Divorcing Truth and Bereaved Parents

I often wonder if a major piece in the lack of trust in institutions, candidates, or each other, we pretty much all now have,  doesn't go back to the rise of divorce. That was pretty much THE big sacred lifetime vow that most people made -- "till death do us part" before God, family and friends. Then it became common and socially acceptable to break it.

Nothing is that simple though. In making weekly trips to take my Dad to appointments or just visit since his prostate cancer diagnosis in January, it has occurred to me that the cultural shift that started with FDR, of the government being responsible for care of the aged, was a big enabler. Prior to that, in "good / lucky / typical" families, care of elderly parents was something that children did -- and it helped for both the parents and the children's marriages to be intact. Inheritance was also a factor -- "leaving something behind for your children" was considered honorable by nearly everyone ("honorable" actually used to be a word!).

"Freeing" everyone from their "family obligations" made "I'm spending my children's inheritance" sound like something one could be smug enough to put on a bumper sticker. So far, we haven't added "and spending 20% of my children's and grandchildren's income for FICA, Medicare, BOcare and Medicaid as well!!". It hasn't been added, but it is true. Many fathers also don't feel responsible to care for their children anymore either. The lefty way is that you are "responsible" ONLY to the government -- there are no other "obligations", it has all been outsourced!

Vocation, calling, responsibility, sacred duty, Gods Will, etc" become "hardships, burdens, toil, constraints, even enslavement ...". When life had a purpose beyond individual ease and happiness the world was a different place. As it is put in the old saw about Moses and FDR -- 5,000 years ago, Moses said, "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land." When Welfare was introduced, Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel, this IS the Promised Land."

As meanings become fluid and declared by the state or it's media, people who want to stay in the good graces of "The Party" and be seen as "intelligent, reasonable, "moral", etc" have to be able to change from one "factual statement" to it's opposite on a moments notice.

For example; how may "experts" told us that Ronald Reagan was CRAZY to believe that the USSR was EVER "going away"? Many ... hundreds, thousands even. When it DID go away, how many of those "wise men" lost face and realized that they ought not be making such pronouncements as such "certain truth"? Virtually none -- the "wise men" that are still living are STILL "wise", and the left is constantly working to re-write history to make Reagan  completely senile in his second term!

In a 2012 debate,  BO taunted Romney saying "the '80s wants it's foreign policy back" for thinking that Russia could be a major threat. BO is still "wise", Russia IS a threat, but BO is undiminished by his error. TP tells you what to think.

How many times in the 1970's did we hear that "We are out of oil, gas is ALWAYS going to go up in price, and anyone that says otherwise is an IDIOT"! Uncountable -- it was the "standard wisdom", more "settled" than Global Warming is today. Then we heard "It will NEVER go below $2 again" from the great and powerful BO himself, but it did. The people that claimed it would go below $2 were complete fools or liars, but when it DID got below $2, the "fools and liars" remained "fools and liars", and BO remained "honest and brilliant". For the believers in TP, the "important fact" never changed -- TP is STILL right!

The Democrats, media and even BO declared Iraq to be "lost", then BO declared it to be "won" before he lost it. The MOST critical thing about being on the side of  TP is that when you and their pronouncements are "proven wrong", they are STILL right! Past statements simply disappear and the new statements that contradict them -- sometimes multiple times, are now "truth". We live in an OZ where the man behind the curtain is exposed but 80% of the people still believe in the wizard of TP!

Which brings us to Trump -- doesn't it ALL come down to Trump these days?

How many pundits told us "Trump will NEVER be the Republican nominee"! Only he is. Now the SAME "experts" are telling us with the SAME confidence, "Hillary will win by a LANDSLIDE!". That may well be true -- TP is powerful. They own both the virtual and the dead vote, so if it is even close, we may have queen Hildebeast. But I do believe I detect a bit of nervousness on the part of the TP faithful. If we are to lack confidence in Trump because "he isn't reliable", how are we to have confidence in the many "wise men" that are certainly not reliable?

For this world, the most adaptive part of religious belief is that believers have a core transcendent belief that is NOT OF THIS WORLD. "God is good, ALL the time"! That is a FAITH statement, and people WILL live by faith, sometimes in the face of horrible diseases, economic collapses, war, or even having a fight with their spouse and not getting divorced. The strength and weakness of transcendent truths is that they are "true by definition", they can't be "proven false" ... nor true in a "scientific" way. (of course NOTHING can ... scientific "truth" is always provisional on the next experiment.

TP on the other hand claims to be "better" because it's wisdom IS of this world and CAN be shown to be both true and false! However, when it is proven false, that is to be ignored and the NEW "truth" is to be taken as "truth" -- and NOT questioned!

 Eternity provides perspective -- but a little earthy perspective is OK as well.

It appears that there are about 80 million children < age 20 in the US. From age 5-14, 13 per 100K die each year. From age 15-19, 50 per 100K die each year. If we just pick "40" per 100K, that is 40 x 10 per million = 400, so 400 x 80 for the US, or 32,000 new bereaved parents EACH YEAR. Every 10 years, that is 320,000 bereaved parents!

How much do we care about them compared to say "transgenders"? Of maybe the 10 or so blacks killed by police in any sort of "questionable circumstance" each year? Or how important do we think TP being "always right" is to those parents? Is TP REALLY the "ultimate issue"? Do we ever consider their feelings say as much as "Caitlyn Jenner"? No, pretty much, we "think and feel" (to the extent we still know what that is) pretty much as we are told by TP on a day to day hourly basis as long as nothing like personal death, disease, etc collapses the TP view-screen. Even those of us that fight TP can no more escape from it's effects than we can from breathing.

We have largely destroyed the perspective of the eternal, the family, the community, the historical and even the very simplest things like our gender. Most have lost ALL perspective other than the false perspective of TP.

But now, there arises Trump, who challenges the "truth" of TP, and is even willing to challenge the whole concept of "truth" in the same way as TP has done increasingly for years. He says exactly what he wants to say and changes his position at the drop of a hat -- just like TP and the TP candidates. In method, presentation, arrogance, showmanship, derision of his opposition, etc -- in pretty much ALL ways, Trump **IS TP**!!! When there is no truth and no values, ALL that matters is "perception and POWER". TP has made that clear, and the vast majority have no perspective at all to make sense of "what is trump" (in the card sense).

What is truth? Trump or TP? In a world with no truth, does it matter?