For whatever it may be worth, I promise to write something seriously Christmas-related. Eventually. (Assuming anyone cares, of course.) But for now, this little morsel from the Spirit of - what shall we call it? Antichristmas? - will have to do:
"My dear beloved sisters, and brothers, and everyone in between,
"When are you going to stop being dismayed - or worst of all, JUDGMENTAL - at the seemingly irresponsible behavior of your public figures?
"Remember, Life is nothing if not grand-scale and demanding. It was never meant to be easy. So inevitably it will always be those with the largest, most capacious sense of Self* who rise to the top. Think about it. Who else could handle, what other GROWNUPS could be entrusted with the awesome responsibility of ruling, governing, managing, motivating, manipulating, etc, the rest of us otherwise unproductive children?
* The losers prefer to call it narcissism, and capacious egos. Which is why they're - well, you know.
"Which brings me to my main point. When are you going to understand that the whole purpose of Government, Business, Wealth, Prosperity and Power has never - even remotely - been to make life simpler, or easier, or more straightforward? Much less to help it become more 'colorful,' beautiful, engaging or satisfying. Indeed these institutions' real purpose, strictly speaking, is not even to make life BETTER - unless by 'better' you mean more perplexing, tempting, challenging, adversarial, and, yes, competitive.
"But the reason? Why, that should be obvious to any but the most hopelessly incompetent fools. The heart of human life and growth has always been controversy, argument, contention and confrontation, because those are the only ways we get at the Truth. Most importantly, they are our surest ways of making Love truthful - which is to say, hard, strict, uncompromising, DEMANDING. As opposed to merely sentimental and indulgent. I mean, how else do you suppose we're ever going to vindicate the right and competent, the commanding and organized? Even as we humiliate and punish the wrong and stupid and servile and disorganized?
"How else, in sum, are we ever going to sift and cultivate and raise up a REAL aristocracy - to say nothing of maintaining the one we've got - from among you otherwise worthless, workless helots?"
"Oh come OFF it," you yawn. "Why the h--- don't you just admit that it's all about profit???"
"Which brings me to my main point. When are you going to understand that the whole purpose of Government, Business, Wealth, Prosperity and Power has never - even remotely - been to make life simpler, or easier, or more straightforward? Much less to help it become more 'colorful,' beautiful, engaging or satisfying. Indeed these institutions' real purpose, strictly speaking, is not even to make life BETTER - unless by 'better' you mean more perplexing, tempting, challenging, adversarial, and, yes, competitive.
"But the reason? Why, that should be obvious to any but the most hopelessly incompetent fools. The heart of human life and growth has always been controversy, argument, contention and confrontation, because those are the only ways we get at the Truth. Most importantly, they are our surest ways of making Love truthful - which is to say, hard, strict, uncompromising, DEMANDING. As opposed to merely sentimental and indulgent. I mean, how else do you suppose we're ever going to vindicate the right and competent, the commanding and organized? Even as we humiliate and punish the wrong and stupid and servile and disorganized?
"How else, in sum, are we ever going to sift and cultivate and raise up a REAL aristocracy - to say nothing of maintaining the one we've got - from among you otherwise worthless, workless helots?"
"Oh come OFF it," you yawn. "Why the h--- don't you just admit that it's all about profit???"
To which I can only humbly reply (after all that I'd better try to be humble):
"Since when have the motives of any human leader - even the most successful - been JUST about profit? Much less the rest of us losers?"
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