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The New Counterculture

It’s no secret that our world has changed dramatically in just a few short years. But these changes have been accelerating for a while now. I was born in 1996; this is most often considered the last year of Millennials although I have occasionally seen it placed as the first year of Gen Z. Whatever the case, this is the time period that grew up alongside these dramatic changes. I’ve never seen an airport without TSA but one of my earliest memories is 9/11. I didn’t have a cell phone until high school but it WAS a smartphone.

Technology has changed so rapidly, even in just the last 20 years, and it’s had such a profound effect on us, it’s no wonder our culture has changed dramatically too.

So many of the things we would consider counter-cultural are now the norm. What once would’ve marked you as an outcast or a rebel is now commonplace. Even being a rebel itself is considered a good thing. But in a world of rebels, are you actually a rebel? Or just doing what everyone else is doing?

What would counterculture really look like today and going forward? Does it still look like the hippies? Or like punk-rockers?

Culture Shifts Visible and Invisible

Let’s start with something that’s exceptionally common today, but was quite rare just a few decades ago: tattoos.

Mind you, I don’t particularly care if you have a tattoo yourself and will not judge you from the tattoos alone (Ideally, I’d never do it at all). But given their highly visible nature, I mean to use it as an example of a change in culture.

In 2006, 36% of 18-25 year olds reported having at least one tattoo. This is no majority, but it’s not exactly a small percentage either. And this was in 2006, I suspect that percentage has only gone up. I recall a conversation with my grandmother, “When I was a kid, you almost never saw someone with a tattoo; and when you did it was usually a very strange person.”

Tattoos are obviously very individual and each person likely has some kind of story behind each of their tattoos. Even if the story is just, “I like it.” But then, someone might also ask me why I’m wearing this piece of jewelry or what is printed on my shirt, or maybe why I’m not wearing any jewelry and have a plain t-shirt.

Because the tattoos are very individual and permanent (excepting the use of lasers to remove them), I find them to be a marker of a high interest in individuality. Rather than fitting in with a group, it displays a desire to stand out.

This is in keeping with common maxims or virtues of the day such as, “finding yourself,” or, “living your truth.” Such sayings are the less visible, but perhaps more impactful, mindsets that the rise of tattoo popularity represents. And they aren’t bad in themselves, but they do further display the current culture and its contrast to the, “new counterculture,” I’m getting at.

Marriage rates are also consistently down year over year. Having been 8.2 per 1000 total population in 2000, and 6.1 per 1000 in 2019 (It dropped all the way to 5.1 in 2020. Hopefully that was a result of people delaying weddings until the following year and therefore went up in 2021). Divorce rates are also down so that’s good… But this drop was from 48% in 2000 to 44% in 2019 and if marriage rates have also gone down, this is small comfort. After all, you can’t get divorced if you don’t get married. Compare it to Great Depression era marriage rates at 7.9 per 1000 in 1932. And a divorce rate of only 1.3 per 1000, or 16 percent.

Birth rates have also steadily gone down. The general fertility rate (that is, live births among women 15-44) actually went up one percent in 2021, the first increase since 2014. But if you go down ten percent, and then up one, you’re still down nine percent.

And speaking of birth rates, 1 in 4 children in the U.S. do not have a father, either biological, step, or adoptive. We have the highest single-parent household rate in the world.

Why Does This Matter?

“But Collin, why have you thrown out all these statistics? How is this relevant to your topic?” I hear you say. Well, my astute and inquisitive reader, now comes the fun part, where I start injecting my thoughts and perceptions, instead of just regurgitating cold data.

All of the above data was put there to show in numbers what we see with our eyes. Most people have a very individualist, dare I say, solipsistic, mind frame today. One often summed up when one utters the platitude, “Drop anything that doesn’t serve you.”

The marriage rate is lower in 2019 than it was in the Great Depression, one of the worst economic periods in American history. And it wasn’t even that long ago. That would’ve been my great-grandparents but for any elderly folk reading, that would’ve been your parents. This means that, despite it’s many faults, people were choosing to get married less often, and divorced more often, in the general prosperity of 2019 than in the poverty stricken uncertainty of the 1930s.

Many young people claim they never want children, or at least greatly prolong having them, in favor of financial and personal gain. This, combined with lack of marriages, is setting up for a very lonely generation.

