Aging Capriciously

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to “fall” off the wagon but how hard to get back on again? Using myself as an example, I have fallen way off.  My goal is to write two blogs a week.  After getting the flu and then my recent tooth problems, I have not written a single blog in three or more weeks.  I kept trying to get back on but did not quite have the energy.  So today, I am going to get back on the wagon.  I feel mentally alert, healthier than I have in a month and anxious to put some of my thoughts into words.  I want to sally forth again spewing concepts and ideas that will have a profound impact on the world.  I can make the world a better place to live and I will start again today trying to accomplish that objective. 

However, where to start is a difficult question.  Heaven knows the last four weeks has seen plenty of issues to write about.  I am thinking of the politicians I would like to lambast, the crimes I would like to lament, the stupidity and greed that manifests itself daily and perhaps worst of all, the inane drivel that passes for news these days.  The media has become a ten ring circus with clowns, lawyers, politicians, private citizens, police, murderers, terrorists, reporters, Fox News people and everyone – citizen and non-citizen –  armed with a video camera anxious to have their 15 seconds of fame.  One ten ring story gets replaced by another and the media tears off on another rampage.  The airwaves will be filled with interviews ad-nauseam with past friends, current friends, future friends, relatives, lovers, teachers, and the ubiquitous “experts” from academia telling us why, when and how it happened. You will get this circus in 15 minute doses updated hourly and repeated no less than 45 times per day.  Each repetition of the media cycle will include: new hypotheses, new suppositions, new interpretations, new guesses, new conjectures and some really wild correlations that seem to come out of a twisted warped devious mind from hell.   I won’t bore you with any concrete examples since if you are reading this blog today; you have only to look at your local paper to see what I am talking about.  You want conspiracy theories?  There should be a section in the news for Conspiracy Theories based on little or no facts. 

Well, carping on the negative will only make you feel as bad as I do when I dwell on what poor Thomas Jefferson and Edward R. Morrow must be thinking about the Fourth Estate today.   The papers daily grind us with patriotism defined narrowly and of course only a characteristic of real Americans.  Almost anyone today challenging the status quo is liable to be labeled as a “Terrorist.”  It seems that most news media but particularly Fox News has forgotten that:

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular”
― Edward R. Murrow

Anyone reading Fox News would wonder if they had ever heard of Edward R. Morrow or of due process or that the suspect is “innocent until proven guilty.” 

Well, now that I have got the media off my chest, let’s look at what the real problems in the world are and what we can do about them.  In 1925, Mohandas Gandhi published a list of seven problems that he called “social sins.”  They have also been referred to as the “Seven Blunders of the World.”  Gandhi called these blunders passive violence which he said fueled the active violence of crime, rebellion, and war.  He said, “We could work ’til doomsday to achieve peace and would get nowhere as long as we ignore passive violence in our world.”   Thus, these “blunders” or “social sins” are the underlying cause of all violence in the world.  His son Arun was given this list on their final day together.  Arun later added an eight “sin” to the list.

Here is the list of Gandhi’s seven plus one added by his son Arun:

• Wealth  without work.
• Pleasure  without conscience.
• Knowledge without character.
• Commerce without morality.
• Science  without humanity.
• Worship  without sacrifice.
• Politics  without principle.
• Rights without responsibilities (Added by Arun Gandhi)

I would like to spend my next eight blogs describing each of these sins and what we can do about them.   I realize that one could look at many other lists and perhaps make equal claim to their being the “root” of all evil. Primary among these other lists would be what some call “The Seven Cardinal Sins.”   

• Lust
• Gluttony
• Greed
• Sloth
• Wrath
• Envy
• Pride

I certainly would not dispute the value of any of these other lists since the world can seldom be reduced to any one list whether it includes seven or seventy items.  In fact, I would love to hear any comments concerning the value of other lists or the potential contributions that other lists might make to the problems of the world.  Keep in mind we also have many lists of “positive” traits that are considered by some as essential for a peaceful world. Perhaps simply eliminating the negative will never be enough.  It is very likely that unless we work on developing positive attributes among people we will still come up short in the values that we want for a just and loving society.  However, as with all good journeys, you must start someplace and today I (Or at least in my next blog) I will start on Gandhi’s list of Seven Social Sins. 

Ok, time for questions:

What rules or principles do you have for living? What are the key mistakes that you think we make as human beings? How do you go about trying to live right ideas? What do you do when you fail? How many people do you know who practice a set of rules to live by?  How well do you follow your own rules?

Life is just beginning.