Boy Scouts Lite

                                                                    

I have a dream. Chances are it's not your dream. In fact you'd probably abhor it, and condemn me for having it. In my dream, there's no penalty for calling someone a “nigger” or a “guinea” or a “spic.” There are Boy Scout troops that prohibit homosexuals, and colleges that don't admit women. I dream of segregated lunch counters and hotels that prohibit Jews. As I said, it's my dream, not yours.

Let me begin with the disclaimers: I'm a kike,ⁱ a neocon, and I'm an old man. Thus I'm disqualified when it comes to saying anything intelligent about our modern, democratic, Christian society. But I won't let your biases stop me. I have my own views and I have my own blog. If you don't want to read it, that's your right. So if you want you can stop right now. Your loss.

The bases for my views are the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. They're documents once revered, but now viewed as antiques which may only be cited in patriotic speeches since they're so out of date that they can't be taken seriously any more.ⁱⁱ Yet they remain the foundation of the world's oldest constitutional republic. Whatever their imperfections, they work.

The principles, doctrines, and laws they contain, however, apply only to the government. The private sector has – or, at least, should have – considerably more latitude.ⁱⁱⁱ The rights of the individual as opposed to those of our government constitute an important distinction, one of which we should all be aware, and one that is part of the structure of the American dream. It matters. It helps keep our republic alive, and, as Martin Luther King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Thus I will not be silent. I will speak out for prejudice, hate speech, and segregation.^iv

It's not that I support those positions. I don't. But that's my choice, and should not limit the rights of others.^v I fully believe that there are acts permitted to “private” individuals and organizations that would be viewed as unconstitutional or contrary to law when involving “public” ones. The government^vi should not attempt to control what anyone thinks, says, or even does as a private individual, unless his actions directly or indirectly cause physical damage to others. And then he should be punished for the harm he has caused – not for the thoughts or words.

So let me get back to my dream, for I have only related part of it.

In my dream, there's no penalty for calling someone a “nigger” or a “guinea” or a “spic.” There are Boy Scout troops that prohibit homosexuals, and colleges that don't admit women. I dream of segregated lunch counters and hotels that prohibit Jews. But there are few who use epithets and a diminishing number of those who listen. The insults have lost their sting because they elicit little response. Human nature may not change but inhumane actions may.

In my dream, also, the segregated Boy Scout troops, colleges, lunch counters and hotels are open but empty. No one is interested. And there are numerous alternatives, public and private, to those facilities, some with and some without governmental funding, that provide equal accommodation to all takers. The change will take place because of economics rather than compulsion. People's actions will change as they forget the old, and unrewarding, practices. Even their prejudices will fade as they learn that no one is interested, and that it is more productive to move on.

As Reverend King said, our children “will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin^vii but by the content of their character.” Nowhere in his “I have a dream” address^viii did he suggest that people should be forced to act properly. He knew too much about our weaknesses to even suggest that. His hopes were pragmatic as well as idealistic.

Perhaps we share a dream.

Next episode: “Take It From Whomever” – Everything you may or may not have wanted to know but didn't have time to ask.

i         That's not the way I view myself, but I know there are many who see me that way. And that's their right according to the Constitution.

ii        In fact, I'd bring them up to date myself if I could. But for now they remain in effect.

iii      Hillsdale College (and, perhaps, others more recently) refuses all government support and declines to participate in any governmental programs, so that it will not be subject to any strictures that derive from involvement in any relationship with it. The college is a strong supporter of the Constitution, and prides itself on its independent status and its refusal to sell or compromise that independence from governmental regulations while enjoying the liberties guaranteed it by our Founding Fathers.

iv      Actually I view arrogance, corruption, violation of the ten commandments, and complicity in the seven deadly sins as greater threats to our republic than these.

v       When their actions are unrelated to, and not dependent on, any governmental authorization. Our ancestors recognized and accepted what we find intolerable: you can't change human nature. It has to change itself. The best you can do is to make it clear that society itself is proscribed from involvement in immorality.

vi      And self-appointed censors.

vii     Nor sex or religion or any other such extraneous criterion.

viii    http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf

In The Beginning

                                                                                 

Where do I start? It happened so long agoⁱ that I don't remember all the details, but I'll give it my best shot. And I hope that you'll forgive any minor errors I may make.