Many want to be strong and independent, but to be strong and independent, is also to be alone.

The New Counterculture

Fortunately, the new counterculture is actually still fairly common, but I predict that it will wane ever more quickly over this decade and coming decades.

This emerging counterculture is an antidote to the supreme emptiness and loneliness that is a result of our modern, isolated lifestyles.

And that means that it looks more wholesome than what we’d typically consider counter-cultural. More and more it seems the people who will go against the grain are the Hobbits. The little folk who love their homes, live simply, and follow closely their customs.

These are the people who get married, despite economic strife or their own desires, have children, despite economic strife and their own desires, and love their neighbors, despite economic strife and their own desires. In fact, spouses, children, and loving their neighbors ARE their desires. So when I say, “despite their own desires,” I mean only the selfish things that come from the dark parts of ourselves. It is virtuous to deny these things.

They do not live for themselves but for each other and do their best to hand that down to the children they so lovingly raise.

This lifestyle is going to be especially important, I find, for the young people.

Here’s one more point of data for you: Gen Z, the current teens and young adults, are reported as the most lonely in history. 56% reporting having felt lonely at least once or twice a month during childhood. This compared to dramatically lower reported rates from baby boomers.

Do you suppose that goes away when they get older? Unfortunately, many people, young or old, have become detached from the real world. The kids may have returned to in-person classes since 2020 but this may be the only human interaction they have at all. Going home to interface with their friends, or unknown avatars, on the internet. For some, scrolling and posting on TikTok for a few likes is their only outlet. For some, not even a regular family at home means they’re not lonely. For some, it never stops and the internet is making it worse; possibly even causing it.

Being in the new counterculture, they will have to interact with other people face-to-face and it’ll be far more satisfying than interacting with their phone could ever be.

The teens will have to interact with other young adults 3, 5, even 10 years their senior. And this will have a very positive effect on them. There is a big difference between a 16 year old and a 26 year old and much happens and changes for a person between those ages, but this is not so big a difference that it feels like they grew up in a different world; as is the case when teens interact with their parents or parent’s friends.

This is absolutely crucial, this will give them friends (insofar as a 16 year old can be friends with a 19, 21, or 26 year old), and perhaps more importantly, role models that aren’t so far from their age and that aren’t social media, “influencers.” As we all know, celebrities no matter the age, are very rarely good role models. But someone who is part of their community, has a personal relationship with them, and who more or less has their head on straight, can be.

If you want to find the new counterculture, it won’t be in your face like countercultures of the past, you’ll have to seek out, and earnestly and compassionately join, a more traditional community. But be careful, if you do that, then you’ll be part of the new counterculture.

There’s still room for individuality, it’s not a hive mind, and this individuality makes the community even stronger. You can be strong and be yourself, but you will be intertwined with a community that, in part, relies on you. So you will have to use your strengths in service of the community and you will also have to change yourself in order to fit in well enough to be a part of it. Strong, but not entirely independent. And thank God for that.

The new and upcoming counterculture is far more human than our digitized world. Instead of throwing daggers at each other online, or blocking someone and effectively ending that person’s existence to us, we’ll have to work out those differences. Because even though John Doe is kind of obnoxious and Mrs. Smith won’t quit the pointless and erroneous gossip, we’re still part of the same community and so must learn to love and forgive each other. And when disaster strikes a family, and the best, and maybe only, option is divorce, there is a support system that can come together to help the grieved parties and especially the children that so often get caught in the crossfire.

It is a very strange and upside-down world we live in that I call families and close communities the counterculture, but it’s the one we increasingly find ourselves in nonetheless.

This new counterculture is one where people live simply, fall in love, start families, and are kind and forgiving to one another. Something this world could use more of.

But don’t despair. After all, it wasn’t the wise and immortal elves, who live far detached from the world, or even the bold Numenoreans who, for all their virtue, couldn’t resist the temptation of power, or else the vice grip of apathy. No, it was the little Hobbits, who almost no one outside their borders had ever heard of, who destroyed the ring.

Until next time, God be with you.

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Santa Claus Actually DOES Exist

Santa Claus in His Natural State

My last post told the story of Saint Nicholas on which Santa Claus is largely based, now let’s dive into how I have come to once again believe Santa is real:

Santa is only a few days away from his famous night ride but unfortunately, most adults these days don’t think he exists.

