Over time I began to actually get it
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the year 2020!” For those of you that are from my generation; “the Baby Boomers,” who among us really expected to reach it? I sure didn’t. I figured I’d be “outta here” long ago. With January, a new year begins and another of my birthdays arrives, so it’s easy for me to keep track of my time.
It’s a little more difficult to keep up with our “times.” Over the years, our civilization has moved deeper and deeper into the realm of the surreal. Nothing seems to make sense anymore and the more you think about it, the crazier it appears. “Common sense” has become an uncommon commodity. “If ya don’t believe me, ya just ain’t paying attention.”
Back in the day, paying attention wasn’t my priority. I had so many distractions, that I’d bounce from one to another. I’d do this for a while and then I’d do that until I got bored. Then I’d move on to something else in search of something to believe in.
I’d like to think I’m “half-a..ed” intelligent, but it took me years to figure out I was doing things backwards. I’d accept as true the “bull” people were spewing, because I had all these doubts about my abilities to comprehend what seemed complex.
To impress, intimidate, or merely hustle, hucksters would use all these “big words” to sell whatever it was they were selling. It was so much easier to accept their rhetoric, because it sure sounded smart, rather than learn the language and know what the hell they were talking about.
To my surprise, I realized there’ s a bunch of different languages. Not only do different cultures have different languages, different occupations have separate and distinct languages.
Doctors speak a different language than lawyers. Plumbers speak a different language than electricians and politicians speak a different language than the clergy. Economists speak a language that even they don’t understand. Why? To confuse those who don’t speak their language. This is how they validate themselves.
Regardless of the language they speak, to baffle you with their brilliance, they’re all “full of it.”
Over the years, I been “burnt” more than I care to admit and frittered away a fortune, but it’s no one’s fault but mine. It’s a very Twenty-First Century thing to point the finger at someone else to blame, but the fault rest squarely with me.
Since I don’t have the time, or a fortune to fritter away anymore, I realized what I was doing wrong. It’s relatively easy to figure out once you decide to. If what you’re doing causes the wrong result, then doing the opposite will surely bring about the right one.
This is most obvious in our socio-political discourse. I don’t care who he or she might be, they don’t have all the answers, because they don’t know all the questions. Liberal or conservative, Right-wing or Left-wing, they don’t have a clue, but they all have an agenda “to get over on you.”
Politically we’re plagued with “panic mongers.” They’re so caught up in their agenda that they ignore reality. We aren’t a true democracy, but the next best thing: a Republic. We hire representatives to represent us, but do they? We have an entrenched status quo to blame for the gridlock, but it’s not their fault, because they’re parasites. It’s ours. We hired them and don’t have the sense to fire them when they fail us.
To get your vote, they act like “Chicken Little” screaming that the sky is falling and only they can hold it up. Some even vainly profess to speak for God, threatening us with eternal damnation if we reject them.聽
In my own lifetime, I’ve lost count of how many times the world was supposed to end, yet it hasn’t. We live in a world of hyperbole, where聽panic mongers try to sell us their wares.
Those on the left are socialists trying to buy the Third World to stack the voter rolls at the expense of a majority they’re determined to change. The聽fear mongers on the right are people I politely won’t name, selling us stories like Virginia’s governor is going to send in the military to confiscate guns or kill those who won’t comply.
Locally, they’re even promoting some Fayette County Second Amendment Sanctuary Status that’s redundant. They profess to be populists, yet claim connections with a status quo elitist class they say they rejected, to accomplish the superfluous? We already have this sanctuary status and the Constitution’s ” Bill of Rights” guarantees it. Panic mongers ignore that and hope you’ve overlooked it. I didn’t!
So, I’ ll continue being that loose cannon that fires 360 degrees. I’ll continue to kick the sacred cows of wannabe tyrants regardless of whoever they are. For seven years, I’ve been sending letters to the 缅北禁地 and a lot of you guys “get it.”
Donald Trump and his populist brand of realpolitik match mine. Unlike all the rest of the politicians, he’s kept his promises to me, so I’ ll keep my loyalty to him.
John Lucas is a resident of Vanderbilt.