As I recall, it all began during their regular Thursday night poker game.ⁱⁱ It was dark out.ⁱⁱⁱ The doorbell rang and the Buddha answered it. It was the pizza delivery and the Domino's man was waiting outside for a tip. That fact, however, was annoying to the gods and Zeus struck him with lightning. It eliminated the tip problem, but the Prophet criticized him roundly for engaging in party tricks.

The pizzas were still there, however, and they were divided among the participants. Everyone had something (except for Moses, who wouldn't eat any of it) and their spirits were sated. They looked on the extra cheese, and it was good. There was a big crowd. In addition to those I've already mentioned, Jesus was there along with the rest of the Trinity (the Father and the godfather) as were Ra, Ahura Mazda, Jupiter, Ganesha, Confucius, Ometecuthli, and a host of other deities and dignitaries. Too many to count.

The game resumed after the snack. It was now light outside.^iv Everybody was a winner in the poker game. That was to be expected – there were certainly no losers among the gods and their representatives.

Once again the doorbell rang. This time, though, it was Brown. “I got a package for Monseigneur George Lemaitre, and I gotta' get a John Hancock.” Heracles sprung up. “I'll sign for it.” And he did. The UPS man was happy to get rid of the burden. “Oh, by the way, it fell out of the truck about a block away and I couldn't pick it up. “No problem. I'll get it.” But before the Titan could get to the package, the delivery man sped away.

A few minutes later Heracles reappeared, sweat dripping all over him. “It's not so easy. The package is small, but I can't move it.”

So Zeus sent for Atlas who arrived with a smirk on his face. “What can you expect from 97 pound weaklings. I guess none of you pussies is up to it.”

He wasn't either. Zeus wasn't laughing any more, but he was still convinced he had the problem in hand. “It takes brains more than brawn. Archimedes once told me, ΠΑ ΒΩ ΚΑΙ ΧΑΡΙΣΤΙΩΝΙ ΤΑΝ ΓΑΝ ΚΙΝΗΣΩ ΠΑΣΑΝ.^v He'll show you how it's done. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” So he sent for the man with the stick. But soon after the Eureka! man started he reported back, “The lever isn't long enough and I've got no good place to stand.”

They all stood around, arguing about a plan. Some suggested forgetting about the whole thing and getting back to the game, but there was a lot of sentiment that they mustn't give up. They couldn't admit that there was a task too difficult for them.

Meanwhile a Hand from above picked up the package and its contents – a speck that was barely visible – and blew on it. There was a large explosion, but it was silent momentarily. Then something started expanding at an alarming pace, and the sound along with it – a really big bang. And in only an instant,^vi there were stars all over the place.^vii Somewhere along the line life developed on earth, and possibly elsewhere, but it's hard to determine if this resulted from natural forces or if the Hand directed its appearance. There was plant life, animal life, and a few other types, but in the end it was the humans that ruled – at least among the life on earth.

The participants in the big bet poker game watched it all, each claiming that he deserved the credit for the whole thing. Royal flushes abounded. 

Absurd?

Of course. But all of it, or only a part? And what part? Both believers and non-believers claim to know all the answers. But do they? When did time begin? Where did the gods come from? For that matter, where did the speck originate? Our scientists tell us that all matter comes from preexisting matter, so if that scenario, or even part of it, is correct there must have been something earlier.

We'll never know. The whole thing is beyond rationality – at least the rationality built into us. The philosophers are all angle shooters – they may have showy flops and possibly even promising turns. But their rivers are polluted. Don't let them bluff you. You're on your own. 

 

In spades.

Next episode: “Boy Scouts Lite” – The new, improved America.

i       Thirteen or fourteen billion years ago, give or take.

ii      In retrospect, that's an anachronism. Thor hadn't yet consented to the use of his name for something as mundane as a day name. It must have happened at some other time. Wait. That can't be right. Time hadn't been invented yet.

iii     Of course it was dark. There was no sun.

iv     Mbombo's slices were a little ripe, and he ate too many of them, vomiting up the sun as a result.

v      “Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.”

 

vi      Or several billion years – whichever came second.

 

vii     Not just Elvis.

Bette And Beyond

                                                         
                                                                                    

“Old age ain't no place for sissies.” And “Getting old is not for sissies.” Both are the words of Bette Davis and represent her philosophy of (the latter part of) life.

Here I am in my “golden years” and I discover what so many have learned before me – they're not so golden. And I'm among the lucky ones. While I have the joint aches and memory losses so common among members of my cohort, I am in relatively good shape. I have no real right to complain as do so many others. I have a loving wife and children and grandchildren who provide me with more pleasure than I've earned. For the most part I still have all my marbles, and a few more I've won along the way. I remain capable of deep, and sophisticated thought.

