CELEBRATING
AN END AS MUCH AS A BEGINNING
SOME OF WHAT
WE LEARNED AND WERE FORCED TO SEE
Good Riddance 2014
TAGS:
2014 – A VERY BAD YEAR, INNATE PRAGMATISM,
WHAT
WE LEARNED, WHAT WE THOUGHT WE KNEW, AND HOW OFTEN
WE
WERE WRONG
A BROODING CYNYX COMMENTARY
A BROAD LOOK BACK OVER THE
LAST YEAR
(Thursday January 1, 2015,
Times Square, NYC) Inherent in our species is our sense of consciousness. Among the distinguishing factors that
separate us from our closest genetic relatives is our ability to be self-aware
and to plan for and imagine our future.
The is no doubt an evolutionary biological explanation for this
characteristic just as evolutionary biologists have posited solid theories on
the acquisition and efficacy of other human traits such as empathy, the
maternal instinct, and selflessness.
An off-shoot benefit from our
ability to plan ahead based on past experience and each individual’s goals and
needs within the context of their own life, is the deeply held ideal of new
beginnings; of believing tomorrow might be better than today, that each sunrise
can be appreciated for what the promise of the day might be. This was particularly beneficial when we
began living in small societies founded during the hunter-gatherer, agrarian era of
our development. Those ancestors knew
from bitter and blessed experience alike that a crop could fail and wither in
the field or it could thrive with the right amount of rainfall and
sunlight.
Another facet of our
self-awareness, one that seems more nuanced and not easy to nail down is the
natural inclination towards optimism or pessimism. We are all born as blank slate, the Tabulu
Rosa as described by Descartes, practical and pragmatic if nothing else. Our species would not have thrived if our
relatives from antiquity were not pragmatic and practical, cautious and
measured in all the many and varied tasks and challenges they faced in what was a very hostile environment. When a band of hunters took off from the
community in search of game it served no evolutionary purpose to be neither
pessimistic nor overly hopeful which borders on optimistic; they learned how to gauge risk versus reward and that trait is a Darwinian imperative. They were a practical lot and learned to
live, work, and survive in larger and larger groups through establishing a
social order akin to a large extended family.
As practical, pragmatic beings they began to develop in increasingly
complex and sophisticated ways from the methods they used in tool-making an
ever expanding familiarity with and knowledge of the natural world, as well as how to harness the resources of the natural world around them.
As the millennia rolled on all
manner of rites, rituals, and religions were established which added to the
social order. Most of the earliest
beliefs were based on the phenomenon in the natural world; a world they lived
in but had not yet began to fully understand.
Gods were found in storm clouds and the thunder and lightning that could
awe and frighten them equally. Their
world was rife with hazards, both real and imagined, yet they never stopped
learning and with every generation a more robust set of genes and memes were
passed down.
They began to quantify time,
to set aside specific days as the beginning of one season or another. Nature provided their clocks in the stars and
tides, in the winds and rains, and in the fields. They also began to honor milestones; they
would seek to appease and pray for the blessings of various gods; a god for
planting, a god for harvest; a god for healthy childbirth and a god of
death. Soon calendars and time pieces
were invented and their relationship with what had been an amorphous idea of
time became more and more definable and quantitative. Births and death were markers in time as
vivid as seasonal changes in the world around them. They had long ago conquered the cold and
darkness of the nights with the light and heat of fires. But time remained an uncontrollable force of
nature; a cruel, linear, forward trek without a means or method to alter its
pace or primacy among the natural phenomenon.
***** *****
*****
At the stroke of 12:00
midnight this morning 2014 fell away and 2015 was ushered in. We are said to “celebrate” the beginning of a
New Year with all its possibilities and dreams; with a sense of a new beginning
and a shedding of the past year’s skin now cracked and dried. Yes, we celebrate the New Year but it seems,
especially this year that we are as much celebrating the end of the past year
as much as the start of the new.
2014 was a difficult year in
America and in New York City. We were
forced to look into the mirror of society and stare at our collective
reflection that was for some, not quite what they’d thought they’d see. We were forced to stare at that ugly, unflattering
reflection only to see we remain residents of a “house divided against itself”,
and have had to examine our own lineage and genealogy as hundreds upon hundreds
of unaccompanied child immigrants from Central America created a humanitarian
crisis as well as revealing the sharp teeth of those who would draft
legislation radically altering our own history as a country of immigrants while
denying even basic rights to those derisively called “illegals”. Our borders should have been secured decades
ago but were not and that is not the point. Now the very definition of what it means to be an American
citizen is up for grabs.
We learned that despite all
our accumulated knowledge, scientific and technological sophistication that
mysteries are still possible, that nature still has the edge and that certainty
at times is dubiously uncertain. We saw
that it is still possible for a huge passenger airliner, such as the Malaysian
Air Flight 370, to completely vanish from the face of the earth without a trace, and that a
primitive lethal virus can emerge without warning, infect a population, and
vanish back into its natural host before we can even mount a strong
defense. Ebola was the virus of the year
in 2014 but other emerging viruses will likely introduce themselves to us in
the future.
In some disciplines we learned
that some of the most basic of “facts” are simply not factual at all. Scientists were forced to reexamine their
rationale regarding the “Big Bang” theory of the birth of the universe,
mankind’s role in climate change, and other questions about the sciences we’d
long thought to have been answered.
