ALAN writes:

When I was 49, people started calling me “the old man.”  That was not so much because I “looked old” as because they sensed (correctly) that I had no desire to be hip and cool, as they were and as they imagined everyone else wants to be.

That was twenty years ago.  By now, I must be ancient.  Splendid.  That should qualify me to write the following.

             “There isn’t much that I have learned, through all my foolish years. Except that life keeps runnin’ in cycles.  First there’s laughter, then those tears…..”

                                           — Frank Sinatra, “Cycles”

I beg to differ with the lyric of that understated 1968 ballad sung so superbly by Frank Sinatra and which I have always enjoyed hearing. I have learned a great deal “through all my foolish years.”

I learned that there are six tribes of human beings:

1. The sheep, who want to be led.  Their unspoken ethic is:  Please decide for us.

2. The parasites, whose unspoken ethic is:  We deserve something for nothing.

3. The excuse-makers, who hate responsibility more than anything.  Their unspoken ethic is: We couldn’t help it.

4. The predators, who destroy for the sake of destruction.  Their unspoken ethic is: Let us prey.

5. The do-gooders, who want to run everyone else’s life.  Their unspoken ethic is: Let us meddle.

6. The non-aggressors, who seek only to be left alone to live at their own expense. Their unspoken ethic is: Leave us alone.

I  learned:

That clear thought and clear speech are among the most hated qualities in modern life.

That there are few things modern Americans hate more than rules.

That we live at a time when plain facts are often denied and impressive-sounding falsehoods asserted in their place.

That there is nothing new under the sun and that many failures, problems, and conflicts are self-caused.

That the most excruciatingly-difficult challenge most people ever face is the challenge to achieve self-control.

That the passion to know is often outweighed by the passion not to know.

That modern Americans live by fallacies, falsehoods, and fairy tales, and most of them like it that way.

That much of the evil and suffering in life is a consequence of accepting bad premises.

That life is a series of disillusionments about most other human beings but not necessarily about life.

That error, fallacy, misstatement, misrepresentation, mendacity, evil, degradation, frustration, pain, disappointment, regret, and loss are the common condition throughout most of modern life.

That the modern passion for “new ideas” and “new solutions” is a passion for evasion and distraction.

That better technology does not mean better information but better propaganda and slicker lies.

That technical solutions cannot be used to solve moral problems, yet modern Americans believe this to be both possible and sensible.  No greater folly could be imagined.

That modern Americans are very clever technologically but very naïve politically, very ignorant historically, and very gullible morally and philosophically.

I learned what an ordeal the non-aggressors face in attempting to defend themselves not only against those other five tribes, but against what Professor Dwight Murphy has called “the essential immaturity of most human beings.”

And what an extraordinary achievement it is for the non-aggressors to create even a small amount of happiness for themselves and their loved ones in the midst of such overwhelming odds.

I learned that there will be no restoration of a proper moral-philosophical-framework of rules and standards in the foreseeable future.

And I learned what outrageous good fortune befalls those who are born into families in that last group, the non-aggressors.

Send comments to thinkinghousewife@msn.com.

— Comments —

George Weinbaum writes:

I must have been very precocious.  I was first called the “2,000-year old man” at eight!  I have made similar observations to yours.  I have a friend who says, “If you want to start an argument, demand evidence.” Yes.

Alan, your post reminds me of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If”.

“[C]lear thought and clear speech are among the most hated qualities in modern life”.  Consider: many feminists see Newton’s Principia as a “rape manual.”

Carry on, Alan.

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