Aye, there's the rub.

The more I think about it, the more I want to live forever,ⁱ and I see nothing in my way. Except the knowledge that I can't. I don't feel any older than I did many years ago. At least not intellectually.ⁱⁱ I find the story that I'm living out fascinating. I want to know what happens at the end. But there is no end. Or, at least, I hope not.

I'm at the age of introspection, like so many of my predecessors. I obsess over one of life's most sacred taboos: death.ⁱⁱⁱ The idea of nothingness – eternal nothingness – is something that is hard to grasp, despite its inevitability. There are many who view death as final, with no existence thereafter. Perhaps there is a “world to come” – an afterlife, as we learn from religious teachings – but it is hard not to consider the idea that the wife, children, and grandchildren whom I cherish now, will not be a part of that world and that life. Of course I won't know that.^iv I won't be cognizant of my previous existence, so it won't bother me then. But it bothers me now.

There's always the possibility that there is a continuation of what I see as my current life after death occurs. That would provide me with the eternal life for which I'm hoping.^v A life that ends abruptly and is an isolated event doesn't seem reasonable or fair. But it's hard to view eternal life as likely.^vi It's a very child-like solution to a problem far too difficult to understand.

Children are frightened of death. Whether the concerns center on the loss of a parent, monsters under the bed, eternal nothingness, or some formless and indescribable “bad thing,” there is a period when terror my be initiated by night, by the presence of a babysitter, or simply by turning off a light.^vii That anxiety, however, is short-lived^viii and feelings of immortality resulting from the slow development of the frontal lobes supervenes, driving such concerns from consciousness. The issue doesn't resurface until later in life, but by that time “denial” is well established and there is separate compartmentalization of the fear from the intellectual knowledge that sooner or later the end will come. For most, “later” is the chosen option, so that whole line of thought can be dismissed quickly.

The fear of death, however, is not universal. Indeed, some seek it, though fortunately I'm not among them. But for many the pain of life is so overwhelming that nothingness is viewed as more desirable – a relief from whatever suffering they are enduring. That suffering may be purely psychological, or physical with a psychological component. Other factors that may play a part are economic and social. Actually, all may be related. An individual with a painful or incurable disease is likely to be depressed. No one wants to see him – it's too depressing for them. And he feels guilty for causing pain and expense to his family. The solution is the Hemlock Society or a doctor who will provide a way out. And a way out is the only way out.

When considering suicide, moreover, it's hard to overlook those who are eager to die as long as they take their enemies with them. There is no dearth of individuals with this Weltanshauung, especially in the Middle East where the clergy indoctrinate the young with the idea that such behavior is both laudable and rewarded.^ix Martyrdom is to be praised. At least if it's played out in others.

I guess there are times when giving your life may be a better choice than living. But they can't be very many. And I certainly won't attempt to list them because then I'll have to measure my own existence against them. Because I don't suffer from any of the physical, mental, economic, social, or other burdens that cause people to seek an end, I cannot imagine them or the proposed “cure.” I realize that my attitude will be considered flip by those in pain, but, at least for the moment, I'll tolerate the afflictions of my golden years.

My oldest granddaughter will be married this afternoon. That gives me a shot at becoming a great-grandfather in my old age. So notwithstanding Bette Davis, it's worth the tribulations. And I'm not a sissy. 

 

 

 

 

Next episode:  "In The Beginning" – Who knows?

I       Especially considering the alternative.

ii      I must admit I have aches here and there, but I can live with them.

iii     But doesn't everyone?

iv      No one knows what happens at death. We can't figure it out. And we can't know G-d's plans. Our logic is not adequate to guess His “thoughts.” As Jay Livingston said, “Que sera, sera.” “Whatever will be, will be.” We don't know too much.

v       A sage once cautioned, “Be careful what you wish for. You may just get it.” Eternal life as a demented senior in a nursing home may not be a bargain.

vi      If we're certain of anything in the religious sphere, it's that human and Divine rationality and considerations are very different (not that there is any way we can fathom Divine “thought”). There is no way we can know what is “fair” or “unfair” in this world, nor what lies ahead.

vii     Is that so different from the fears of an adult?

viii    An interesting description and occurrence.

ix     Meanwhile they (the clergy) remain in safety while sending out their followers to become the suicide bombers.

