Very few things in life are certain….here is one of them.
It is easier to destroy than to build.
Let us take for example, the Bush Administration and rampant “Conservatism,” that have been the most destructive force loosed upon the world since Nagasaki.
Ok, I guess you could argue that one. That one is far from certain…but it is pretty darn hard to deny it, from where we sit today, in the rubble of the implosion of America caused by the incompetence, intransigence and the willful destruction of everything that those OTHER than the top 1% of the worlds rich held dear. The destruction goes beyond any single event or act that they have committed. The real damage that they have done, above and beyond all of the horrors that we in the blogosphere have documented, is this.
They tried…and are still trying…and will never stop trying….. to redefine good and evil.
They….Karl Rove and Fox News and the spin machine…tried to destroy objective fact.
They tried to take us back to a time before The Enlightenment before Reason was valued over Faith. A time when what was comfortable and convenient for the ruling class was more important than actual reality. A time when reality was what we were TOLD it was. Since The Enlightenment humans have tried to establish an objective reality based on empiricism, have tried to build a common language based on observable facts. Now, according to them, there are no facts, and thus no agreement, and no commonality.
Ultimately, they will fail. Reality is stronger than Faith. Truth is stronger than lies. But in the process they have destroyed so much, reduced so much of the Progress we humans had made into rubble. The silver lining, we hope, being that they have exposed themselves, their ideals, what they really are. The illusion that their ideas and ideals were valid has been detroyed (somewhat, at least) as well.
So that now, when we go to rebuild, we will be rebuilding on a stronger foundation. A foundation freed even more from the tyranny of the illusions that their ignorance and fear had insisted upon. That still lingered, that were indeed what made the foundation weak enough to be destroyed. The steel of truth and reason has been tempered again, and each trip through the fire just makes it stronger.
It has been hard as hell to sit here and watch the destruction, with no one seeming to hear us yelling at what they have done. Clearing the rubble and starting to rebuild will be just as hard, but it will be hard in a different way, because we will be able to see a new world rising from the rubble. We have a LOT of work ahead of us. But we can’t quit now and we can’t leave it to others. It is up to us to rebuild this world into what we want it to be.
Destruction is easy, as they have proved, building is hard. But if it was easy…..anybody could do it!
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I believe you’ve nailed it again.
Black is white…up is down….
I hope the rebuilding starts real soon, I need the work.
tnx ever so much!
…this incarnation of the buhdy a lot better than the zen dictator (although what he spoke needed saying, and the lawn was nice, imo) and much better than the stern GRIM diciplinary stone Buddha incarnation.
You’ve lightened up into your grim constructive builder. Thanks!!!
But I don’t think in the long run they ever had or have a chance, even though they still try.
with someone right around the time of tsunami in Indonesia. It coming up because some tribesmen, who had little or not contact with civilization were somehow able to surmise that they had to head for the hills before the tsunami struck. The person I was talking to thought it was related to some magical or mystical belief, while I took the position that it must have been something the tribesmen’s forefathers had past down to watch for.
This led us to discussion of values of the enlightenment and my take was the highest value of the enlightenment was scientific method–which allows that we may be mistaken in our beliefs and that they must be tested and verified against reality–to the extent they can be. Science gives us the ability to account and adjust.