Inverting Patrick Henry's Formula

"Give me liberty or give me death!" This is what Virginia son Patrick Henry yelled when confronted with a government run amok, knowing as he did that a life of slavery is not worth living. His words, however, no longer appeal to the society he helped create. The modern cry of moral outrage is inverted and goes something like this: "Take my liberty, but give me life!"
This single phrase summarizes America's domestic and foreign policy today. Americans now clamor for government to perpetrate every imaginable wrong and indignity to (supposedly) preserve life, whether it's another undeclared war to kill "terrorists" and every man, woman, and child nearby; submitting to invasive and embarrassing searches without probable cause to justify them; an "entitlement" program of forced wealth transfer such as Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security that has assumed the idolatrous status of a golden calf; bailing out politically-connected plutocrats or debasing the currency to stave off dreaded economic turmoil; showering discretionary funds on virtually every scientific, pedagogical, or artistic activity in order to guarantee that it produces politically-desired results; rolling out the red carpet to illegal invaders because they "do the work Americans won't do"; or begging federal courts to assert control over state and local matters to ensure that no community may displease an obstreperous contingent (often not even within the community itself).

This modern cry of moral outrage is, at bottom, cowardice. It is the mark of a people terrified of liberty and all the dangers it might bring. For such cowardly people, liberty is a luxury and must take a back seat to safety and prosperity. And as I've said before, the bitter irony is that by surrendering in this manner, the coward's worst nightmares will now come true. He yearned for life and prosperity at any cost, but now he must surrender them along with his soul.

Paradise Lost

A gunfight on Collins Avenue in South Beach reminds me yet again why I decided to leave Florida. Paradise does not consist of sun or surf, and no amount of good climate can compensate for bad people. The Florida of my youth, like many other wonders in my life, are but memories now -- I recall them fondly, but they no longer exist. Fortunately, I found a new paradise and am etching new memories in a place where the weather may be colder, but the people are far warmer. That makes all the difference.

On Marriage

G.K. Chesterton nails it in a book I wish I had written, What's Wrong With The World.

Only by the hypocritical ignoring of a huge fact can anyone contrive to talk of "free love"; as if love were an episode like lighting a cigarette, or whistling a tune. Suppose whenever a man lit a cigarette, a towering genie arose from the rings of smoke and followed him everywhere as a huge slave. Suppose whenever a man whistled a tune he "drew an angel down" and had to walk about forever with a seraph on a string. These catastrophic images are but faint parallels to the earthquake consequences that Nature has attached to sex; and it is perfectly plain at the beginning that a man cannot be a free lover; he is either a traitor or a tied man. . . .

The problem is not in marriage, but in sex; and would be felt under the freest concubinage. Nevertheless, the overwhelming mass of mankind has not believed in freedom in this matter, but rather in a more or less lasting tie. Tribes and civilizations differ about the occasions on which we may loosen the bond, but they all agree that there is a bond to be loosened, not a mere universal detachment. . . .

The principle is this: that in everything worth having, even in every pleasure, there is a point of pain or tedium that must be survived, so that the pleasure may revive and endure. The joy of battle comes after the first fear of death; the joy of reading Virgil comes after the bore of learning him; the glow of the sea-bather comes after the icy shock of the sea bath; and the success of the marriage comes after the failure of the honeymoon. All human vows, laws, and contracts are so many ways of surviving with success this breaking point, this instant of potential surrender.

In everything on this earth that is worth doing, there is a stage where no one would do it, except for necessity or honor. It is then that the Institution upholds a man and helps him on to the firmer ground ahead. . . . Two people must be tied together in order to do themselves justice; for twenty minutes at a dance, or for twenty years in a marriage. In both cases the point is, that if a man is bored in the first five minutes he must go on and force himself to be happy. . . .

If we all floated in the air like bubbles, free to drift anywhere at any instant, the practical result would be that no one would have the courage to begin a conversation. It would be so embarrassing to start a sentence in a friendly whisper, and then have to shout the last half of it because the other party was floating away into the free and formless ether. The two must hold each other to do justice to each other.

If Americans can be divorced for "incompatibility of temper" I cannot conceive why they are not all divorced. I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable.

