House of Eratosthenes

How’s that for an inflammatory headline? I can hear it now, “ZOMG! And this guy’s married?? His poor wife, she has a husband who thinks marriage is a burden!” Well, I was going to go even further and say “On Enlistment, Citizenship, Marriage and Other Pains-in-the-Ass,” but that looks wrong. Looks like it should be “pain-in-the-asses.” Let’s settle the tiny things first, irrelevant though they may be: “Pains-in-the-ass” is more correct. But I rejected both of those, not just one. It’s a writing thing. If the reader is distracted, the damage is already done.

So these are to be described as burdens. Although yes, they are pains-in-the-ass too.

Proceeding to the things that actually matter: You’ll notice I never said, “don’t enlist,” “don’t get married” or “don’t become a citizen.” There are quite a few people running around out there, not the quiet type by any means, who will lunge toward the idea that this is my point. And in truth, they are the point. They illustrate the damage. A burden means a heavy load. Our society has become infantilized, because we’ve got this idea meandering throughout that “this is heavy” is somehow equivalent to “don’t lift it.” Wasn’t so long ago, before our pasta got overcooked and the crisp became formless and soggy, that “this is heavy” meant — was axiomatically presumed to mean — “every pound I carry is a pound someone else is spared.” Isn’t that refreshing?

Pain in the Ass Notice the quaint idea: Someone has to do this. What primitives we had back then! Where did they get such an idea? As is often the case, the simplest answer is the correct one: This used to make sense. Enlisting in the armed forces to fight Hitler and the Axis Powers, you see, was not a “lifestyle choice.” It was something that simply had to be done.

Remember that? Remember things that had to be done?

The cogs in my noggin finally got enmeshed when I was reading Ann Coulter’s comments about citizenship, the Fourteenth Amendment, how Justice William Brennan’s “crayon scratchings on the Constitution” perverted the whole idea, and Fox News’ many mistakes about it. Although that, by itself, didn’t get the job done. I work in a military environment, although I’m not military myself, and some of the uniformed guys & us soft-bellied contractors were having a bit of a discussion about the Ashley Madison thing. There were anecdotes. Heartbreaking ones, like about some guy taking a whole day or more to hop from plane to plane to get back to his own house, to find some guy living in it.

Suddenly, it’s sort of hit me sudden-like, like a bag of fishing lures swinging by the natural centrifugal force, into the right temple: The burden is gone, and from everything. This is not a good thing. All of our positions of responsibility, have morphed into privilege. No — not just privilege. Status.

Becoming a wife doesn’t mean “When he signs stuff, that becomes my headache” or “I’m never going to sleep with anybody else for the rest of my life.” It means you get to, like some little kid playing a game, wear certain things. Citizenship, likewise, doesn’t mean duty. It means you’re entitled to some stuff. Back when the Fourteenth Amendment was written, that was something of an afterthought. It doesn’t seem so now, when you read what they were writing back then, because they were obsessed with slavery. But not the same way we are now. They had reason to be obsessed with it: Just a handful of years, or months, or weeks previous, slavery was a thing. That is not true of us. Our situation is that we’re punch-drunk on “I get to do this and no one can stop me,” and we are distant strangers to the concept of “I must do this” or “I cannot do that.” We’re heap-big on entitlement, not so good on responsibility.

People did not think, just decades ago, about pains-in-the-ass, even though ass-pain was a situation that literally surrounded them. In fact, relatively speaking, we today don’t know anything about it. But it just wasn’t on their minds. They thought about contributing. We think about enjoying. That’s what I mean by the word “infantilized,” it is exactly what has happened. And I cannot go on record as stating a belief that destroying a civilization was the primary intent. But I can say, if I were ever somehow tasked to accomplish such a thing, this would be one of my preferred methods, on a short list, if not the single most-favored method. To destroy a society utterly, infantilize its populace; get that one thing done, on a cultural level, the rest is just a matter of time. And not too much time.

Pasta that has been cooked? I approve of the analogy more and more, every time I think on it. It’s perfect. The ingredients have not changed, even in the slightest, all that is different is the heat, humidity and pressure. And the resulting form is entirely different. A cooked noodle cannot break, but it cannot push, cannot impose any sort of will or force on anything; other than being consumed, it is entirely useless. And that is what we have become. For the time being.

Once upon a time, a few months ago, I defined conservatism in this way:

What exactly does conservatism seek to conserve? Civilization, the blessings that come from having it, and the definitions that make civilization possible. From what does liberalism seek to liberate us? Those things — starting with the definitions.

