Rightwords... Prudent Conservatism

Today Seems Far Too Conflicted


Just go read any news feed. Mostly conflicts from everywhere and about everything. From small to large, from simple to complex, and from national to international, we are butting heads in all directions. Perhaps it is technology that allows us to gather reports worldwide, continent wide and nationwide in a flash. The information avalanche hits us from many sources: TV, Newspapers, Mags, Radio, and the Internet all throwing stuff at us far faster than we can read it or assimilate it, then integrate it. Formerly, we put our trust in a few analysts and commentators whose job it was to make sense of all the bits and pieces for us, but over time they have proven to be biased, arrogant, and many times sailing too close to the wind.

Swirling in my head are the current US conflicts worldwide: Iraq, Iran, NOK, Syria, and China for nations; Islam, Anti-Christians, Nihilists, and Secular Humanists, not to mention Socialists and Communists still there for ideologies; and Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, The EU and Russia for resources, especially oil; they are all at our throats. I have undoubtedly left out too many others.

Then I shake my head and up come the national conflicts we have now: Left versus Right; Activist judges; abortion, gay marriage; pork for everyone as in free college, free medical care, free retirement, and jobs for life; a national debt that is soaring; medicare going bust sooner than social security, and so on, and so on...

After sticking my head in a bowl of water to flush away the tensions, out come the personal problems as well. But I won't go into them here!

There are simply too many conflicts chasing my attention. I keep thinking of those people who buy a remote piece of land, build on it, and go after a lifestyle that is simpler and more attuned to the rhythms of nature. No telephone, no TV, no internet and no newspapers to boil their blood or shock their sense of right from wrong. Maybe an island in the South Pacific with palm trees, white beaches, and soft music in the warm night air. Soft music? Who is playing that?
Only in the movies.

The places I dreamed of visiting or even living in have one at a time shown me their undersides, their drawbacks, and their dangers. Think of being isolated when a medical emergency arises. Think of the illnesses that the local population has become inured to that you haven't. Think of the local politics and whether you just might not fit in. And think of the services you have now that would not be available: police you can count on, security as good as you can find anywhere, transportation, proper sewage, clean water, fuel for heating or cooling, foods you can believe are fresh and uncontaminated. Yes, I have been to many countries, and dwelled in each one long enough to make a sound judgement about life there.

But then I look around and see life here as we live it. A free and relatively secure country, many public services, good doctors and hospitals, a comfortable home, enough to eat and drink, plenty of books, gadgets to help us out, autos to take us where we want to go, our dogs to love, friends to come calling, and the web to play around in: what more can one have in this life? Get too involved in the dramas of the world or the nation and you risk creating great unhappiness in your life, with no time to sit, to reflect, to dream, and to enjoy what pleasures you have.

Most of the major themes of life have been explored and more or less settled now, so it is quite possible to watch the goings on, and let your opinions of them form around those themes you believe in. Not much could change my opinions here, except solid proof that they are wrong. But I needn't worry about that until it happens.

Meanwhile, I have developed a mindset that can cope: I needn't fret from issue to issue, and crisis to crisis, always trying to assess blame; perhaps not entirely serene, but far better than travelling an extremely bumpy and crooked road in an old flivver, cursing the rain, God, and a sore bottom, and complaining about it all the time.


"Should the whole frame of Nature round him break,
In ruin and confusion hurled, He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack,
And stand secure amidst a falling world."

Joseph Addison, Horace, Ode III, Book III

# posted by Mannning @ 9:20 PM