Dear Friends,
It seems to me, it is easy to make things worse, but takes years of research, thought and hard work to make things better, so, most people who want to make a difference… just take the easy route. The Human condition is a complex system from which many emergent phenomenon arise. Making a complex system better, by whatever definition, is, well, complex. It is not like a car engine, which in and of itself is hard enough to repair, let alone make better, society is far more complicated. Therefore, fixing it, and especially making it better, is far more difficult than repairing a car engine. That is like someone who cannot open the hood, attempting to mend a low combustion pressure problem, by pumping up the tires. What makes sense to someone ignorant… might in fact, make no sense.
You see this mostly in those who’s lives are a complete mess. As a placebo to the chaos in their own lives, they seek to impose order, their order, on the world. Because protesting, rioting and looting is more exciting than the boring travail of cleaning up one’s own life first. Smashing and looting are fun, lucrative, and hammering on a plywood barricaded store front is a good form of aerobic exercise. If someone tells you, rioting will solve a problem that has plagued mankind since the dawn of time, all the more reason to do it. Anyone who would think that too simplistic a notion, must be a hater… burn the hater’s business to the ground. That’ll show em. Getting three hots and a cot, at mom and dad’s, is empowering. It gives freedom, security and fresh smelling sheets.
One thing about rioting is that you make a difference right away. Things are probably much worse… but the difference is obvious, and gratification is instant. When you walk away from a riot scene, you know in your heart, that place will never be the same again. The statues are gone, small businesses burned to the ground and if anyone so much as skids on one of the tags you left, the Stockholm syndrome traumatized police will throw the book at them… lest you come back. You know you are on the “right” side, because if you are arrested, the establishment bails you out and drops the charges. Ah, the easy way, there is nothing like it. If you want to make a difference, but don’t want to do any hard work, just have fun… and get a free pair of Gaseous John the Baptist Rivers while your at it.
Making things better takes way too much learning, and learning is hard. Plus the process is slow. There is no instant gratification. Making things better, really better for everyone, takes work. Bring order into your own life before introducing order through chaos to others. Start at the center, yourself, then bring order into the world in concentric spheres, like an onion. The result of creating order around you, is calmness, satisfaction and self sufficiency. Those who exist within a sphere of chaos, live in perpetual anger, dissatisfaction, and on the dole. It may be fun to burn down a store, but next time we need the product sold at that store, we have to go out of our way to get it. Maybe that store never reopens. Perhaps other stores close. The fun way to make a difference… makes it different alright.
Their tactics may be violent, ideas ignorant and intentions malignant, but at least their hearts are in the wrong place too. With nihilism as their guide… how could they go right? Even if nihilism is the correct way to see the world, if adopted universally, we would quickly be living in dystopia. Making nihilism a self fulfilling prophecy. Of course, being led by the worse people to ever exist, elevates the chances of catastrophically effecting humanity. The easy way is attractive, you are both a victim, and an oppressor, justified by your victimhood… there is the occasional score in the liqueur store, and gratification is immediate. The hard way, delaying gratification, picking up after a riot, helping the downtrodden, feeding the poor and leading by example, may make the world a better place… but is it worth it?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
