The Lucky Few

I've lived in a wonderful time. Right on the cusp. Blessed.

I live in the greatest, most powerful, freest country on Earth. I grew up in a secure, prosperous, traditional home with a Mom and a Dad. I went to private school and actually learned stuff. My childhood was filled with grace, and beauty and security and tradition and love.

And when I got older, the world "moved on" to exciting times...the 60's. I got to do all the stuff my parents never could...sex, drugs, rock 'n roll.

And as I grew into adulthood...none of that behavior was held against me, because everyone else had "moved-on" too!

And when the new Feminism arose in the 70's, I was a prime beneficiary. I got to do things women have never been able to do without a lot of grief, if at all.

Yep, I was born at the perfect moment in time.

•Purity, security, tradition, fine education, good foundation in childhood. A Childhood free from crime and the dangers that threaten kids today.

•Fun, wildness, anything goes—-without consequences—-in my wild teens and twenties. The lack of limitations and repressions and "consequences" and discipline and premature "adulthood" suffered by teens of all previous generations, especially females.

•Opportunites, new horizons, personal and professional options and equality in adulthood. The freedom and opportunity to be independent, a little eccentric, atypical..and yet a successful and self-supporting full member of society with all the prerogatives, rights and privileges.

Nice.

My little life has been unfairly perfect. Oh, I've had tragedy and sorrow and heartbreak and loss like everyone else. But the times moved along with me, providing precisely what I wanted/needed at every stage. How many other generations can say that?

Naturally, I assumed the world was getting better, smarter, cooler. You see, as I negotiated my lovely custom made path, I didn't realize that my life was lived at the apex of modern Westernity; in a bubble so rarified and splendid and perfect, that it was a momentary abberation from the norm.

I have lived in the cocoon of America, separate from the rest of the world; better, brighter, richer, freer, and more peaceful than most of it. Prosperity calms people and makes them more amenable to kindness, charity, cooperation, mercy, forgiveness and peace. It allows time for intellectual, artistic and philosophical pursuits. It elevates a culture. And America has had prosperity in abundance.

As a result, we have developed an intellectual and philosophical view of life and the world that is estranged from those of the distinctly non-prosperous hordes. Our understanding of human nature and institutions is born out of leisurely consideration of the "best" of them, which we have tried to create.

We honor and emulate the straight talking down-to-earth Cowboy; we mistrust and dislike the clever, manipulative, worldy, sophisticated Prince. We believe what people say, and tend to say what we mean. We like people and want them to like us. When we shake hands on a deal, we believe it means that both parties will honor it.

We're easily scandalized because we're really quite naively innocent...as a people...of monumental corruption, greed, and hunger for power. Perhaps because our institutions are set up to prevent such things...and they work pretty well. We've never had tyrants or military coups or emperors, or barbarian invasions, or even very effective demagogues. Americans have been, over all, too common-sensical, too skeptical and too prosperous to be desperate enough to be seduced by their promises.

As a result, I think we've come to believe that that sort of thing "just doesn't happen any more."

Of course, we're wrong. Our bubble in time, our apex of history, our beautiful shining moment was just that. The world has always been, and will likely always be a vicious struggle for wealth, power, privilege, and utter disregard for anything (or anyone) that stands in the way of that.

This is the real way of the world. And as we open our borders to millions of barbarians who were bred in cultures steeped in this behavior, our little moment is ending.

The world has always been run the by the "Great". Almost all of history has been made by the powerful, the rich, and the royal. The "people" have been sacrificed, commanded, taxed, starved, used as cannon fodder, enslaved, stolen from, controlled, terrorized, tortured and manipulated in the service of their "betters". It is amply demonstrated by the behavior of the execrable United Nations, The World Bank's persecution of reformers of it's culture of corruption, and untold Third World nations like North Korea, Cuba, Mexico, Syria, Iran, China, Venezuela, and most of Africa. The elites' total disregard for all decency, rule of law, and the welfare of "the people" in the pursuit of wealth and power is legion.

It turns out nothing has really changed in the world. It's the same savage and primitive rule of the strongest and most ruthless as it has been from the day the biggest caveman killed his neighbor and stole his food. It's just that the bubble of sanity and graciousness and civility and prosperity and democracy, faith and decency, in which "the people" held power and ruled, has protected us from that reality. But now, the bubble is shrinking and thinning, and we're seeing the real bloody world of tooth and claw that is reaching for our throats.

The question is: What shall we do? In the face of ruthless violence and utter ambition and corruption, will we be "tolerant"? Will we honor this "diverse culture"? Will we be too frightened to declare it evil, morally bankrupt, inferior, undesireable, primitive, savage, barbarian, uncivilized?

Or will we decide that Camelot is worth fighting for, against the weight of human history and uncounted millions who seek our destruction?

Will we make a stand, believing in our superior culture and vision, defiant of the hordes at our gates, and decide that even if we must lose, and the filthy wave swamp us, we will fight to the death? Rather than go quietly into the savage night of slavery to the dark forces of greed and power, will we decide that, as the Vikings say: "Today is a good day to die!" and engage the enemy with all the strength, power, might and righteousness of a free people? Or will we meekly surrender like a whipped and submissive cur with a broken spirit?

I could never live as a slave. But, you see, I am lucky. I will never have to. My natural life will end before the final stage of disintegration arrives. I will live out the rest of my natural life in the beautiful American bubble. Even though it is shrinking, it will not burst before I die. For a while, there will be plenty of places to retreat to, and avoid the incoming sludge.

I was born at the perfect moment. At the apex of enlightened society, at a time of the most generous and advanced cultural benefits...and just before the beginning of its decline. And as Rome wasn't built in a day, it did not decline in a day. Neither will America. It will hold, at least the shell of its forms, institutions and traditions for a time. And some of the lucky ones, like me, will live our entire lives in an America that is the greatest, freest and most powerful country in the world. I am filled with gratitude for this blessing when I consider the billions of people throughout history, (and today) who have lived otherwise, brutalized and marginalized.

But, what about future Americans? And what of the rest of the people of the world? We are its beacon and its hope. What legacy shall we leave them? A failed America, like conquered Rome, ruled by the invading barbarians fighting like beasts for rule of the pack? What are we prepared to do to save the Republic for those who come after us?

Shall this generation be guilty of allowing the brightest lamp of hope in the world of man to be extinguished?

The Gunslinger