It seems we have come to a watershed in many areas. The myriad of outcries about sex, race, creed, income, medical benefits, housing et al provide an interesting diorama of our society. We are not grateful. We are demanding. We all feel like somehow we are being screwed. Rich, poor, white, black and brown, gay, straight. We are equal opportunity whiners. 

Don’t get me wrong. There are injustices everywhere. Yet I hearken back to the simple words of our constitution: Life,Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Sure the Statue of Liberty says give me your poor huddled masses but is that with carte blanche entitlements? Is the American Dream a fairy tale or reality. 

First off, we want people to come here and earn their citizenship. I concur. But what did you or I do to earn ours? Was there a litmus test of sorts when we were children that said okay you pass and can move on. I go back to the Lucky Sperm Club. For all we know we could be sitting around a campfire in Namibia having this conversation instead of in cyberspace lolling in a big easy chair.

We not only take things for granted, we ever presently say that is not enough. We deserve a roof over our head but it does not have to be a mega mansion with tv’s, en suite bathrooms and closets bursting with the latest of everything. We deserve a decent meal but that does not demand haute cuisine 24/7. Clothes on our back? Yes but not designer everything. 

We were having lunch with friends the other day. They decried the state of our politics. I asked several rhetorical questions. Only 50% vote in a good year.Did you?  Representatives are constantly reelected without as much as a concrete platform or grading system to see what they have really accomplished. We couldn’t be bothered. When was the last time you went to a town hall meeting and asked substantive questions? I thought so. 

People constantly tell me they don’t want to get involved. Go for it TTG but don’t ask me to stand up and speak with you. You don’t understand they say. I am terribly busy and have so much to do. Most of all I don’t want to look bad in front of my friends. We just sit there and mutter under our breath or with the certain few we know we can trust. 

Entitlements are just that. Not! Social Security was meant for widows and orphans. Medicare was an emergency program to prevent people from falling through the cracks. Colleges can work on the community level as well as the Ivies. Toll roads were everywhere and meant to be self supporting. We have grown inexorably as a country but have we grown up as citizens?

We have lotteries in all but 4 states. They are supposed to be good clean fun. Yet the market is the poor who see this as their only way to an impossible dream. Casinos proliferate and are patronized by the same downtrodden masses. We now have marijuana shops on every corner. Bitcoin? Another ruse akin to tulips. 

Our world is non stop fantasy. Clothes, cruises, cars, entertainment, booze and drugs are meant to take us away from our miserable existences. Not only does my life suck but you are to blame.You have made all these things unattainable unless I am rich. Ordinary just doesn’t cut it as a way of life. So what is the answer? Give me. Give me. Give me. 

You know the stupid part is that in so many ways we were more than comfortable before all this started. Homes, cars and clothes were functional and just a tad fashionable. We made up our own games as kids and did not need the latest game controller. We played pick up baseball and did not need uniforms and umpires. Dad drank Schaefer beer and ice cream was treat once a week rather than a nightly staple. 

I am not an old fart and I love nice things. But ask yourself a question.  If you didn’t have all this would you really die? Could you figure out a way to exist? How much is necessity and how much is pure fluff? Would your life be ruined and not as a teenager but as an adult? Is it really that bad? 

It seems to me that we as a country and a world have become spoiled brats. Think of true poverty and how bad off some people really are. It is blatantly obvious to me that you don’t owe me but I owe someone else in a very big way. Kind of interesting to think about that. Ya think?

As always

Ted The Great

Factoids:

Our basic instincts of survival cause us to want to stay alive and thrive. We are threatened and respond. We seek protection for our selves and our families. It’s natural.

We are all hypocrites. I feel your pain but I am really glad I don’t have any. Sorry you lost but then again I won. It’s natural. 

When faced with a choice, we immediately will choose the easy one. It’s naturally what we want to do. We always want everything to be easier in our life. Easy feels good. Easy feels relaxing. Easy is stress free. It’s natural

Life is not fair or unfair. We contrive a vision of what we think life should be and judge ourselves accordingly.  It’s natural.