A Cup of Conversation – March 2020

“It is said that Wisdom lies in not seeing things, But seeing through things.” ~Manly P. Hall

Vision is an unfathomable gift in design and function. Just ask any person without the ability to see. Yet vision has an inescapable flaw, an inherent disability to those relying on sight to discern truth, integrity and reality. Magicians, merchants of benign deception, would be out of work without the ability to craft what people perceive visually. This should tell us all we need to know about deception not so benign.

The camera lies and tells the truth which maybe explains why many of us prefer not to have our picture taken. Those under forty have techie work-arounds to this inconvenient crisis of vanity. Many over forty prefer to avoid the auto-tune (virtual face lift) lest the real world calls them out. This is similar to the Spanx-dilemma (unisex by the way); one can pretend for a romantic evening but eventually truth will not be denied full disclosure.

It’s an election year; a presidential election year. Lots of optics, lots of sound bites, lots of unbridled emotion. Media magicians are spinning at levels never seen before, no longer bothering with the pretense of neutrality or civility. We should actually be grateful for this because the spinning is at such high velocity, masks are flying off. It’s pure entertainment to watch phony pols and pundits once hiding unsightly ideological nakedness behind the lens of media bias now forced to stand up in the exposing light of the way it really is…surprise! Optics and sound bites, once adequate cover, now make poor fig leaves.

So, this is good news for all of us. All of us because nobody wants to be played a fool. Regardless of whether one bleeds red or blue or purple, we all want to be treated with a base respect of honesty. Just show how you really roll and allow us to make our own decisions about who we license to wield the mantle of power. Anything less is raw insult. Let the house of cards fall where they may because, if not, this is what we can expect.

There are two first orders of business when oppressive government takes power. Real power, by the way, laughs at the distinction of left and right. First, control the flow of information and therefore the narrative because minus an alternative view we tend to believe what we see and hear. Why? Because we’re pre-disposed to trust authority. It’s one of the virtues defining civilized, benevolent and ordered society. We want to believe those in power hold our best interests so we can tend to our lives, responsibilities, family and livelihood. Power-hungry ideologues inherently understand this human quality as weakness and exploit something meant for good to facilitate their own nefarious motives. That is called evil and evil doesn’t tolerate healthy criticism found in free speech.

The second order of oppressive government is to ensure defenselessness over those it rules. Government can’t force its will on people having the ability to defend themselves. Eventually, history shows every false narrative exposed. People do awake to the truth of things and rise up to right the wrong. Unfortunately, without the ability to defend oneself, freedom from the shackles of despotism is this side of impossible. In a constitutional republic, without the basic right to defend against oppression, all other rights are not worth the parchment printed on. In case you never heard this before, the Second Amendment was never about the right to protect person and property from bad men wanting to hurt you or steal your stuff. The right to bear arms was always about the right to defend oneself from bad men wanting to steal your freedom. If we have a problem with violence, the answer begins and ends in the heart of man, not the choice of club in his hands. If we want to change this culture of violence, start with Hollywood, streaming video and Xbox. Just say no. Then we can deal with the epidemic of mental-illness and societal alienation to restore our collective sanity before it’s too late.

We’re at a last crossroads. Everyone knows it. For a very brief moment, the clouds of prevarication and deception have parted. This may be our last opportunity to see the future sans the Spanx. In this last chance political reality, there’s no going back after saying ‘I do’ on the grounds of false advertising. Choose wisely.