Now many of us think this because someone told us he’s not real at some point in our childhood. Whether it was a mischievous classmate who ruined the secret or a parent who also doesn’t know, most of us believe that because reindeer cannot fly and a jolly fat man would never fit down a chimney, that he does not exist.

But Santa Claus is real nonetheless. And I hope that when I am done here, you will understand how it’s possible that those dastardly classmates and silly parents are wrong.

As I hinted earlier a lot of the idea that Santa Claus doesn’t exist is rooted in the idea that only material objects exist. This is a grave error of the modern world and one that falls apart upon inspection.

Nearly everyone would agree that things like love or sadness exist. But you cannot physically hold or look at love or sadness themselves. A father teaching his son to fish is an act of love but it is not love itself. And when your favorite shirt gets a hole in it, that is sad, but it is not sadness itself. These concepts cannot be contained in a single body or container but we all know they are real. So now we have established that there are things that are real but are not concrete.

Yet we mostly think that, because no physical man in a sleigh lands on our roofs at night, he does not exist.

Santa is everywhere during the Christmas season. People dress up like him, talk about him, write songs about him, and make movies about him. So obviously he does exist and he plays out in the real world.

In this way, Santa is something like a spirit. It is in the spirit of Santa Claus that you give gifts to people on Christmas.

In our modern world we want a clear answer so it’s no wonder we say he doesn’t exist; there is no singular person we can meet that we can say is Santa. If you were to meet me you would easily be able to identify that this in front of you is Collin. Santa is harder to contain because he does not have a physical body but he is still a real being who acts in the world.

If we have no issue saying that immaterial things like love exist, then maybe we can consider that other immaterial things and beings like Santa exist too.

Thank you for reading.

Merry Christmas.

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Saint Nicholas and the Three Daughters

Saint Nicholas sneaks Dowries to the poor family

Ah Christmas, a time of celebration. Christ is Born! Glory to Him.

This is also a time of gift giving and tolerating relatives. But just what is the story behind jolly old Saint Nick? Why would a fat man come down a chimney and put gifts in stockings?

Well, Sinterklaas, commonly known as Santa Claus, is a Dutch legend which is based on one of the deeds of Saint Nicholas of Myra, the 4th century saint and bishop of Myra; a city in what is now Turkey.

I thought I would share the story which formed the basis for Santa Claus to get us into the Christmas spirit and maybe gain a better understanding of our history and traditions.

There are many different versions of this story so I will tell the one that I liked the most. But then, I compiled this story with elements from a few different versions so perhaps this is a different version entirely. Fortunately, all versions are more alike than they are different.

Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas and the Three Daughters

In the town of Myra, there lived a poor man who had three beautiful daughters. He could not afford a dowry and he soon would not be able to afford food or clothing. The man knew that he would have to turn his daughters into prostitutes so they could eat.

Now Saint Nicholas of Myra, who was the bishop that city, heard of this family’s despair and the evil plan that came from it and he decided to help them.

Saint Nicholas did not want to receive praise for the charity, so he waited until late at night when everyone was asleep. Then, he walked by the poor man’s window and threw in a bag of gold for the first daughter.

In the morning, the poor man found the gold and thought, surely, this was a gift from God.

The next night, Saint Nicholas walked by and threw in a bag of gold for the second daughter.

The third night, the man decided to stay up and try to find out who this secret benefactor was.

But Saint Nicholas was clever, and he had guessed that the man would try to catch him at the window on the third night.

So instead he snuck up onto the roof and dropped a third bag of gold down the chimney. The third daughter had washed her stockings that day and hung them over the embers to dry and it was in those stockings that the bag fell.

In the morning, she discovered the gold and told her father. With these three bags of gold, the father was able to offer dowries to good families for all three daughters. They praised God; He had delivered them from falling into spiritual destruction.

And Saint Nicholas always strove to keep his charity and good deeds secret.

And that is the story of Saint Nicholas and the Three Daughters. If you know a different version that you prefer then so be it. This is of course only his most famous deed among many but hopefully now you have a better understanding of who Saint Nicholas is and where this story comes from.

Thank you for reading and Merry Christmas.

