Questioning the Future

"Carrying a pack of toilet paper in a plastic bag with an advertisement for something foreign while wearing a pair of Montana jeans with a multicolor ballpoint pen sticking out of your pocket: In the Soviet Union, such a person would have been the object of extreme envy."

-- Yekaterina Klementyeva, writer

What in 2020 has caused you the most distress? Do you think your life will ever return to how it was before this momentous year?

Taking care of my aging mother during COVID-19. My life, like everyone else’s, will return to a “new normal” once this little unpleasantness is over. Between the epidemic and still having only one political party working in Congress after four years, and probably four more, I doubt if we’ll ever be the same in my lifetime.

Why do we as a culture worship celebrities and people who are rich? Why can’t we just be happy with our lives instead?

We have created a culture based on materialism, not on true happiness. We raise children to believe happiness comes through money, and they work till they die not realizing the happiness they feel is a sham. Better to just find a job you love, mass money or not, and learn to be happy always before going after that too much-coveted “golden ring.” 

Between the professional and personal qualities of a teacher, which ones are perceived to be more important? Is there really such a thing as more important than the other?

I’d give real money just to have teachers teach reality, not their personal take on it. Teach real history, not the winner’s version of it. Teach why history, reading, writing, arithmetic, and happiness, are important to learn. Students would be well served to stop tearing down history and start learning the lessons of it before they doom themselves to a future based on the repetition of mistakes made in the past.

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

-- T.H. White (1906-1964), author, The Once and Future King

Will the world become a better place on November 4?

Depends on who is elected as leader of the “Free World.” Is Alzheimer's a new vetting criterion for President? If so, maybe the Vice-President should be our primary choice since their party will probably “off” the President in short order and insert them in the position anyway. The Presidency has become a joke. How much could we have accomplished if we’d spent all this time working together instead of acting like spoiled children?

Do opinions come above connections?

If you’re stupid enough to believe what you’re told. Better you should listen to what you’re told and then go out and hear all sides to a topic before you open your pie hole and risk braying like the rest of the jackasses. People who base their opinions on other people’s opinions are people who make up anarchist hate groups. Better to be your own person and learn to work together with all lives toward a common goal.

Will 2020 become a year to remember 50 years from now, or are we all doomed?

Will we be able to freely read the books we want and pursue happiness? Not if the socialists have their way. If socialism takes over, 50 years from now our children and grandchildren will be embroiled in a revolution to overthrow the communist party.

“Because the horror of Communism, Stalinism, is not that bad people do bad things — they always do. It's that good people do horrible things thinking they are doing something great."

-- Slavoj Žižek, radical leftist philosopher (yes, I agree, he makes my argument)

Why do I feel so much happier when I cut off social media completely out of my life?

Drama overload. We are all so much happier when we cut the drama from our lives. The addiction to social media is akin to an addiction to soap operas on television, which have been replaced by “reality” TV which really isn’t, for the most part. When we go outside, take a deep breath, and visit “face to face” with family and friends, we give our minds a much-needed escape from the “escape” we’ve been trained to accept and which is actually just an indoctrination technique used by any socialist state to push their hidden agenda. This is why people like me are constantly at odds with social media sites, the League of the Perpetually Offended, closing us down.

What do you think of these phrases of Maxim Gorky: "…talent is faith in oneself, in oneself's power" and "talent is just a love toward the process of work"?

Gorky would seem to be full of… faith. If you have full faith in yourself, you can still fall flat where talent is concerned, and even if you love your work to death, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re any good at it. Talent is about faith and process, and ability, and knowledge, and other people’s opinions, especially those who are so much better at what you do.

A lot of what is most beautiful about the world arises from struggle?

This is, almost, better as a statement. I think “most beautiful” might be the problem here. There is much natural beauty in the world that can rival anything acquired through struggle. But, the struggle will make you appreciate more the beauty which arises from it.

"When someone asks about a hard time in our lives, most of us take a second and go back to that moment. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, and other times it can be absolutely heartbreaking. A lot of us don’t want to go there, so it can be hard to let others peer into that part of our lives. Even when you’re just getting started in life — like I am. What we often don’t recognize, though, is the beauty in the midst of our trials."

-- Chelsea Crockett, writer, author, blogger

In your opinion, how much is a human life worth? Why?

All life is valuable, just like all lives matter. The intrinsic value of that life, if one wished to assign value to it, would be in the hands of those who know the person. How selfless and giving; how good of a friend, how much they loved, what they contribute to society, and others. But, in the end, all life has value and should be cherished, especially those yet to be born and cannot speak for themselves, for in these we find our future and a definition of who we are by how we treat them.

What is one thing you were excited to try but lost enthusiasm once you tried it?

Rocky Mountain Oysters. They really aren’t all that, any more than slurping down roasted bull’s eyeballs are an aphrodisiac. 

Do you think that most people in your life are trying to boost you up or pull you down?

I haven’t really paid much attention to it. We’re all too busy just trying to get by, right now, with COVID and such. Besides, that’s too much drama to worry about. I’d rather concentrate my efforts on staying happy always. 

“There’s a fine line between support and stalking and let’s all stay on the right side of that.”

-- Joss Whedon, director, producer, writer

How does anybody win when one side's baseline is "You're wrong but you have a right to be wrong" and the other's baseline is "You're wrong and I will use the power of government to force you to do the right thing"? How can that possibly end?

Nobody does. One side admits you have a right to your opinion, and the other side says you have the right to have “our” opinion, or the government will force you to have our opinion. In order to force your opinion, however, you have to take away guns, inalienable rights, and other people’s money. If that doesn’t work, ovens and showers will be built so we can repeat the history of the Holocaust, the history they won’t teach in the schools tasked to indoctrinate you into their "new world order."

What are the things you did that you knew was wrong but with the right intentions?

I told myself I was holding my marriage together for 20 years for the sake of the children. My intentions were well based, but this was wrong and so detrimental to them. In reality and hindsight, I was holding it together because I didn’t want to admit the marriage was a failure and a mistake. My advice to marriages in trouble now is to end it as soon as possible, if it can’t be salvaged, and part friends who made an error. Better to part before children muddy the relationship, and better to part before one of you can bend the other one over and use them for the rest of their lives as antoher paycheck. 

Does indecisiveness usually mean all the options are equally good?

Not necessarily. Take the choice between ice cream and cake. I love both of them, but one is more fattening than the other, or I’m lactose intolerant, in which case one is better than the other even though I love them both. I’m indecisive because I’m not sure if I want to be fatter or be fatter and throw up.

Comment: I don’t understand. Do you know which is the better option or not? You say one is more fattening so it’s, therefore, the worse option? Okay, well then I guess you’re not indecisive. You know the better option.

My answer:  Indecisiveness doesn’t usually mean all options are equally good. There are other factors to consider that drive indecisiveness beside whether they're "equally good."

"There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. The man who is wrong still retains some respect for truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks out the truth in order to pretend that no choice or values exist, who is willing to sit out the course of any battle, willing to cash in on the blood of the innocent or to crawl on his belly to the guilty, who dispenses justice by condemning both the robber and the robbed to jail, who solves conflicts by ordering the thinker and the fool to meet each other halfway. In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit. In that transfusion of blood which drains the good to feed the evil, the compromise is the transmitting rubber tube."

-- Ayn Rand (1905-1982), author, Atlas Shrugged

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with the United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world-renowned, Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as a chaplain at the regional medical center.