“He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own.” Aesop
There is this funny thing about getting older, actually there are a lot of funny things about ripening on life’s vine. Theoretically, we are supposed to be smarter, having learned from our endless mistakes.
There is this thing called wisdom. I see the image of Charlton Heston, having seriously aged within twenty minutes of film time, holding these tablets, which provided the ten most important lesson we need to learn and emulate in this life time. It would have been really cool if he came down, with long black hair and tie dye jeans, after having witnessed the burning bush and Barry White telling him to listen to Bob Dylan sing “Like A Rolling Stone.”
We look outside for answers, when it is the compass of our breath that shows us the way. I like the idea of humility and endless awe at this thing called life and I am not partial to its form. If you’re lucky like me, you’ve gotten to commit and witness a whole bunch of shit. I could concentrate on all the mistakes I’ve made, covering myself in the dirt of regret, making me blind to the resurrection every day brings, a baptism perched in the next breath.
Listen, I know I’m not going get any medals for being a blessing to mankind. I am just a reasonably intelligent person, who has this habit of looking around to not only see where I am, but the rest of us as well.
I think we have been around for around 50,000 years, at least in a form that might feel a little familiar to us. We began expressing ourselves, whether through art or language back then. One of the major rubs is that all anthropology, going back as far as you like, finds our beginnings in Africa. Charlton Heston and Jesus were terribly miscast. We cannot trace our ancestry back to white men and women from Cleveland, as much as so many people behave today. The First People, as many indigenous describe themselves, were people of color.
Of course, this got me thinking about the whole idea of evolution. Over millions of years, life has evolved, becoming increasingly complex. Although, I confess to sometimes thinking that the amoeba and Trump are much closer to each other on Darwin’s ladder, skipping a bunch of rungs.
I think when you look at every other living species, they have gotten increasingly more adept at surviving, better at being whatever the hell they are. Their challenges were external, with things like climate and predators. Dinosaurs were kicking earth ass until a huge meteor wrecked their neighborhoods. The Monarch butterfly has been around for several million years and their future is at risk, because of manmade chemicals.
I wonder about our evolution. I don’t think our intellectual capacity has increased all that much in thousands of years, as evidenced by some of the most extraordinary people imaginable, going way back before Charlton. While training methods have improved dramatically, our physical capabilities have been pretty stable for quite a while.
Darwin was a scientist and interested in things like brain size and cellular complexities. Science has matured dramatically since his time, dealing with problem solving and memory, with more esoteric measurements. Quantifying our emotional evolution is a tricky business and good luck with that.
Fuck it, I’ll tell you what I am getting at. In comparison to the folks from Africa, I have not been around very long. I have this feeling we have gotten dumber and it has nothing to do with our brains shrinking, nothing at all. How do you measure behavioral evolution, our emotional maturation?
Our IQ’s and brain size have not decreased or shrunken over time. We are actually far better at many things, because we have the incredible ability to learn and no species comes close, not even dolphins. The evolutions in science and technology are beyond stunning, actually unbelievable. In a way, it would be easy to claim we are smarter than we have ever been. I wholeheartedly believe that and I’d be an idiot to think otherwise.
Now, here is where I got a problem. After having been around for longer than many of you, I could swear we have gotten dumber and I am not talking about intellect. In fact, what I am talking about is like anti-intellect, which is not about being stupid, it’s about not thinking. I swear to God, I can’t find another explanation. It’s like getting a note from school to take home to your ancestors, about being demoted from 12th grade to fucken kindergarten.
We have the dumbest, crudest, most self-absorbed bully running for the highest office in the most powerful country the world has ever seen. During the height of the Vietnam War, I scrambled to find an Army Reserve unit to avoid the draft and I had to go to Staten Island to find it. Years later, I had the privilege of being able to hire Vets to work on a large project and it was heartbreaking to listen to them. This truly despicable person I am talking about avoided all of it, because of bone spurs in his heel.Yet, he had the balls to go to Arlington National Cemetery, a truly hallowed ground, and use it as a photo op.
Worst of all, he wants to make over America, like his idol did in Germany in the late ’30’s. His Mein Kampf is published in something called Project 2025. I don’t think Isaac Asimov could have done a better job of projecting how a fictionalized country could flush any remnants of the ideals behind its founding, right down the fucken toilet. He doesn’t care what he says from one sentence to the next. He is a fucken clown in a too long tie. Yet, no one is laughing, instead, they are voting for this misbehaving, little boy.
It gets worse, but that is not what I find so hard to understand. You know, when you watch a magician, the idea is to be completely blown away by the trickery. What I am talking about is the polar opposite. Even the people he says he is going heartlessly screw are ardent supporters. Many of the brightest and wealthiest people are totally behind him, funding his messages.
To me, all of this is incredibly obvious, even though I am not smart enough to figure out why, or what it is that makes anyone think it is a smart idea to follow this monster over the cliff of humanity’s undoing.
Up until recently, we had another old man, totally the byproduct of an environment corrupted by power, running opposite him. It’s more accurate to say, walking very slowly opposite him. Fortunately, he has been replaced by a woman of color, nothing short of a miracle in this white man’s world. With a set of balls, she could slap this motherfucker to his knees and I am not feeling it. You need to meet force with force, at least in that ugly world. You don’t equivocate on positions either, etc. We got one stone cold liar in the game, at least own your goddamn truth, lady.
There is so much I don’t understand and it goes way beyond the craziness in this country. Sorry, but I can’t let Gaza go. Our weapons industry is making billions of dollars at the expense of innocent, little children, who are now facing a fucken Polio epidemic and this lady, who just replaced Slow Joe, is OK with it. Here, we are now criminalizing students opposed to this slaughter. Who are the criminals?
OK, I’m going to let you go now, before you start accusing me of being on a rant, which I am not. I am deeply saddened, that’s what I am. I just don’t understand how all this shit can be considered right by anyone, occupying the top rung on this ladder of the living.
LISTEN TO THE STORY HERE:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1292459/episodes/15675124-i-don-t-understand