The Beginning of the End?

I wonder how one knows that one’s country has begun to fail. And also, what happens to a country that fails? I assume that some financial things would begin happening, maybe banks beginning to move their assets to another country, or an increase in the number of industrial or commercial companies that begin failing.  Maybe larger numbers of people would be taking steps to move to a different country, although there are only a few countries that seem logical places to move.   I assume it is still possible that we might “fail” as we did in the 1920s, when the stock markets collapsed and people were forced out of their jobs and millions went looking for work and money.

We normally just assume that all of our safeguards will always remain in place. The various levels of government will remain and continue to do things like fix roads, keep electricity flowing, catch bad guys who are out robbing and killing folks, and protect us against insurrectionists (like Trump) or foreign powers (like Russia). Yet, all of those various levels of protective government require both financial and spoken support. Folks still need to believe in the various institutions of government. And that is what seems to be somehow wearing thin these days.

Ever since Trump was elected and all the right wing racists, misogynists, anti-everything crowd emerged from their respective closets, America has been on a downhill slide. I find it very difficult to understand how anyone could have voted for idiots the like of Marjorie Taylor Greene, and now Ron DeSantis. DeSantis???? He is regarded as a serious candidate for President of America??? Seriously? Whatever happened to the Republican Party of old?  I know that, Yes, Republicans have long toyed at the edges of Fascism. Reagan perhaps began this long trek to failure, but he has had lots of help along the way. But whatever one thinks of, say Ronald Reagan, or George Bush (aka Shrub)  . . . Trump??? How could anyone in their right mind waste their vote on Donald Trump? And then the movement continues downhill.

And consider if you will, all of the legislative battles fought by Republicans to not only ban abortion (thank you Trump SCOTUS), but ban books for God’s sake.  They have banned abortion pills, and then went on to try to ban contraception. Seriously?? You want to ban contraceptive measures so that . . . what? You would have more unwanted pregnancies???

And now their ongoing battles against Gays, Transgender folks, anyone associated with the LGBTQ people. Why? Why would you care about such folks, who have enough problems in life without Republicans stepping in to make their lives even more unhappy.

And then, think Ethics. We have a Supreme Court Justice, Clarence by name, who seems to imagine that he is immune to ethical considerations of any kind. He imagines it is really ok to accept bribes from super-rich associates without any consequences.  A Justice of the Supreme Court?? And these are the folks we rely on to make final decisions on any and all matters of legal, social and ethical concerns?  Note please that SCOTUS as a whole has been entirely silent on Clarence’s trials and tribulations. Not a word from the holy ones. So, Kavenaugh, Barrett, et al, nothing??? You think that crap is none of our business? Amazing. Truly, and a very large sign that our Nation is failing and nobody seems to care, certainly not any of the Republican “holier-than-thou” crew.

And that is what I find most disturbing. That a very large percentage of our Nation’s population can continue to go on as though nothing has happened. Donald Trump? No, he’s a great candidate.  It’s those nasty books on racism that is the problem. We need to ban more books, maybe take our public education and get rid of it, replaced by a private system. We know they’re better, right?

Oh, and let’s get rid of those damned students who are voting in elections.  Yeah, so let’s take away their rights to vote, unless they show up at the voting places at home. And even then we should make it more difficult. Can’t have those kids voting. They tend to vote for Democrats for God’s sake. Can’t have that. Maybe Adolph was right in 1936. We need supreme leaders.  That’s the ticket.

And so we continue on this downward slide into oblivion. Is this why those folks like Washington created America out of a British Colony?  So that Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis could complete our slide into 1936 Germany? I don't know folks. We really need to do some hard thinking. And Yes, we need to vote them out of office.  So get on with it folks. Or the End really is Near.

Still Aging In Place

 Increasingly, I have begun feeling like I am somehow “outside” of wherever it is I am in. Even if I am sitting within a family group, with, say, kids and/or grandkids I have begun feeling as though I am sitting somewhere else, but still observing them.  Sometimes, I am almost startled when one of them actually addresses me directly by asking me a question, or commenting on something about me.  And then that state of being (or maybe non-being) is enhanced when I am reading the news, or a news e-mail, or listening/watching the news on TV or radio.  Why? Well, inevitably the reporter or the article begins discussing one of our republican friends, and then I feel like I have just arrived from outer space, and they are discussing something I simply do not understand. The other day, for example, I sat and watched the Governor of North Dakota address the NRA at their convention. And she told us that she had made sure to arm her two-year old grandchild with both a rifle and a shotgun. I mean, you just never know when another two-year old brat is going to do something threatening, and her grandkid might have to shoot that other kid. Well, sort of like that dude who answered his door, gun in hand (don’t we all answer our doorbell with a gun in hand?) and then when he saw a young Black kid, he began firing his gun.  I mean, clearly that young Black kid was going to harm him, so he was simply protecting himself. Right?? Or that other dude who saw three young ladies enter his driveway in their car, and then began to back away, but he of course had to open fire on them.  Obviously, the girls meant him harm, even if they were backing away.

And then there is that whole set of characters who profess to represent the Republican Party. Take Marjory Taylor Greene. She actually said that the California wildfires were caused by Jewish Space Lasers. And then she failed to back away and laugh.

Oh and that January 6^th thing at the Capitol? They are now portrayed of course as simple tourists who wanted to visit the Capitol, but were being denied their proper tourist rights.  Now, as you watch that event taking place, don’t you begin to feel as though you have just arrived from Mars and you really don’t understand what you are witnessing? I sometimes think I am actually in 1936 Germany and I am wondering when Adolph is going to show up (Oh, that’s Ron DeSantis, not Adolph Hitler approaching the podium?)

