Just like the bread and circuses of old Rome, WE THE PEOPLE of the World are being anesthetized to reality. We congregate around artificial stages of fantasy and fabrication while the real world disintegrates around us. Please take time for a “blast of truth” and WAKE UP.
Once upon a time, in ancient Rome, a satirical poet observed:
The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things - bread and circuses! (Juvenal, Satires1)
But in our day, now that the once nourishing bread staple has become “gluten-toxic” to tens-of-thousands, we seem to have found the perfect substitute for our sedation. What better companion (or not2) could we have invented to stash within reach of our numerous e-circuses?
But the question is: Have we given up the staff of life for the addictions of life?
When do we clue in that the business of addiction is BIG Business aided by degraded science? Here once again (déjà vu upon déjà vu), we close our eyes and ears to the witness of real science and sensibility. We eat, drink, read, watch, smoke, inject, and medicate with things that have been engineered to maximize their addictive potential.3
Here are two samples of a voice that the majority seem to have ignored:
"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us." (OT:Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)
"Dwell in the past and you'll lose an eye. Forget the past and you'll lose both eyes." (Old Russian Proverb)
(Subject to change over time: experience/learning/ evidence)
▪ Life is a three-act drama with pre-mortal, mortal, and post-mortal stages. ▪ The second act boils us down toward test one:[1] the test of power. ▪ Abusers of power lose it in Act Three when justice and equity take the bench. ▪ Tipping points happen—over time and a fulcrum. ▪ Motes and beams are everywhere.[2] ▪ Folly is a shadow of every ism, including capitalism. ▪ Money talks louder than morals—all the way to the tipping point. ▪ The direction you are facing, matters.[3] ▪ Extremism in the defense of liberty is extremism.[4] ▪ When the blind follow the blind, it is time to blow the whistle.[5] ▪ Opposites attract the same lobbyists. ▪ Solon of Athens espoused, “Nothing in excess;” laissez-faire capitalists pursue “Everything in excess” (except the costs of gross profit). ▪ “Simplify” displayed on the counter-top of a new 21,000 sq. ft. home does not compute. ▪ High fructose corn syrup is not the staff of life. Unfortunately, sweets can twirl your teeth. ▪ Revolving doors between government and business do not admit sufficient fresh air. ▪ The common good doesn’t seem to be very common. ▪ N. American football is a testosterone pageant in tights.[6] ▪ Exploitation is a delusion of grandeur. Stewardship is a grander conclusion. ▪ The excesses of major religions occur when members fail their espoused values. The excesses of ideological tyrannies occur when tyrants act upon theirs.[7] ▪ Praise is best deflected toward God. ▪ Too many who say, “I do, I do,” don’t. ▪ Electronic media has become the Roman Coliseum of the 21st Century. ▪ The First Law of Attraction[8]: the Devil is more obsessed with persons striving to do and be good than with persons who are not. ▪ The trans-rational[9] is beyond most of us, so if it’s “turtles all the way down,”[10] maybe it is “revelation all the way up.”[11] ▪ Egoism accounts for 80% of human problems. The remaining 27% lies with rhetoric and propaganda.
In the near words of Groucho Marx, “These are my [views]; if you don’t like them, I have others.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [1]New Testament: Matt. 4:2-4—The first temptation presented to Jesus, to misuse His power to satisfy self-interest/-will/-gratification. [2] Ref: Matthew 7:3-5 [3]Old Testament: Jer. 32:33 [4] A Barry Goldwater phrase “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” A phrase applauded by some of the GOP. (Suggestion: reverse liberty and justice to see if it sounds more palatable, or is the latter half merely castor-oil for the first?) [5] Ref: Matthew 15:14 [6] Observation of a friend, MS, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. [7] Ref: Ravi Zacharias [8] Ref: Adam & Eve; Biblical Job; Jesus in the Wilderness; CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, etc., etc., etc. [9] Ref: Flatland by Edwin Abbott. In summary, circles, squares and other flatlanders can’t get a fix on spheres and cubes; can’t quite reason themselves into the properties of those in 3-D space. Enlightenment of things beyond (i.e., trans-) Flatland takes condescension from those above & beyond. Any parallels here in 3-D? [10]Google this phrase if you have not heard of it. It’s just one way of saying we don’t have a rational explanation for some things. [11] Conditional on the will of the Revelator and the willingness/ ability of the revelatee to receive.
About SMS
A few 6-to-7-Word Memoirs: ▪ Hope for the world comes and goes. ▪ Loves to read more than eat. ▪ Loves to think more than eat. ▪ Eats too much while reading and thinking. ▪ Always running out of time and daylight. ▪ Finds extremes too far from the center. ▪ Troubled by the world’s failure of memory. ▪ Has a tendency to counsel God. ▪ Learned gratitude before it was too late. ▪ Apparently hasn't learned enough gratitude yet.
3) People are free to post divergent or convergent views on their own blogs; 4) Learning from comments here would be preferable, but— (see 1, 2, & 3).
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Blog Title Credit
*"This is like déjà vu all over again" is perhaps the most perfect tautology possible and is credited to Yogi Berra.
