Morning Thoughts: November 6, 2017

Once again, we are numb. As a Charlie Chaplin character, a certain Monsieur Verdoux, said, "One murder makes a villain. Millions a hero. Numbers sanctify.”

He was talking of war, but the boundaries between outright war and everyday life blur more each day.

It takes more than one murder to transfix the news for us now. We are that inured to the insanity. We learn of the act. We become transfixed and attentive, not for the threat to the soul of America, but for a sign that our side is right. We then look at the numbers. Are there any new records set?

Then we look for the location and assure ourselves that the dangers lies nowhere near us.

For a tragic and alarming percentage of us, we await the identification of today’s monster. Will that person’s background fit some position they hold? Can they profit politically?

Perhaps, as we stand closer than ever in our planet’s history, to the final planetary war, or environmental implosion, these minor warmups, no matter how transfixing they are on the micro scale, serve to divert or prepare us for the macro disaster.

It seems as, in the words of Matthew Arnold, “I, on men’s impious uproar hurled, think only as I hear them rave, that peace has left the upper world, and now sleeps only in the grave.” And of all our nation’s populace, I’m the only person who has no idea of a solution.

One group demands a cure that will never happen. Their demands only strengthen and further enrich those who don’t agree with them. The barriers grow more strongly constructed. Where leaders once spoke, following tragedies, to heal, comfort, and provide hope, they now speak—or in more cowardly fashion, tweet—for political gain.

We insert the insipid phrase “thoughts and prayers” as a universal balm that replaces reason, analysis, and action. One can only wonder at the result, had FDR simply offered thoughts and prayers to those who lay at the bottom of Honolulu Bay, and their families, or to the farmers starving to death on the plains comprising the Dust Bowl.

I’m left, once again, with the pure and sanctified knowledge of one sure thing, following yesterday’s tragedy. There is one certainty on which we may count in the near future:

Nothing will happen except that we will receive more mind-deadening facts. We will do nothing, learn nothing, agree on nothing. Our addictions to violence and the tools of violence are simply too great. The desire for political and monetary benefits profound in our culture now, and they demand profound disagreements.

Which of these great philosophers is right?

“Das ist die Dämmerung der Götter.” - Richard Wagner

“So long, it’s been good to know you.” – Woody Guthrie

“Wherever human beings are concerned, trend is not destiny.” - René Dubos

“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.” – William Faulkner

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller

“I have a dream …” Marin Luther King, Jr.

“… choose you this day whom ye will serve …” – The writer of Joshua 24:14-15 KJV

Is in up to each of us" So be it. As for my family and me, we choose peace, hope, and compassion.

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