Sophrosyne

It takes a great deal to anger me -- still waters run deep and all that. The slings and arrows of daily misfortune do not ruffle my feathers because, for me, human life by its very nature is tragic. We have the capacity to imagine the ideal but often lack the tools (or the fortitude) to acquire it, which leaves a constant sense of futility. I expect things around me to go wrong and for people to lie, cheat, and steal, so I harbor no illusions of finding happiness outside myself. Happiness comes only from within, usually by challenging myself to understand and achieve more. If the world comes crashing down around my ears, that's the world's problem rather than mine.

Such equanimity was prized by the ancient Greeks, who labeled it "sophrosyne" (so-FRA-si-nee). This stands in contrast to "hubris," the proud and follied mindset dominating modern life in the developed world. According to this mindset, one's failure to erupt at every slight, inconvenience, or insult denotes weakness. Yet the exact opposite is true -- what strength is there in enslaving oneself to fleeting and fickle circumstances, blowing to and fro like a leaf in the wind?

The result is comical. I see most of the people around me as weak for letting almost everything get under their skin; they see me as weak for letting almost nothing get under mine. As I've often thought, perhaps I was just born in the wrong century.

Gacy's Brain

I saw a fascinating show on television the other day that recounted the crimes of John Wayne Gacy, the mass murderer who dressed up as a clown and inspired Stephen King to create the horrific Pennywise in the novel It. Towards the end of the show, however, it became obvious that modern man with his tools of science has forgotten the basic nature of good and evil.

Specifically, Gacy's brain was removed following his execution in order to find what was "wrong" with it. Expressing shock and dismay, the person who conducted the analysis said she had found nothing unusual whatsoever. From my perspective, pardon the pun, this is a no-brainer. Evil is not a defect or an anomaly -- it is embedded in us all as part of our nature. What is truly rare is the ability to resist and overcome evil, which requires a level of self-honesty that few people have the strength to engage in. Though not everyone goes as far as Gacy in evildoing, this is a difference of degree rather than of kind; every day, people do things they know to be wrong and seek to bury them from view, just as Gacy buried his victims by the garage. When confronted with what they have done, people will deny it, rationalize it, or even blame the victim. What matters most is protecting one's self-image, as evil has its roots in self-love.

In point of fact, the effort to identify what makes someone like Gacy evil is itself an ego defense. It is far easier to condemn others than to take a serious look at yourself, plus it makes you feel moral to join a chorus labeling a particular villain as the embodiment of evil. This is the lesson of tragic heroes such as Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, Grendel, or even the Wicked Witch of the West -- they are condemned not merely for their own sins, but for the sins of humanity, who cry for blood in a desperate attempt to project their own evil onto the villain and dispose of it with his or her death. To paraphrase the great Al Pacino in Scarface: "You need people like me, so you can point your [expletive] fingers and say, 'there's the bad guy.' What does that make you, good? No. You just know how to hide. Me, I don't have that problem."

Slut Pride

That's what the protest sign reads in this article about the widespread backlash against a cop who remarked that women should stop dressing like sluts if they truly wish to avoid sexual predators. I can't help but notice the large number of men in the photo, one of whom is holding the "slut pride" sign. Do he and his buddies truly share slut pride, or do they more likely hope to take advantage of it?

Birth Certificate A Tempest In A Teapot

I'm all for the rule of law, so I understand the fervor of so many people to verify whether Obama is a "natural born citizen" as required by the Constitution for someone to be eligible for president. The recent release of Obama's long-form certificate may or may not resolve the controversy. For one, it is now confirmed that Obama's father was a citizen of Kenya, which may mean that Obama is not a natural born citizen as a matter of law regardless of where he was born. Another hurdle -- one that I'm sure the administration privately enjoys -- is that doubts surround the authenticity of the long form itself. If that particular argument has legs, the administration can claim that it was right all along and that nothing will appease the "extremists."

But allow me to ask of what significance is a possibly illegitimate president when we are saddled with a certainly illegitimate federal government? Could the "birthers" truly sleep like babies at night knowing that a natural born citizen signed scads of unconstitutional bills into law during his tenure? Or knowing that a natural born citizen unilaterally ordered yet another act of war without procuring a declaration of same from Congress? Or knowing that a natural born citizen unilaterally enacted untold number of regulations carrying the force of law without any legislative debate? Or seeing this natural born citizen appoint more federal judges and Supreme Court justices who voice open hostility to their appointed task of enforcing the Constitution rather than altering it?

The fixation on the birth certificate is as ludicrous as a fixation on personal hygiene in prison -- it is the systematic rape and murder that should hold our attention in both instances.