The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax– Of cabbages–and kings– And why the sea is boiling hot– And whether pigs have wings.”
By Lewis Carroll
(The Walrus and the Carpenter from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
For well over 100 years this poem has been used to foster political debate of various forms. I’m not going to comment on these debates, but encourage you to read the 108 lines of the poem and develop your own conclusions. My whole purpose here is to emphatically state that “the time has come.”
We are on a slippery slope in the World today, and all the rhetoric and finger pointing is not going to correct the problem. As I’ve said in earlier posts we do nothing to identify our real problems, but spend inordinate time, money and energy addressing symptoms. The more righteous of us resemble Don Quixote jousting with Windmills in his “Impossible Dream.” The Time Has Come to look at reality with an open mind and heart. Ask ourselves some tough questions, and be prepared for some difficult answers.
The Philosopher Voltaire, in 1859, introduced us to Candide, a young optimist, disillusioned with the life he saw in his native land, who travelled the world in search of a good and higher calling. Finally, after seeing only evil and despair, he returned to his native France with the admonition that “we must cultivate our own garden.” Well folks, it’s time we start cultivating our own garden, because the weeds are about to overtake and devour us.
Now, as I’ve said before, I’m not a student of politics or any particular ism’s; I don’t pay much attention to the far right and far left leaning purveyors of gloom and doom; but I do observe, and what I see scares the bejeezus out of me. I once thought that our governing bodies were composed of intelligent, caring, ethical, educated human beings that were, in fact, representing “we the people.” I also thought that family, friends and neighbors could participate in rational discourse on items of common interest. Above all, I thought that rational minds could develop rational solutions to common problems. Was I wrong?
Let’s look at some of these common problems:
- Racism, yes there is racism in America, as there has been throughout the world all the way back to 17th century and beyond. It was not just African Americans, but also Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic and Latino American. It expanded to include Middle Eastern American groups like Jews and Arabs, not to forget the dreaded Muslim Americans. In an earlier post, I discussed the demographics of some of these groups in America today. #seniorthinker
- Economic equality is a myth. Thomas Jefferson once said, “There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people.”
- Our political system isn’t broken, our politicians are.
- We engage in wars based upon the lesser of various evils, with no prescription for winning.
- We spend what we don’t have, and borrow to keep spending; and this includes individuals as well as Congress.
Those are probably enough problems to at least show the magnitude of the hole into which we have diligently dug ourselves. As I have also said in a prior post, “my mother always told me not to complain unless I had a solution.” This is my goal – “Let’s find a way to work together, each with his or her own talents and limitations, to return our society to a truly representative form of government, that puts ‘we the people’ back into the mix.”
Tearing down monuments that have stood for decades without incident; removing flags whose original meanings have been lost; restricting use of bathrooms for certain individuals (Question: Where did they pee before?); and protesting groups such as white supremacists, anti-white supremacists, black lives matter, all lives matter, anti-fas, and on and on only result in division, not acceptance. These “causes” have been orchestrated by people or groups who have little interest in promoting the “greater good,” but use them to distract from more important issues. Stalin and Lenin used this tactic with the aid of what they called “Useful Idiots” – those people protesting without any idea of the true underlying issues.
My Website is called “seniorthinker.com” because I thought/hoped that our seniors, of which I am a tenured member, might be the last, great hope for stopping the madness in society. Please join me and others and let’s work on identifying and solving the real problems in America. The time has come – before it really is too late.
Epilogue: In the poem quoted as the lead to this article, the Walrus and Carpenter were walking along the beach and enticed oysters to join them. A wise older oyster admonished his younger friends not to follow, but four groups did, and after continuing their walk, they all sat down to converse. Before the oysters knew what was about to happen they were eaten by the Walrus and Carpenter. (Ed: There are oysters among us!)
The data presented herein for the most part are strictly my personal opinions and are subject to my interpretation of various articles I have read or classes I have taken over the years. I believe they fairly represent the points I am trying to convey, but should not be taken as irrefutable fact.