Author: dowell

Going to the airport to fly for the first time since wusolation brought something clearly to mind.  It is so strange to see the people in the airport pretending to abide by guidelines.  They are not acting like there is a deadly virus to which exposure will lead to sure and gruesome death.  Probably because they have been lied to so much, they now just go along and play like they believe the latest lie.

However, rarely before have people been so compliant to follow inane requirements.  They talk about social distancing and people act like they are complying, but they are not really.  They bunch up at the security check point, at the eateries, at the Hudson news.  It’s like they are complying, but they don’t really believe. 

Where have we seen this before?  People pretending to believe something but not bothering to learn about what it is they profess to believe.  They wear masks but pull them down at the first sign of inconvenience.  Well, the experts told us early on that masks don’t do any good, now the same experts tell us we will kill our grandmother if we don’t wear a mask – so we wear a mask and if you question the all-powerful value of mask wearing – shame on you – put on your mask and behave. But then, pull it down a foot from someone who can’t understand what you are saying.  Then you see masks being worn upside down (wire side should be up), inside out (color side should be out) and you see cotton masks, which were, the experts said until very recently, completely worthless against the virus.  It all looks very much like going to a church service on Sunday then living only for yourself the rest of the week.  Or occasionally saying a prayer without really knowing what it’s about or why it’s done.  It’s a whole new belief system forming in our midst.

How fitting that the symbol which most represents this new belief system looks very much like a muzzle.  This new religion allows no thought or application of reason outside of that which is handed down from on high by our priestly overlords.  And we shall certainly never speak anything that questions the omnipotent, all knowing science which supports all elements of their edicts.

So we here declare the name of this new religion – the church of the holeless muzzle.  Its adherence we shall call muzzlians and those who zealously uphold and defend the precepts of the new religion we shall call muzzlites.  Those who reject the same precepts we shall call Karen.

Is it not awesome that we are seeing the beginning of the greatest religion ever to bless humanity – oops personhood?  Muzzlites of the world unite, take over the cities and take over the government (don’t worry about the rural folk, we just demean their intelligence and dignity and hope they keep growing food for us).  Create muzzleocracies throughout the world.  It is the only way to protect people from their own thinking and reasoning.

The Muzzleology
Praise masks and care of others show
Praise masks all those you care to know
Praise masks and push all doubters low
Praise masks and we shall serfdoms grow
Amask

Those who disagree with you are no less human than you – despite what you are being told. Ridicule and insult are the weapons of fear and hate and the tools of the established elite.

It is difficult, but not impossible, to discern the underlying ideologies embraced by those around us.  Careful reading and listening reveals that the vast majorities of American have core beliefs that are not that far apart.  The vast majority cherish the concepts of liberty, opportunity, and justice for all.  A primary differentiator between factions revolves around the role of the federal government in realizing those concepts.

Most people agree that unbridled capitalism is troublesome.  Most also agree that authoritarian government is equally troubling, and both are troubling for the same reason.  There are rascals in the world.

Absolute laissez-faire amounts to anarchy and as we move in that direction, we see the rise of rascals in the form of Robber Barons and the like – not good.  Absolute authoritarian government amounts to totalitarianism and as we move in that direction, we see the rise of rascals in the form of Fascism and the like – also not good.  What has worked best is a balance whereby private enterprise is reasonably governed and whereby government is held in check.

In an attempt to mitigate the impact of rascals on the federal government the United States was formed around the concept of three branches of government, one to make the laws, one to execute the laws and one to validate that the laws abide by the principles upon which the government was constituted.  Over time that balance of power has been thwarted by rascals in congress that grossly interferes with the executor, by rascal executors who uses executive orders to essentially create laws and by rascal judges who use the bench to make and enforce their own set of laws.

This has been allowed to happen because we the people have allowed ourselves to be manipulated in to voting based not on real ideology but fear and hate.  There is an established elite that benefits greatly as a result of duping the crowd.  And this takes no conspiracy, it is just rascals doing what comes naturally – building power and keeping it.

Meanwhile, it has become almost impossible to have a conversation about true issues. Most often those who would have such a conversation begin by sizing up which side of the fear-hate chasm the others adhere.  Then the conversation devolves into the destruction of the strawman facsimiles which each side has been manipulated into believing the “other” supports.  There is generally just enough truth in the predefined strawman facsimiles we have been supplied to wrangle up an argument and tempers.  Then out of fear and hate, we vote for the rascal on our side in order to defeat the rascals on the other side. 

Sound familiar?

The cost of such folly is high.  Our federal government has become much of what it was designed to avoid.  Intrusive, overbearing, indifferent to the plight of the working man and insensitive to the downtrodden.

So, let’s take the time and make an effort to afford to others the respect human beings deserve. 

How about we try talking – and listening.