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The Solution to “Toxic Masculinity”

The term, “Toxic Masculinity,” has been quite the buzzword in the last few years and I must say its usage is disappointing. Not the term itself, I find it could be very useful to describe the behaviors that men would do much better without. Instead I find it’s often used as a cudgel against all men and masculine behaviors.

But I find it unproductive to give attention to temper tantrums and I am also sorry for those people who have been so mistreated by a man or multiple men in their lives that they are angry in that way.

So instead I will try to make a productive argument and deal with the definition that basically means, those masculine behaviors that have gone awry.

So what is it when masculinity is being, “toxic?”

Certainly one image that comes to mind is that of a tyrant. Or, someone trying to exert too much control over their environment. Another common example that gets brought up is when it’s said that men can’t cry or show emotion. And finally, the term is also brought up when referring to a man who tricks a woman to satisfy his own selfish desires.

When we think of tyrants of history they are often shown as being too controlling. We can also think of a controlling husband or father as a tyrant.

But do we think of all people in leadership roles as tyrants? Or think of all husbands and fathers as tyrants and controllers? Of course not.

So instead the solution to a tyrant is a more positive role model. For example, when the Allies fought against the tyranny of the Axis powers in World War Two, was it not a positive model of masculinity they were tapping into? So the same masculine fighting spirit that tyrannizes and conquers is that which liberates. Indeed, most people intuitively know that a good leader is the response to a bad one; not removing leaders altogether.

As to the point about men not crying or showing emotion, I believe this is among the lesser, more ignorant arguments that I have heard.

I suppose it’s possible that there are some men that take this too far and actually do insist that men can never cry or show emotion but I have yet to meet any of these men. Instead I find this point to be somewhat of a straw man argument or at least a misunderstanding of male behavior.

Men often encourage other men to control their emotions as a way to encourage strength and stoic behaviors. These are very useful things, particularly when doing the things that men used to be required to do.

Again I use the example of World War Two. If, at the beaches of Normandy, the men broke down and cried when the person next to them was shot instead of continuing to charge up the beach, would the Allies have won the battle?

This isn’t to say that I’m unsympathetic to the stresses of war, but there’s no arguing that it would be better if that soldier can instead control himself and deal with his emotions at a later time; preferably when he and his comrades are not being shot at.

I bring up these things because I’m not convinced that the second point was ever quite as bad as we’re being told.

Winston Churchill freely admitted that he was a crybaby, and we regard him as a hero of the war effort and in that sense we could also look at him as a good example of positive masculinity.

It is also recorded that Jesus Christ wept on multiple occasions and he is worshiped as God by over a billion people around the world. I don’t think there is a better role model than God.

As for the third point, that about men deceiving women to satisfy their own base, selfish desires, this is a part where I must discuss philosophy and morality more explicitly than I have for the others.

The aspects of masculinity are traditionally things like honor, duty, protection, and the like. They are often summed up as chivalry.

Of course this is not to say that a woman cannot be honorable, dutiful, or protective. These things are not so simple as black and white. Men are not purely masculine and women are not purely feminine. On the contrary, mothers are some of the most honorable, dutiful, and protective people on earth. So when I talk about these things being what we think of as masculine domains do not think that it is at the expense of women and femininity; I find the battle of the sexes to be a zero sum game.

So these things are considered by almost everyone to be good. And so we should encourage men to be those things and I believe it is generally our modern age that does not teach them those things.

If a man’s country is invaded, is it not his duty to pick up a rifle and head to the front? And is it not a father’s duty to raise sons who will eagerly do so?

I find those statements to be rather obvious but some of you may be surprised by them. After all, it’s not every day you hear someone saying it is a man’s duty to defend his country. But it is true that all men ages 18-26 are required to be on the draft lists and I don’t think many of you have thought about abolishing the draft or would really want to do so if asked.

So it would seem that a majority of our society still believes a man should defend what’s behind him even if some of them would be much happier to let someone else die while they watch TV and masturbate until the enemy kicks their door, and then their head in.

I say such outrageous things as what I just wrote above because with the modern age, we were promised freedom (from responsibility) and comfort but instead we got pornography and nihilism. And although they’re propped up as freedom and comfort, they actually lead to being enslaved by our vices.