We learned of the limits of
our technological mastery and the darker side of our interconnectedness when
millions of people’s lives were destroyed in massive computer hacking schemes
and large scale identity theft operations.
We were asked to redefine privacy in this day and age of data collection
while conversely spending more of our lives in the ether world of social media
sites. Along these lines the
nefariousness of Internet trolling and predation forced many to wonder about
the nature of their children’s lives “on line” as they sit sullenly with ear-buds firmly implanted rarely looking away from the miniature screens on
their mobile devices.
We were repetitively reminded
that more people continue to die in the name of one god or another, for the
precepts and doctrine of one sect or another, just as we have since the
dawn of civilization. Age old animosity
continues to fan the flames of extremists, zealots, and rabid ideologues as if
they are somehow stuck in the second century.
While we remain locked in what now feels like a state of perpetual war,
we were shocked to learn of the abject failures of the Veteran’s Administration
to adequately provide quality, timely care for the tens of thousands of our
returned young warriors. Yes, we are a
patriotic people ready to salute before a football game, hat in hand, mouthing
the words of our national anthem; yet allow our inept, craven, sleazy politicians to callously
defund the VA, cut services for veterans, and generally break what was always
the sacred trust between the populace and the military who serve for the
greater good. American military
personnel have lost lives, limbs and sanity in Afghanistan and Iraq only to be
shunted to the side upon their return.
This is beyond shameful.
But our elected leaders have
no shame; they are a corrupt lot of self-serving politicos far removed from the
lives of the majority of Americans and out of touch to the detriment of us
all. We have seen once again that what
is good and profitable for Wall Street is bad and burdensome for Main
Street. But we keep electing the same
greedy bastards and permit ourselves to be lead around by our noses by these
criminally negligent “public servants” who serve their moneyed masters not the
public good.
There were events that opened
our collective eyes to issues we may have given little or no thought to
previously. After footage from a surveillance camera captured the scene of an
NFL player knocking out his girlfriend in an Atlantic City casino elevator, suddenly
the country woke up to the harsh reality of the prevalence of domestic abuse
and violence, including child abuse, sexual abuse, as well as the astonishing
facts regarding the rate of “date rate” on college campuses across the land as
well as even at the high school level.
We should be astute enough to not use athletes, amateur or professional
or other “celebrities” who cultivate a “cult of personality” to be substitute
“role models” for parents. Whenever and
however possible, be it altering the tax code for the middle and lower income
workers and their families, to better educating our youth, our government should make it easier to keep families
intact. The two parent model has worked
well for thousands of years and remains an important key to our children’s
future, health, and success.
Sadly we have stood witness as
far too many young people die premature deaths by way of illegal firearms. One may have thought that after some of the
most heinous murders over the last year, that finally our government would step
into the breach, so to speak, and enact even the most modest, practical
legislation to assist law enforcement in getting illegal guns off our city
streets and out of our towns. Obviously,
that has not been the case. So, by
default, we allow our children to know a sense of fear and uncertainty while
teaching them how to conceal themselves with their classmates beneath a Kevlar
blankets as they huddle petrified in a classroom closet in the event of a school shooting.
Yes, it has come to this. Is this
more tolerable than effective legislation?
Apparently the Congress that is handsomely bought and paid for by the
NRA seems to think so.
So, in another ever growing
disturbing trend, we continue to misdiagnose and over-medicate our youth to the
tune of an estimated $78 billion per year.
The long term repercussions of this practice are not yet known but what
is known is troubling enough. As we
provide a host of prescription medications, from ADHD and anti-depressant
drugs, to stronger anti-psychotic cocktails to younger and younger children, we place our faith in the big
pharmaceutical giants, the doctors incentivized to write these prescriptions,
and set up our youth for drug addiction in their teen years while still
stigmatizing mental health issues in adults.
Drugs, be they prescribed or illicit, play an enormous role in American
society and culture. While some states
have legalized marijuana and others have decriminalized possession of small
amounts, crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and resurgence in heroin
usage, fuel an underground black market, serve as an abundant energy source for
all manner of crimes, and new synthetic “designer drugs”, some meant to mimic
the effects of oxycodone and other drugs in this family, are wreaking havoc
among our youth in our cities as well as our vast rural regions.
And in the last quarter of
2014 we were forced once again to recognize a sorry truth, the majority of
young Black men in this country fear the Police and see them as “the enemy”. Much has been written and spoken about this
stark reality (plenty of it right here on this site) but all the talk, words,
marches, protests and demonstrations coupled with the demagogueing, hate filled
speech and race baiting on both sides of this deep abyss will do nothing
towards initiating effective changes that are satisfactory to both sides.
Yes, we learned and saw much
in ourselves and country in 2014 and, most of us are probably happy to see it
go. We have learned one overarching
truth in the past 12 months, that being, “everything old is new again”. Problems that have been kicked down the road,
shunted to the side or otherwise simply avoided and ignored will always come
back with a bite and we surely have been bitten in 2014.
The Brooding Cynyx wish all
our readers, followers, commenters, and participants in the debates we attempt
to bring forward, a very Happy New Year and all the best in health, happiness,
prosperity and peace. We can begin to exorcise
some of the cultural and social demons that reappeared last year if we can
communicate with purpose, without anger, rancor and venom. Maybe at the end of this year, 2015, we won’t
be so happy to see it go as we are now with the last moments of 2014 just
slipping over the horizon.
Copyright The
Brooding Cynyx 2015 © All Rights Reserved
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