Evil: the same old thing.
No matter what happens, keep this in mind: It’s the same old thing, from one end of the world to the other. It fills the history books, ancient and modern, and the cities, and the houses too. Nothing new at all. Familiar, transient.
Meditations 6:1
Reading that spawned the melody of Vampires in my head. Ironic that the song was written by a pair of musicians who live in the epicenter of Vampire Country. They probably are not aware of the bigger picture: they have distinct and pronounced left-leaning political views and appear not to understand that their favorites, too, are vampires and not saints.
And that spawned the familiar angry frustration about all things political — local, state, and Federal. They’re all vampires, regardless of party label. They’re vampires, from lowly noob bureaucrat to Secretary of the Whatever.
I need respite from that thinking. It’s filled with lies and self-righteousness. Those thoughts harm me. Even if I am correct.
Is the newly-elected City Councilwoman a vampire? Unlikely. Our Congressional representative? Perhaps. Our Senators? They have demonstrated vampire-like attributes, with the personal power and personal wealth acquired during government service to prove it.
So it’s comforting to read Marcus Aurelius. Politicians have always been thus. Evil is transient. That’s comforting, too.
Marcus Aurelius didn’t even have a choice: as emperor, he lived at the epicenter of his time’s vampire lair. He knew a thing or two about corrupt, inept, power-hungry Senators.
What is my duty to my community and my country? What to do?
First: extreme ownership, to use the Jocko phrase. Rugged individualism, rigorous character, whatever you want to call it. Be a strong man. Strong in principles, character, and action. A simple, forthright man, to quote my own “about” page.
Be so across the board. No “ends justifies the means” because this an excuse to justify actions after the fact. By selecting a goal, a result, I pre-filter the actions that are to be taken. Actions must always, regardless of noble intent or result, be principled.
And principles are simple, obvious, ancient, and few. Just has evil has always been this, so too has virtue.
Virtue in all actions. I will never eliminate evil. But I can shine sunlight on vampires by living a virtuous life.
I’m mostly writing this for me. I’m deeply conflicted. Consensus public opinion seems to be wrong-direction: passive, submissive, asking for handouts and comfort rather than taking individual responsibility.
On my worst days my attitude is “You are entitled to your own opinions and are entitled to reap the rewards of them, even to your death.” That, I know, is true. Each man pays for his life up front through his thoughts and actions, and later reaps the harvest from the seeds he planted —a good life or sad. Sometimes the reward comes quickly, sometimes slowly. But it always comes.
Yet I know I can’t change the world. Or even one person in it. I have watched family members die because of their choices. It looks like another one, who has tasted freedom, has chosen against it. He will probably be dead, sooner rather than later. He has chosen the bitter harvest.
Powerless.
It’s all I can do to keep myself on the path.
Powerless.
No resolution here. Just confusion.