I suppose it too dramatic and maudlin to say that I sense great changes taking place in this country. I don't know any other way to say it.
That feeling has left me anxious and expectant, not so much for me, but for my children, grandchildren and others. I hope that what is coming is good, even great, that our country can rise above itself to solve the problems of health care, racism, social injustice, bigotry, selfishness and all the myriad human frailties that have plagued mankind from the beginning.
There are many things that are of concern to me in the 6th decade of my life. I, as much as anyone, want the sick to be cared for, whether they have money or not. I'm just not sure how that is to be accomplished.
I want all American troops to come home to their families and loved ones; still, I want America to stop breaking its promises. I witnessed the results of promise breaking during the aftermath of Vietnam, and I am ashamed that we broke our promise and left our allies to suffer and die. I feel that my service in South Vietnam, and that of my friends and comrades, some of whom died in the process, was severely diminished by the actions of our government.
I want to believe that people can, of their own accord, choose to do good, choose to help those less fortunate than themselves, choose to be fair-minded and just, without government having to do it for them. I just don't know how many people will make those kind of choices, rather than choices that always seem to be in their own self-interest. I do not claim to be exempt from or unaffected by this moral dilemma. I usually act in what I believe is self-interest. I need to be less selfish.
I sincerely doubt that government will make better choices than individuals.Our Congress seems to lack the ability to make any decisions. Even if they did I doubt they would stick by them past the next election, at which time some other course of action might serve the individual members of their body in some politically better manner.
I want to believe that Post-Modernism is flawed in its viewpoint. I do not want to believe that there are no absoulutes in terms of truth, or justice, or right, or wrong. I do not want to believe that every statement is no more than part of a metanarrative, a story and nothing more; still, it does seem that everything is just a story. Sean Hannity has his and Michael Moore his. One is no more absolutely true than the other. Both are simply narratives told for the purpose of persuasion.
Athens, during the time of Socrates and Plato, was filled with traveling teachers who were paid to teach students how to argue for any position. These Sophists were unconcerned with truth. They were only concerned with persuasion. One might ask, What does ancient Athens have to do with Washington, D.C.?
Perhaps everything.
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