional forces to evacuate US citizens 4. The US trained Afghan security force did what? 5. Afghan interpreters are fearful of being killed by the Taliban etc. 6.The US taxpayers have donated $6.4 trillion in wars in the Middle East 7. 3,500 coalition military personnel have died since 2001 8. 20,066 have been wounded since 2001 9. 30,177 active duty personnel and veterans of those conflicts have committed suicide 10. US tax payers have donated $ 2.261 trillion in the Afghan war. 11. There is much media and political criticism regarding the withdrawal.

A few rationalizations given for our Middle East involvement have been as follows: 1. Protect” our “interests 2. Weapons of mass destruction 3. Providing freedom and democracy in a politically divided country – look in the mirror 4. National Security-we will fight there so we don’t have to fight them here 5. We have to kill bin Laden 6. We are fighting terrorism 7. We haven’t been attacked since 2001. With our rationalizations we have established a motive for revenge.

Perhaps, our “leaders” believed their rationalizations. Whether they believed them or not, is not the point. They are pure and simple rationalizations given to justify moral and ethical behavior. However, there is nothing moral and ethical about 20 years of death, destruction and war. Looking back, it’s clear that U.S citizens were deceived. It’s also apparent, you can bet your life, and it’s not an illusion that certain corporations of the military industrial complex and others have politically and/or economically benefited. It’s also obvious that John Q citizen and G.I. Joe have not benefited. We don’t have a living wage for many; we have poverty; our democracy is in peril and we have a pandemic. We can’t afford to deal with infrastructure or climate change but we can waste over $6 trillion. When it comes to guns or butter, the values of the elite are clear. Why wasn’t there much moral criticism about starting the war in the first place among our Christian leaders? In any event, we have certainly made more enemies in the last 20 years.

There is a public health crisis in our country. This crisis is no illusion.  A few facts pertaining to Covid-19 crisis: 1. it’s predicted that the US could soon have more than 200,000 new Covid cases per day 2. The number of children hospitalized with Covid-19 are at record levels 3. There are 36.7 million cases and 621,000 deaths in our country and growing 4. 207 million total cases worldwide and 4.3 million deaths worldwide. 5.  Florida Governor threatened to withhold salaries to school personnel regarding their mask wearing policy 6.  Texas Governor asked the state Supreme Court to uphold his ban of wearing a mask 7. I could not accompany Linda for her x-ray today since I didn’t have my proof of vaccine card with me. I did not object.

It’s true that many poor people and people without insurance haven’t been vaccinated. Some rationalizations found in the August 8, 2021 edition of The New York Times: 1. A Covid -19 person said he didn’t get the vaccine because he wasn’t sick 2. Contrary information by the CDC 3. Freedom is not negotiable 6. It’s a hoax 7. Government is lying to you 8. Say no to the Covid vaccine-Save the children 9. The vaccines were rushed and dangerous to take 10.  Do not tell my coworkers because I don’t want them to think I’m crazy 11. I am wearing personal protective equipment and a hand sanitizer 12. The vaccine location is inconvenient and expensive 13. I’m worried about side effects 12. To vaccinate is not part of our nature.

It should be apparent that everyone rationalizes at some point. The spectacular ability to rationalize separates us from animals, and that can be argued as a good or bad thing, but not pertinent today. At some juncture, if lucky, one may acknowledge the folly, the illusions of past justifications and decisions. Morally and ethically, rationalizations are harmful and deadly. Under most decisions, a decision to take one’s own life can be argued but not the taking of another life.

The executive function of the brain provides the tools allowing emotionally based defensive rationalizations. As a result, it’s difficult to convince that individual that their thinking is flawed. In part, it’s because the underlying dynamics of rationalizations have an emotional but not a rational, ethical or moral basis which is unknown to said individual. Furthermore, the conscious expression and reasons given might have a kernel of truth. Therefore, a defensive or indignant response follows as the person believes his own words to be truth even though it’s their illusion. Be aware of illusions propagated by the political, economic and religious elite since they are designed to fool and distort even though one wants to believe the pleasurable fiction. It’s little wonder that there so much craziness in our country. Truth be aware-of Perses. It  just might be ”Blowing in the Wind.”