Skip to main content

This Inevitable Ruin. Is there hope in the darkness?

I consider myself a smart and well read man, so up until recently I was surprised that I had never heart the the the concept of "This Inevitable Ruin" before.  It's an idea or concept that downfall and destruction is unavoidable.   That chaos is an unchangeable outcome no matter what actions we take.  

That what ever victory we obtain will have a high psychological and moral price, and may be short lived.  

As my own family, friends, and readers face an unknown future on so many fronts I wonder if  such "Inevitable Ruin" awaits us?  If it awaits our country or even our world?

I am not a nihilist but the concept has been ringing in my ears lately as we seem to careen from one crisis - be it personal, economic, local, state wide, natural or global.  

This article has started and stopped many times, yet I can't seem to get it right.  I even played around with an AI program to see if it would help focus my thoughts, it did not.  Nor did I like the idea of using such a program.   It's a tool but once you get past spell checking and grammar, it seemed as if there was no more soul to the words that I was typing.   Inside my head is a jumbled mess of emotions, thoughts, half baked ideas and even though it's a mess...it's my mess.

In the past two or three years things just seem to have fallen apart on both a personal and national level.   I wish I could point out a particular moment in time when things started to go wrong.  

Harambe - if you know, you know

The question becomes, what to do about it.  

It's not easy to have hope when it feels like the world is crashing down around you.  However to quote a famous line from the novel Game of Thrones.  The quote comes from one of the characters that sows division for his own advantage.   The quote "Chaos is a ladder."

In this particular case, the character of Petyr Bealish argues the individual can use the disorder of the times to find succuss; climbing the ladder, by using that disorder to their advantage.  Sometimes my manipulation others or creating divisions.  It's using that chaos to achieve some goal.

However, I like to think of it this way.  In time of upheaval you can use what has been broken to create something new.  Can we take the broken pieces and recreate something new and better?   I would like to think we can.

I may not particularly have cared for or even liked the changes in my career that have been forced upon me, however I now am in a position that does offer me profit sharing and I am building towards a goal.   I've also reached the conclusion that if I can keep this job for two years - that if something changes after that, it does not matter.   I'm done.   I'll be in a position to retire.  That I will retire.  Anything past the age of 62, is basically "bonus" money.

It's become important for me to keep this job for two years, I'm taking the broken pieces of my life and trying to organize them in such a way that I can work towards a goal.   In this case, retiring.   If after that two years, as long as I have a job then it doesn't matter.   I can work or leave at any time...but I know that I don't have to worry about the future.  It may be a bit of a struggle, but I'm done

As a society I believe we can as well.  This is not the America that I grew up in and it's up to my generation to at least prepare the next ones for the chaos and upheaval the best we can.   To put the idea in their heads that "We fucked up.  We are sorry, but you have the tools and experience to do better."

I truly believe that the conservative response to the "rise of Socialism" in the youth of America is a tacit admission that the concept of American Capitalism has failed.   However what the conservative's call "Socialism" really isn't what the majority of Americans consider Socialism. 

I'm publishing this as is.   Jumbled thoughts and all, maybe it will help you in some way, maybe your in need some clarification and this jumbled mess will help you.  Maybe not

It really doesn't matter.   Just remember that your not alone out there in these weird and touchy times.  That your thoughts, your needs, your desires are important.  That somehow we will find a way through.   We always have, we always will.  Together.   


Comments

What all the cool kids are reading.

On Marches, Strikes and being a keyboard warrior.

 This is not the America I grew up in.    It occurs to me that those days are long gone, and that I am probably looking back on those days with rose colored glasses as well.   However there was a time in America when, if two parties disagreed, they could hammer out some sort of compromise.   Where opposing viewpoints were respected.   Where, if a heated argument did break out the chance of violence was very low. I miss that America.    Recently I was threatened with physical violence for something that I posted online.   I ignored the comment, I didn't bother to respond to it.  Not because I feared the person - I've no idea who they were, etc. - but because I am a pacifist.  To respond to violence with more violence makes little sense to me.  Plus, it's been my experience that such people are paper tigers.   The anger that is felt however, by both the right and the left is very real.  I can no...

Maybe it's time I got serious about solar

  When my wife and I bought this house nearly 6 years ago, we made some upgrades.   We put on a metal roof, replacing the original shingles, replaced the floor in the kitchen, both bathrooms and the downstairs den.  We ended up upgrading the pellet stove (twice!) and added some insulation; one of the jobs I want to do in the coming year is to insulate the garage, mostly to keep the freezers we have in the garage from becoming damaged. It's only in various home improvement shows that the work to improve your home is done all at once and somehow in 1 hour.  For most of us its an ongoing never ending project. One of the important improvements that I've been wanting to make but have kept putting off for various reasons has been solar panels.  Now, I'm thinking that it may be time to least do something. The main reason we have been putting off this improvement was cost and how long it would actually take us to pay off the panels.   I'm 60 years old now...

Honoring the past - Thinking more about "invasive" plant species.

 Recently I've been giving some thought to invasive species.  I had received both positive and negative feedback on the blog post concerning kudzu and recently I came across a very well hidden, and very small, wild cherry tree while doing some yard work.  Since it's against the house it would have to be removed since the root systems could damage my foundation.   A buddy of mine at work was asking if I was going to transfer it, his logic being that it was a fruiting tree that would not only attract a variety of pollinator's but that the deer would eat the bark and cherries, keeping them away from the garden (which Sue and I swore we were not going to do this year).  It occurred to me that I was going to have to do a slightly better job of identification, since black cherries are native to America , where as other types of cherries are not.  Being able to make a precise identification would be helpful.   I used to be able to identify all these tre...