See, it isn’t a specific person, oh like Donald Trump. It’s that there seem to be so many of them. An entire political party has actually entered the realm of 1936 Nazi Germany, or maybe just 2023 Crazy America. But how did that happen, and will it (and I) ever return to something approaching normalcy? I’m 88 for Christ sake, and I can’t take much more of this.

And worse, it seems to be the case that Americans in very large numbers have joined this Crazy Party, yet how could that have happened. See, I still remember voting for Dwight Eisenhower, the Republican candidate for President in 1952. Can you even imagine what Ike would be thinking were he present at some rally where Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis were rambling on about one of their latest thoughts concerning America? Would that Ike not also begin wondering whether he had somehow been transmitted to a Foreign Land on Mars? Surely this could not be Florida within the US of A.

And I listen to/watch the commentary and they tear that bunch apart, but nothing actually happens to them.  Americans, actual Americans keep on listening to them and, whenever they can, still voting for them.  That is the part I fail to understand and why I feel like I am floating somewhere in outer space. How could this be? How is it possible that Americans in any number beyond a few hundred (ok even a few thousand) could possibly go to a polling place and mark the ballots to elect such people—Trump, DeSantis, Greene, Hawley, Cawthorne, McConnell, McCarthy? Really, America . . . you actually approve of such manic pseudohumans?  And you are going to refuse to control guns, while facing the largest collection of mass shootings in our history? And you also refuse to allow people to have medical abortions, or even to buy and consume abortion pills, regardless of the later effects on the lives of the women involved.  So, you’re not actually “Pro-Life” as much as you are Anti-sex, or maybe “Pro-Foetus”. Yeah, once those foetuses become actual humans, it’s ok to shoot them, right?

And so, I have begun drifting off into some outer space existence. I am no longer a full-time resident of America, maybe even of Earth, I am still technically alive, I know, cuz I can still watch Stephen Colbert or John Oliver, but I no longer recognize what I observe going on around me.

Maybe I am actually in a dream-state and I will awaken to re-enter our world and it will still be 1975, or maybe even 2010 and that dude Barack Obama is still president. Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice? Oh shit, go back to sleep Richard. That ain’t gonna happen.

Life Ends Language

 “It’s not your fault. My father died in my arms. So did my wife,” he said. “It’s just my turn now.”

“I feel bad that I didn’t talk to you about this sooner,” I said. “I thought I’d upset you or maybe you weren’t ready yet.”

He laughed. “Ready?” he said. “I’ve wrapped my head around being dead, certainly. Not sure if I’ll ever really be ready. It’s not like packing a bag and standing outside waiting for a taxi.”

“He died in his sleep a month later, missing his vacation and his friend’s wedding. Even if he told me he was ready, nothing could have lessened the blunt force of losing him.”

 

This was from a Sunday NY Times article by Dr. Sunita Puri. In the article she talks about how doctors try to sense a patient’s readiness to die, that is, when they realize they are in the final stage of life and will soon die. The interesting thing to me is the question, “Why is that important?” To a doctor, the only point of importance here is that a patient who is “ready to die” is also finally ready to give up “end of life treatments”.  There really is no other issue that matters to the doctor, because doctors are no better prepared to talk about the actual Cessation of Life than anyone else. 

I wonder myself how I might become “ready to die”, given what I believe that means. See, I think that the end of life is not a journey, as when we say the person “has gone”, or “has departed”. Those words imply a journey, whereas I believe strongly that the end of life means only a cessation of the brain’s function. That is, when we die, our brain ceases operating, and we no longer are aware of anything. We do not know we are dead, because we do not know anything.  And that is hard to wrap one’s head around. We are not embarking on a final journey. Instead, we simply cease knowing anything. We are not even aware that we are dead, because we are not “aware” of anything. And see, we actually have no language that describes that state of Non-being.

What would it be like, for the brain to simply cease functioning? It is not like we are moving into a sort of dream-like state. Because see, a dream-like state implies that the brain continues to function, even if we do not move onto some cloud and begin looking down on our still-alive relatives.  And we do not suddenly come back into contact with all of our deceased relatives.

See, we have no language to describe what I believe actually happens. How does one describe  a state of “nothingness”, a state in which we are no longer aware of our former self, or in fact of anything.  Now that is hard to wrap your current lively head around.

So, I guess it is understandable that doctors do not have such a talk with their patients who express an understanding that their life is about to cease.  Why? Well, because the doctor also has no language to express what that means.  And, I guess that’s why they (our forebears) invented Heaven and Hell, and folks sitting around on clouds looking down while they played their harps.  The Heaven or Hell thing is obviously a device to get you to behave, or to pay proper attention to what this priest is telling you to do, or not to do. That’s their main tool in the Priestly Ponzi Scheme called Religion.

Now if the priests of our world need that Ponzi scheme portrait of “Life After”, our poor doctors are stuck without any serious explanation to offer their patients. As we said, the doctor’s only reason for a patient reaching such a state of understanding is that the doctor then has some guidance on “end of Life” care, which is known often as “Palliative Care”, whose aim only is to relieve suffering, so as to improve the quality of that final life stage. Maybe the medical profession needs some kind of “after-Life” language that is at least equal in some value to the Ponzi scheme language of religious purveyors. So, maybe the medical profession needs to step up their game to create a kind of “after-life” death description that seems more promising than “Nothingness”. Somehow, the reality of brain cessation seems at best difficult to convey in positive terms. So, docs need to become more inventive so as to at least compete with the religious purveyors.  Something that conveys a sense of final peace, like entering a long state of deep sleep. Yeah, that’s it. Just try not to get into anything like dreams, cuz then the docs would be competing with the Ponzi-guys.

So, Think On Docs. You need a new language. Put on your most creative brain caps and get to work. Maybe eventually, you too will be able to make it profitable, like those religious dudes. How to make "nothingness" sound desirable . . . hmmmm.