What Do You Want... to Live Your Life in Service To?
It's not about Republicans & Democrats. It's not about left vs. right, or right vs. wrong, or extremes, moderates, centrists, or anything like that.
I'm feeling almost hypocritical. I'm writing on Independence Day, the Fourth of July, at a time when it almost seems cruel to refer to what we currently have in our country as independence. We have elected a terribly unintelligent, terribly selfish narcissitic sociopath as our president and he, in turn, has surrounded himself with a fearful, feckless flock of flatulent fools who fulfill his every fantasy.
How did we get here?
The Two Conflicting Intentions of Today's American Citizens
The news media is filled with admonitions that we must find a way to resolve our conflicts, that we are in greater conflict than we have ever been, that we are heading toward another civil war and we must find our way back to each other. Democrats must learn to trust Republicans again, and Republicans must learn to trust Democrats. We must learn to cooperate and compromise.
Sounds great, but it all misses the point entirely.
It's not about Republicans and Democrats, although those two groups may each define one side of the real divide. It's not about left vs. right, or right vs. wrong, or extremes, moderates, centrists, or anything like that.
There are simply two schools of intention at play here. Given that this feature, “What Do You Want?” is a study in the impact of our intentions of everything we experience you shouldn't find it surprising that the real challenge is presented in this context, but please follow along and see if you don't ultimately agree.
It's All About Service – Who Do You Live to Serve?
Jesus Christ is credited with being the first to preach and teach about the importance of living a life of service to others. Many have echoed his words, including Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa. Even in the scientific realm, far from the religious world, Albert Einstein famously said, “Only a life lived in service to others is worth living.”
This philosophy has led to the “entitlement" programs enjoyed by so many. Social Security. Medicare. Medicaid. USAIDs, SNAP, and many other public benefit programs meant to take care of the “less fortunate" and the “needy" were created and brought into being by leaders who believed that the best life was one lived in service to others. That we must all take care of each other.
The other school of thought is that we are all here to live in service to self. You'll be hard pressed to find anyone to quote about this, except perhaps the current President of the United States and his cabinet members. The prevailing attitude here is that everyone needs to take care of themselves. That those who cannot take care of themselves should simply not continue being. They are a drain on society and deserve nothing. In the unspoken parlance of the kibbutz, “You don't work, you don't eat.”
These are the people who are doing everything possible to cut, curtail, limit, reduce, or eliminate any and all beneficial public programs that feed, heal, or otherwise serve those who cannot serve themselves. They claim they wish to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, though they can identify little or none of those. Rather, they wish to eliminate those who require assistance, people they actively consider to be nothing more than waste.
The Great Mistake Marketing Made Manifest
Personally, I consider the aforementioned Jesus Christ to be among the greatest marketers of all time, given that people are still embracing his messaging more than 2,000 years later.
But this country elected another accomplished marketer, though that ability is somewhat inexplicable given his utter lack of intelligence, wisdom, creativity, character, or integrity.
His great success was in finding an inordinate number of people who believed in living a life of service to themselves and showing him that he was one of them. Perhaps the most extreme example of being one of them. They all looked at him and said, “that's what I want to be.” They were convinced that since he lived in service only to himself, just like they did, that he could lead them to making that kind of life successful and plentiful.
What they failed to realize was that they were right about him. He didn't care to serve anyone but himself, and that included no interest whatsoever in serving them. He knew what they wanted from him, but he never cared about that for a moment. What he saw was that they believing they could be like him was all he needed to get what he wanted out of them. And he was right.
You Can't Give What You Don't Have
Think more deeply into the mindset of those who believe they want to live a life in service only to themselves. It is likely that many of them simply have little or nothing to give. That is not a crime. In fact, it is impossible to give what you don't have so its very easy to imagine them coming to believe they must live a life in service to themselves, even though living that way has never actually served them in any way.
Now We Must Depend Upon Pain to Teach
The difference between those who wish to live a life of service to others and those who wish to live a life of service to themselves is startlingly well reflected in the difference between today's Democratic political party and today's Republican political party. This is proven by yesterday's infliction of the mammoth tax and spending bill on American life.
Millions will lose their healthcare. Millions will lose food assistance. Many of these are small, defenseless children. Given the difficulty the administration had in driving little MAGA Mike Johnson's house of “representatives" in getting the bill passed, it is very clear who the administration and little Mike and his slender Republican majority live to serve. They all live to serve their own re-election, and nothing more. Their meme-coin leader wishes to serve his numerous bank accounts as well. But us common folk don't enter into their intentions for a heartbeat.
What happens, though, when the MAGAnites realize that their fearful leader has no intention of sharing his bounty with them? What happens when they realize they are not going to become the successfully selfish? What then? As this bill strips them of whatever shreads of dignity they may have, and leaves them starving and sick, where will they turn to find people who DO believe in living a life in service to others now that those “others" are themselves?
The Challenge to Those Who Live a Life in Service to Others
You can safely bet that whatever few strong-minded Democrats with willpower may still be in Congress and the Senate are already beginning today to do everything they can to point out to the selfish helpless masses who has inflicted this increased pain into their lives. The short-sighted Republicans refused to confront the fact that their constituents are still out there waiting in the tall grass for the next election cycle.
Given the extreme pain they have just meted out, it is hardly a guess but rather a sure bet that voters will hand their self-absorbed elected officials their collective asses in the next election and we will once again return to a time of sanity.
My first question will be where should we start the impeachments…
To assure this of happening, those who live a life in service to others must serve them with truth. With reality. With the clearest possible picture of what was just done to them and who just did it. We can waste no time, give no quarter, and channel the maximum of all our efforts into simply telling the simple truth to the simpletons who are now starving in the darkness.
My friends, I implore you to now examine your own intentions. It is all too terribly easy to think these people deserve what they just got. That we should just let them languish in their own detritus. But that is completely wrong.
To live a life in service to others is to live a life in service to those who need and those who would benefit from our service, regardless of how they got where they are. Unless they overtly cause harm to others, we must forgive them their shortsightedness and foolishness and help them return to the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness every American was promised by our founders. When we have accomplished this, we can all enjoy the great happiness that only comes from doing the right thing.
Happy Independence Day
Even if you, like me, are only celebrating remembrance of the times when our country was free and independent, have a Happy Fourth of July. Even if you, like me, are sickened by the sight of ICE agents abusing power they rightly do not have to subjugate people who came to our beloved country seeking the same values as our own grandparents did, have a Happy Fourth of July.
And even if you, like me, are desperate to find Democrats who have the spine, the character, the strength, and the wherewithal to step up and stop this blithering, grifting moron and his clowncar cabinet and, frankly, his asshole administration, have a Happy Fourth of July. While we can still afford hot dogs, hamburgers, and the heat to cook them with, let's have some good eats and some good times together. Let's live our lives in service to each other.