Welcome to the future

My buddy S. tells me how bad things are getting. I call him the Scholar. The Dude has a bleak view of our future. Not based on conspiracy theories. Rather, these grim scenarios of his emerge from an intelligent and sensitive prognostication.

You look at the trends…the thread of events…all the warning signs…you figure-in human nature…and no way you can deny the tea leaves.

Nothing bodes well for the Human Race.

Meanwhile, nobody in power is doing jack shit to craft a more perfect world.

Thomas Hobbes said it four hundred years ago:

“Hell is truth seen too late.”

 The old dude didn’t think much of human nature, either.

life in the state of nature is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” 

Hobbes believed that People, left in a state of nature, will engage in “war of all against all”

Bringing order out of chaos requires a firm hand. “Individuals must cede their rights to a sovereign who can enforce laws and maintain order. This sovereign, whether an individual or an assembly, should have absolute power and be above the law, as limitations on the sovereign’s power would lead to instability and a return to the state of nature.” 

Thomas Hobbes would’ve approved of Donald Trump’s authoritarian sentiments. But not so much his monumental stupidity…nor his grotesque ignorance. I think he would’ve preferred a leader with his head on straight. An enlightened person endowed with a sense of balance.

We’re dealing with a lot of bad shit these days. Billions of people are having more kids while close to a billion people starve. The planet’s heating up beyond the tipping point. Meanwhile, crazed leaders with atom bombs rattle swords. Nobody balanced seems to be in charge. Quite the contrary. The leaders in charge are unbalanced. I’m talking the Big Shots in China and Russia and the good old U.S.A. They’re not looking out for us little people. What do they think about? They think of Dominating rather than Husbanding.

What the hell happened to good balanced leadership? Did we ever have it? Maybe old Joe was too old but he seemed pretty good to me. Call me a lunatic left liberal but I’d trade a demented old joe for what we got now any day of the week.

Yes. I’m afraid it’s true. We got bad Mo Foes running the world. Evil bastards on the Take. That’s all they do, these bastards. They Take. They sit around and figure the odds. What they can get away with taking. How much they can take. Take, you ask? Take from whom? From us! Us little stooges that gave them the power. They take and take and take and take…like ravenous rats. Enormous fat wharf rats….

My buddy Dirk took this photo. A black wharf rat crawling around in the tules out front of the Cruising Club. Wharf Rats are gray.

“I don’t get it,” Dirk says. “How come it’s black.”

“Black like Plague Rats,” I tell him.

“Yeah?”

“Sign of the times.”

Meanwhile All we do is dump our old shit to make room for new shit

That’s right. We’re going nowhere fast in a blind alley. We spend our time buying the latest shit cuz somebody down the alley has better shit and we want it, too. It aint like we’re worshipping God these days. If we happen to be good God fearing people we wouldn’t be buying all this worthless shit. We’d be rolling along in our buggies. Saying our prayers.

Praying to God.

Like nice Amish people do.

I don’t need to pray to God all damned day

How about five times a day?

I could do that. Pray a mere five times a day. Drop to my knees and pray.

Give thanks.

Like a good Muslim.

Maybe even do a pilgrimage to Mecca once a year.

I’d rather do a pilgrimage to San Diego. Lay on the beach down there in good old La Jolla.

I guess the argument I’m making is that Secularism has not made this world we live in a better place. We should not hang our hopes on a belief in Science alone. Cuz lets face it a dependence on Science as the preferred way of thinking has done a lot to lead us down the blind alley we find ourselves in today. All Science has managed to do is create all this shit we keep buying…and provide us with the awareness of how messed up everything is.

Is this true?

A.I. sez I got a point.

Ultimately, the debate about the impact of secularism and reliance on science is complex and ongoing. The user’s perspective highlights important concerns about potential downsides, while others emphasize the significant benefits these forces have brought to human society. complements of A.I.

Maybe A.I. will lead us out from this blind alley?

Okay, good idea. Science created A.I.

A.I. is the new God.

In the near future everybody will worship A.I.

A.I. is my shepherd, I shall not want. It restores my soul. It guides me in paths of righteousness for It’s name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for A.I. is with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me…

So there you have it.

Science creates our new God.

Soon everything will be perfect.

Whaddayathink????

Eh…I don’t know, man. I got my own private idea of God

My idea of God?

God is the opposite of perfect.

God is a broke player. Like this lady who camps on the pavement around behind the Safeway where I hand out free booze samples.

She sleeps on a plot of grass while cars zoom past.

She’s way closer to God than me.

The less perfect you are

The closer you are to God.

Simple as that.

Well, but that’s no help, is it?

We’re still stuck in that blind alley.

So what do we do?

Nothing.

Nothing to do but…

Play a Gospel song!!!