What will we ever do?

In a time long ago, the 1960’s, and in a land far away, Pennsylvania, my father explained to me the value of newspapers. He said that a smart man keeps up with local, regional, and world affairs. It was “his duty as a citizen to know about his government and how it works.” It wasn’t until much later in life that I took that advice to heart and started reading Doonesbury.

Now in my 60’s I have been reading newspapers, along with watching and listening to TV and radio news, trying to make sense of our history, our government, and our destiny as humans on this planet. I know, it’s a ridiculously daunting subject, and one that’s been hashed and rehashed ever since humans noticed the difference between boys and girls. I’m not sure we’ll ever know the answers to these complex questions, or even why some people insist that cilantro tastes good.

Granted, lots of folks just don’t care about why we’re here or how the government works. We’re here, we live, we work, we die. Well, some of us work. Yeah, there’s a lot of other stuff in there somewhere, but that’s beside the point. So, WHY are we here? What are we contributing to life in the universe? What good are we? What difference, in the long run, do we make to anything at all? Sound depressing? Well, it isn’t, really. Even if we make no difference to anything in the long run, we do make a difference to ourselves and those around us right now. See, I’m making a difference by writing this article, and you’re making a difference by wasting precious time reading it.

But I digress. We are humans. We are “the smart” animal. We have opposing thumbs and huge brains. We use tools to build things, and computers to write ideas.

Well if we’re so damned smart, smarter than animals, say, why don’t we have more respect for each other? Who’s the genius who came up with fighting? Who started the first war? If we ever find out who they were we should find their ancestors and put them in jail for life because obviously there’s something really wacky about them, and it might be genetic. There are probably about two million of them right now so we’d better start construction right away.

This is a different world than the one in which my father lived. If he were alive today he would shake his head in disbelief. He wouldn’t like Barack Obama, I’m sure, but he’d dislike Barney Frank even more. My Dad was a Nixon man all the way, but Nixon’s gone and these days the Republican Party is a mere shadow of its former self. He’d vote for bombing the crap out of them Arabs because they have no respect for Israel. I’m sure he’d be against national health care, or giving money to Pakistan for any reason. He’d be for leveling Iran, immediately. No doubt he’d slap the first gay guy that got in his face and tell him to “get over it.” My Dad was a hard working no-nonsense kind of guy who created a life for himself and his family with his brains and guts. No namby-pamby nice nice for him. Just shut up and do it. He’d cringe at the thought of outcome-based education. He believed a good spanking is worth a thousand words, and “I love you” is reserved for the wife on special occasions, like on your death bed.

They don’t make ’em like him and his generation any more. Now we’re all touchy-feely, don’t hurt anybody’s feelings, don’t insult anyone’s race or religion, and make the kids feel good by giving even the losers trophies. Jeeze, are we going to hell in a pansy-lined hand basket, or what? Can we just get over ourselves for a minute and try to unravel this mess of a world we put ourselves into? The answer: No! We can’t. We won’t. We’re screwed. We’re soft and getting softer. We’ve been dumb in the past, and getting dumber. We’re greedy, still, even after the huge world wide financial meltdown recently experienced, and getting greedier. We’re angry, but not for any of the right reasons.

If you’re looking for answers to these and other vexing questions which may be on the tip of your mind, forget it. I don’t have any. I’m just as dumb, greedy, and soft as the next guy. Is our culture to blame for my (our) shortsightedness? Yeah, that’s it. It’s our culture’s fault. Well, that’s one question answered. Only a zillion more to go.