We have allowed the hate-mongering established elite to divide us along lines that are incomprehensibly defined.  Both sides claim to be for liberty and equality because they know that’s what people desire, and both claim that the other side is for big government and cronyism because they know that is what people do not desire.  Both sides defend themselves with selective examples of their own virtues and use strawman declarations to deride the other side.  As a result, political discussion has degraded to mostly name-calling and insults.

Meanwhile, the established elite get away with extorting ever-increasing amounts of liberty and resource away from the citizenry and routing it to an ever-widening array of special interests and self-enriching schemes.  Why not, we all too busy insulting one another to notice.  Plus, if a person admits that their side is anything but 100% virtuous it might leave an opening for the other side, which we all know is 100% evil.

It is such a horrible way to end a nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  With mindless followers’ name calling and shaming to the beat of a drum pounded by an elite establishment that cares nothing for Liberty or equality.

Please, stop the incessant name-calling and ridicule.  This isn’t an elementary schoolyard; this is real life and our children and grandchildren will pay the real price for this practice of narrowminded intolerance.

It is popular these days to be filled with hate, however, if you are more interested in loving your neighbor than judging your neighbor and loving what is good about your country more than hating mistakes made, read on.

In 244 years, The United States of America has grown and matured in ways that are breathtaking and beautiful.  She grew from a handful of colonies on the east coast to span a continent.  She matured from colonies that enriched their European over-lords partially by the sweat and blood of African slaves to electing a President born to an African father.  She has been a source of unrivaled creativity and entrepreneurship.  Her people hale from across the globe and yet she is filled with those who now lovingly call her their native land.  Repeatedly it is her citizens who are the first and most generous in rendering aid in times of need, and the most effective of that aid comes from private citizens without government coercion.

Happy birthday land of liberty!  May freedom shine even brighter in the years ahead than it has in the years gone by.  God Bless America.

The life of Nancy Green, from Montgomery County, Kentucky is one that informs the careful observer in many ways, we will focus on just two. 

1. Her contribution to creating one of the most recognized brands in America tells of the many elements of our American experience that are improved by the contribution of our black neighbors.
2. Her having been born into slavery, emancipated and then taken advantage of by corporate America, tells of progress made and progress still required.

From all accounts, Nancy Green was an industrious and talented woman.  Long before story branding became a thing, she utilized her great talents to help the public project her brand into their lives.  She did so by utilized her intellect and wit to weave common experiences with the public through engaging stories and songs.

Please take the time to learn more about Nancy Green, and while you are at it consider the uncountable thousands of other lives of our black neighbors who have improved our journey.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously — no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner — no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object present to your senses.

C.S. Lewis from ‘The Weight of Glory’

The experience begins with the amazing texture as your teeth glide through layer after layer of delicately crisp pastry.  The sweetness of honey enhanced by nuts and spices spins up your taste buds and your entire mouth begins to fill with wonder.

The majesty of Baklava does not end with its amazing taste and texture, nor even in the full sweet, yet savory, experience rewarded to the consumer of the dainty bouffage.  So awesome is this rich, delicate delight that two cultures vehemently claim it as their own, cultures who both have contributed in great ways to civilization, the Turks and the Greeks.

There is, however, a third culture that arguably deserves a high degree of consideration for blessing the word with such a wonder, The Byzantine Empire.  Support of this claim may be found in the book “Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization” by Lars Brownworth.  The book does not speak of Baklava, per se, however, once you discover this rich culture and civilization, which is rarely taught about in schools, you will better understand.

“I am a star at rest, my daughter,” answered Ramandu …
“In our world,” said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas”
“Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of”
C.S.Lewis The Voyage of the Dawn Trader

America is made of weak and sinning humans, as have been all societies throughout history.

But that is just what we are made of.

What we are is that of your own making.  You can be filled with hate or filled with love, accepting of character or prejudiced based on the color of skin or ideology, a seeker of unity or a divider, a seeker of peace, or purveyor of violence.  You decide.

Our hope for a better future does not lie in:
shaming others because they are different
squelching dissenting opinions
denying facts that do not fit the defined narrative
denying history that does not fit the defined narrative
twisting the meaning of words
destroying our neighbors’ property
burning down our neighbors’ homes
judging people based on the pigmentation of their skin

The teacher said:
“Love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these.”

It is clear that these are anathema to the defined narrative that is guiding the loudest elements of our society today.

A careful perusal of the news, all the news, not just the opinion filled and filtered news we’ve all become so distrustful of, warns of storm clouds rising.  There are wars and rumors of wars too numerous to catalog here.  Locusts, failed crops, and pig flu threatening future famine at levels the world has rarely if ever seen.

And we have allowed ourselves to be divided and stirred into raging hate, ridiculing any thought that is not aligned with a defined narrative, burning books before they are even written if the author is not perfectly aligned with that same narrative. Twisting the meaning of words so that up is down and bad is good.

This is not a “New Normal” we have chosen to enter, it is a “New Abnormal”.  A world of violence and hatred.  Where being mean is justified and encouraged.  If you did not believe in the total depravity of man before, have a careful look at the news.

There is, however, hope.