The Greater Of One Elvis

                                                                          

Several months ago I saw Elvis coming out of a music store. A guitar was slung over his shoulder, perhaps one he had just bought. The carrying case looked new. It was snowing out, but extending downward from his leather jacket and into the milky powder, I could see what looked like a white jump suit – with something that glittered embedded in the fabric, possibly sequins. He was headed in the direction of a drug store, but I lost sight of him before he entered.

He looked older than I remembered. But I know I looked older too. After all, it was over thirty-five years since he had left the public spotlight. As a matter of fact it was his seventy-eighth birthday, January 8, 2013.

Elvis never died.

Such is the power of belief. Although most people associate belief with religion, that is only one of numerous sources of belief. And some of the others have a stronger hold on the faithful than any religious tenet. Tell a child there is no Tooth Fairy, especially one who has just found money under his pillow, and there will only be expressions of disbelief – you might as well claim there is no Easter Bunny; confide to an adherent of homeopathy that he's wasting his money on water, and be prepared to be berated as a tool of the medical establishment; maintain that there are no UFOs, and someone who believes he was abducted by aliens will expound on your blindness and ignorance; and if you suggest that the Warren Commission got it right, that a lone gunman shot President Kennedy – if you question the idea that there were co-conspirators on a grassy knoll – you're likely to be considered as in denial of the obvious truth, the truth that “they” are withholding from you. And if you suggest to a militant atheist that there is a G-d, you had better be prepared for a diatribe on the evils of religion.

Virginia O'Hanlon knew there was a Santa Claus, even if she needed Francis Church and the New York Sun to confirm that obvious fact. Elwood Dowd, a friendly creature described by Mary Coyle Chase, had no doubt that he was accompanied by a six foot, three and a half inches tall rabbit, though some others (but not all) thought him crazy.ⁱ We're all familiar with the story that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and was quick to fess up to his transgression. While we may not accept Parson Weems's story as gospel, few question the Truth behind the story, and our first President is held in reverence by almost all Americans.

Every nation has its sagas; every civilization its heroes. Where would we all be if we lacked a faith in our heritage? And if some of that heritage, questionable as it may be in fact, turns into our “history,” all the better. The same is true for both verifiable facts and for beliefs. And those who accept as fact some things that we doubt, deserve our respect and appreciation. After all, maybe they're right. It is easy to dismiss what they say with the view that they live by the maxim “I believe because it is absurd”ⁱⁱ – the leap of faithⁱⁱⁱ – but there are many things that seem absurd but are true. For example, you can turn lead into gold, and you don't require a Philosopher's Stone, only radiation. At present it may not be worthwhile financially, but it is possible. And there are many other ideas of science^iv that seemed bizarre at the time and were rejected, but are now recognized to be basic facts.^v

The principal rule is that it is unwise to be too quick to condemn the ideas of another – however you may question them.^vi Belief is a powerful force, both personally and internationally. It's the basis for most of the world's contention, whether the beliefs are religious or political.^vii And the ideas you condemn may be true.

After all, Elvis is still alive, even if you choose^viii not to believe it.

Next episode: “Bette And Beyond” – The Davis philosophy.

i      Dowd, that is. All children have imaginary friends. Fortunately we don't all grow up and cast off those we love.

ii     “Credo quia absurdum” – Tertullian, from De Carne Christi

Crucifixus est Die Filius, non pudet, quia pudendum est;

et mortuus est Dei Filius, porsus credibile est, quia ineptum est;

et sepultus resurrexit, certum est; quia impossibile.

                                                                   De Carne Christi V, 4 ( cited by Wikipedia)

It's interesting that the quotation is, itself, a paraphrase of the text, and doesn't actually appear in the wording cited. Nonetheless, the idea that a belief is, by definition, irrational cannot be faulted. Were it provable it would become fact rather than belief. And some beliefs are, indeed, likely to be factual, even if not yet proved.

iii     Attributed to Kierkegaard although he apparently never used the term.

iv     And science fiction.

v      Of course there were also basic and accepted scientific concepts in the past that were later found to be nonsense. Science is often seen as the rationalist's answer to religion but in many respects it's just another religion, even if it claims otherwise.

vi     Some of the are, to be sure, nonsense, but that can be established without your help.

vii    Despite the claim of atheists, religion is not the cause of most deaths in war, nor are religious people. Hitler and Stalin caused far more deaths than occurred during the Crusades or in other religious wars. And tyrants who are hungry for power or wealth have no regard for others – especially when they have no belief in any kind of punishment for their actions.

viii   Wrongly.