No, I'm Not High...

I think I told you about my revelation that the world gets saved for personal reasons, right?

Nobody does anything heroic for some abstract "principle". It's for fellow soldiers, or family, or lovers, or friends. Soldiers don't die for my freedom. I mean they do, but they don't mean to. They're too busy dying for their honor or their buddy. And I don't mean this as an insult to soldiers. We do what we do because we're humans.

And it's all good.

I love humans. Granted I love some humans a lot more than I love others...but still, humans are my favorite species.

Unlike Liberals, I think Human Beings are the most amazing creatures ever created (or evolved, take your pick, I'm not fussy.)

Here's the deal. Unlike angels. Yes, for the moment, let's stipulate the existence of angels. Unlike angels, humans are not "spirits". We're corporeal...material. We have bodies and senses. And the world is a riot of stuff just waiting to assault them. The world is sensation. From food, to scent, to sight to sex...you gotta love the variety, the glory and sheer amount of deliciousness available...

Now, imagine how somebody strictly made of "spirit" would act if suddenly they were thrust into a material body right here on the good old material plane.

I'll tell you what you'd see:  a whole lot of  Greed, Sloth, Lust, Envy and Gluttony.

The lion's share of the Seven Deadlies.

Obviously, being human has serious challenges. And the temptations are enormous.

And you know what? Considering, we do great. We're gentlemen and scholars.

We'd certainly have to be chaperones and babysitters for any "spiritual being" who would go balls-out crazy just trying to cope with what we deal with every day. It's our element. We're good at it. We're the BEST at it.

Sure, animals are corporeal, but without our big brains, clever minds and imaginations. They cannot transcend instinct the way we can. They are not like us.

And angels (the stand-in for all things, beings and states "spiritual") are incorporeal. They might have minds and imagination...but have no senses like we do. They are not like us.

We are both corporeal and spiritual. Unique. And considering our potential for cataclysmic disaster...overall, I think we do pretty damned well.

But hey, maybe that's just me.

Look, humans need to fight, to strive, to conquer, to want, to succeed, to get and then want something else.  That's the nature of our beast. Utopia is impossible because of the innate nature of Human Beings. That's why the universe is so big...lots of room for kick-ass humans to explore and conquer.

And surely our souls are only separated from our bodies at death temporarily while they acquire new ones, because we would no longer be "human" if they just wandered off by themselves.

What is true for a human body without a soul, is just as true of a human soul without a body.

We're a package deal.

And I like it fine.

The Gunslinger

A Thought While Smoking

I just had one of those random thoughts that happen to me once in a while. Must be the nicotine.

Menopause and Erectile Disfunction are two of the best things that ever happened to civilization. And Cosmetic Surgery, Botox andViagra are among of the worst.

Stay with me here.

As we age naturally, we naturally separate ourselves from our youthful passions, and obsession with vanity, popularity, sexuality.

If left to Nature, our inclinations toward them decrease, our ability to engage in them decreases and the fresh, youthful beauty that once attracted partners with which to engage in them, decreases.

While some American perpetual teenagers find this depressing—a disease that needs a cure—it is really graduation from self-focus to other-focus. When we are able to detach from the immediacy of our passions, from vanity, from self-absorption...we find understanding, of each other, of humanity, of history, of politics, of truth.

This is why the elders of so many civilizations have been venerated.

And rightly.

We celebrate the child becoming an adult. We should also celebrate the adult becoming an elder. We should do it personally, within ourselves, rather than feeling bad that we are "getting old". And we should reflect that new pride in age and wisdom in new traditions, that recognize and honor the citizen that willingly and proudly leaves middle adulthood behind to seek and share the wisdom of experience and age.

We abjure that phase of life at our peril. Both on a personal level and a societal one.

The Gunslinger

Arrest the Stupid...?

I don't know. I'm not a big fan of police power, but I'm sorta on this cops' side...

I know Mother Nature is. Here's a quote from Robert Heinlein that applies:

"Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity."

This applies to individuals, cultures and governments.

A word to the wise.

The Gunslinger
Enemy of the (Stupid) Imperial State