Responsibility – 866 words

It is Sunday, April 26, 2020.

It starts when we are kids. We soon figure it out. When you are accused of being the one responsible for the broken window it always helps when you can not only deny it but also point a finger at a convenient scapegoat. Little brothers are easy scapegoats, even if the baseball sitting in the middle of the room with the broken window is obviously yours. But little brothers learn quickly and always have a convenient scapegoat ready, even if it is their stuffed tiger. They also soon learn that being the first to throw someone else under the bus greatly improves your odds of successfully deflecting the blame.

Some of us get so adept at this deflection that truth becomes an enemy. Whenever we are rewarded for selling the lie the better our techniques become. For some, lying is the first and “go to” method to explain away any attempts of others to even suggest that they are responsible for something gone horribly wrong.

You probably know someone like this. They have never been wrong or responsible for for anything that turns out bad. Then they learn that they can also get credit for something good happening. As long as they claim credit loud and often, they have a good chance of somebody ( or even lots of somebodies ) believing them.

Who killed the planet? Too much? Ok, who do we blame for the dire conditions we are facing? The answer is easy; as Pogo once said, “I have met the enemy, and he is us”. We have met the enemy and it turns out they are mostly old white guys. Ouch!

The situation has deteriorated to the point where many find it so depressing that they would gladly exchange their own life for a solution. That gets easier when you get older and the global situation gets worse. Where was such pragmatic thinking when we were young? It is easy to condemn the behavior of the spoiled narcissist that cannot accept responsibility for bad acts. Perhaps we should direct some of that condemnation inward, because we built the world that produced him and all of the problems of today.

We built a society that worships greed and business success. What is the only acceptable motivation in business, profit of course. If an activity cannot produce profit, then it is not sustainable or worth doing. Our society heaps tons of love and respect on the highest achievers, not to mention heaps of money and power.

Teaching, altruism, compassion, nurturing, charity, nonconformity, manual labor, ubuntu. Just a short list of activities that are often not very financially profitable. The fact that they are all necessary components of a fair and sustaining society often gets shoved aside by deep seated greed. We have corrupted one of the concepts most religions endorse. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, has become, do unto others before they do unto you. Religions have always been corrupted and used as a tool for greed and power.

Can we change? The answer is no, WE can’t but our grandchildren will do better. The responsibility for the state we are in is ours; the sole responsibility of our children will be to keep their children safe and get out of their way. We will not go quietly, it will be messy but it must happen. My generation needs to get out of the way for our society to become sustainable. We, you and me, are the problem not the solution.

Once you accept your responsibility, your world view changes. How can I be upset with the current train wreck rapidly unfolding before our astonished eyes when I enabled it.

Chicken Little was right and we just said, “The system will absorb all this and the pendulum will return”.

I’m feeling like the pendulum went all the way to the right and then the weight fell off. No telling if it ever will return.

At least the weather is improving. Not to say there was anything wrong with it.

 

May 12, 2020

We managed to turn a pandemic into a partisan football, each side blaming someone or thing else with the result being pitting the rich against everyone else. The thing is, the pandemic doesn’t give a shit. I’m rooting for Covid 19. The earth needs a large die off of it’s human affliction for the rest of it’s inhabitants to survive. A lot of species that share the planet with us will also die off, but isn’t that what evolution is all about.

I feel a guilty satisfaction when I see gatherings of Trumpies ignoring science. Covid 19 welcomes them into it’s fold. I would love to see the future unfold; I think we ain’t seen nothing yet.

My friends don’t agree. “We will get through this” they say. They also said Trump will pass and the system will prevail. I think he has broken the system and the disease that is his legacy will prevail.

His next move will be to cancel or steal the next election. After all, it doesn’t matter who gets to write the history books if there is no one to read them. Stay tuned.