And this is as good an example as any other. “Civilization” can withstand a lot of things. But it cannot withstand a populace that has failed, en masse, to reach maturity; an entire generation sitting on its laurels, like second-graders sitting “Indian style” in a huge auditorium (can I still say that?), waiting for something to gratify them, with their heads crammed full of expectation for entertainment, all notions of responsibility or duty crowded out of the limited space in the cranium.

One of our nation’s prior presidents had this to say about it:

[A]sk not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

Immediate gratification versus delayed gratification. Your problem is in there, somewhere. Everything — everything — that used to entail some acceptance of new responsibility…marriage, job promotion, citizenship, election, appointment…nowadays, you see, has a lot more to do with “get to.” I get to do this. I get to park in this spot. I get to wear a tiara. All privilege, no burden. You’ll notice most of the problems we have today that we find truly vexing, can be traced back to that. They are not unsolvable. We can depart from the juvenile mindset any time we put our minds to it, as long as we’re sincere about it. Anytime we’re ready to act and think like adults, the nightmare is over.

Update: To be filed under “How To Say the Same Thing, in a Lot Fewer Words.” It’s like this:

Modify this one slightly to: “Every position of responsibility, including marriage, elected office, being the parent of a ‘learning-disabled’ child, and all the rest of it, involves a pain-in-the-ass. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s ~~probably~~ almost certainly you.”

sitting “Indian style” in a huge auditorium (can I still say that?)

Yes. Yes you can. You just have to, like a piece of uncooked spaghetti, stand up and say it unapologetically.
- philmon | 08/21/2015 @ 07:02
Well, then there’s the un-married partnership, the un-elected/ un appointed “office”, , and he “challenged”
adult family.
I claim learning disability, “free” school got in the way of ACTUALLY free learning, That “no credentials” kind that gets you stuck with the dreaded “Go- to guy” mantle. Rather than pain in the ass, I call it “Needs doin’, no one else will do it, so….get ‘er done.”
It USED to be a good enough justification for drinking, drugs, etc., until of course, it became apparent that quitting just “needed doin’ “.
Now THAT was a pain in the ass, but…you know…*exhale*”OK, .Let’s Roll!”
- CaptDMO | 08/21/2015 @ 19:48
The synopsis here is instructive on why we have a political party that has made its hay in promoting irresponsibility then offering the “antidote” to the natural consequences poor choices. That party has been successful because they are pulling things “down” with the assistance of gravity. Human nature finds the lowest functional level when it is shielded from consequences. Let’s face it. Down is just easier.

In the case of the Democratic Party they have promoted bad behavior and when the consequences came they have said, “Awe, poor thing, here’s a check to help you get by.” When those who understand and deal with the PIA’s of life say anything that sounds judgmental about the poor choices we’re scolded by, “You’re a heartless b*****d. Can’t you see they are suffering?” (I’m reminded of Inspector Clouseau’s idiocy, “Stop brow beating her. Can’t you see she’s sexy!!??”)

And as a wise blogger once said, “Doesn’t matter how you live you’re life, the checks just keep coming.”

The Democrats are brokers of bad behavior. “Follow your heart,” they say. “We’ll send the bill to the heartless b*****ds who don’t want you to have any fun. Just make sure we stay in charge…”

So to all who would live without responsibility, socialism is the best answer for you. You will and have fared better than you would sailing under your own power. And when the whole house comes down, because you can only pass on the costs of bad choices until the money runs out, you will find some other bad guy to blame because you know, it’s not your fault. It CAN’T be the fault of the politicians you elected that kept you from making responsible choices so who’s fault could it be? It must be the heartless b*****ds who won’t pay (in reality can’t pay) for your poor choices any more. Those filthy rich b*****ds have plenty of money they are sitting on.

Welcome to Greece.
- Whitehawk | 08/22/2015 @ 10:17
The minimum wage issue also applies: “I want more money for doing no more work. I want the same pay to do something requiring fewer skills and entailing less responsibility. I don’t want the burden of working hard to advance to a better place.” The demise of society is sure to follow
- IcelandSpar | 08/23/2015 @ 07:23

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

On Enlistment, Citizenship, Marriage and Other BurdensThursday, August 20th, 2015

On Enlistment, Citizenship, Marriage and Other Burdens
Thursday, August 20th, 2015