Our lives are more comfortable than they’ve ever been, but is comfort always a good thing?

There are people who openly admit they reject any sense of duty; you may know a few yourself. It seems to be a very naive stance. If you’re reading this you probably live in a strong, safe country so you probably can stay at home and be a selfish wretch but if everyone thinks like that, you won’t be in a strong, safe country anymore. Apathy leads to death.

And such ease and safety and apathy have created men who have time to deceive women in such a way. In a society with a sense of duty and responsibility and with work to be done, surely such things must be less common.

And that is the final point of my solution to, “toxic masculinity.” Reject modernity, men. Embrace the roles that men inhabited for thousands of years.

I have focused on war and soldiers in this post but you don’t have to join the military to reject modernity.

Instead you should focus on those chivalrous male things like honor, duty, and service. Become a father (when you’re ready don’t just jump into it unprepared that would be a disaster), honor your father and mother, love your neighbor, do your duty to be a productive member of society.

And this responsibility is not only on men. I believe it is also the responsibility of women to encourage men to behave better. We are often told today that women are not responsible for men’s behavior, and I suppose this is true in a direct manner, but in an indirect way, women are responsible for it too.

Women should also reject modernity which says that any sort of promiscuous or selfish behavior is okay and sometimes even good. If this were really the case I suspect we wouldn’t hear so much about how ‘this man lied to me for sex’ or ‘that man led me on’ and how aggravating that is to the woman who was deceived.

Women, your behavior has a strong impact on us just as ours does on you. If you do not want to be tricked by devious men, then be on your guard against it. If you do not like his selfish and deceptive behavior, then do not encourage it by going along with it. Leave him behind and instead find someone who is willing to behave properly.

The solution to bad masculinity lies in old forms of good masculinity. We must reject the perpetual adolescence that we’ve been deceived into thinking is okay. Is it so strange that maybe our grandparents and our grandparent’s grandparents were actually right about how we should act? Embrace responsibility. True freedom is not found in lack of consequences for your actions. Freedom is found in disciplined choices.

As I said before, the battle of the sexes is a zero sum game. Men and women both must encourage good masculine behaviors and discourage bad ones.

So the solution to this problem is not to remove masculinity but to encourage a better form of it. It is not the man who would take you on in a fair fight that you have to worry about. It’s the rat-person who seems so harmless but will stab you in the back or jump you with ten of his wretched friends that you have to watch out for. Both are forms of aggression (another thing we usually ascribe to men), but one is much preferable than the other.

One we consider honorable under the right circumstances, one I just called a rat-person.

Thank you for reading.

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Why We Remember.

I’m sure you’re bombarded with posts about why exactly we have a long weekend for Memorial Day every year but bear with me, this won’t take long.

I wanted to quickly go over some of the major conflicts the U.S. has been engaged in, why they were fought, and how many lost their lives for the freedoms and privileges we take for granted in this country.

The American Revolution

Ah yes, the one that started it all. Most of us know generally what this was about. The American Colonies felt that King George was becoming increasingly tyrannical, enforcing new laws and taxes on the colonists without their consent. Eventually this led to a group of scrappy frontiersmen and colonists defeating the largest empire ever.

This one is particularly interesting to me because, not only is it America’s origin story, but also because of the underdog nature of it. I have no doubt that at least some of the weapons and supplies had to come from the colonists’ personal possessions. Certainly in the militia if not also in the regular army. It also speaks to the power of a home field advantage.

Wikipedia (yes I’m using Wikipedia bite me) states that 8,000 Americans died in combat with another 17,000 lost by other means. “Other” in their categorization as all non-combat deaths like disease, bombings, suicide, etc. We also suffered 25,000 wounded.

I recently found out that I have an ancestor that fought in the American Revolution and again in the War of 1812. Thank you modern technology. Maybe you have some ancestors like that; it might be high time you look into it!

The Civil War

This war is the second bloodiest behind World War II for the U.S. and remains one of the most significant events in U.S. history.

Again the cause of this war is fairly well known and is still sometimes used as a political weapon.

In this war the U.S. suffered 140,414 combat deaths, 224,097 “other” deaths, and 281,881 wounded. That makes it a grand total of 646,392 casualties for the U.S. Army.

Of course I make no defense of slavery (there is no good one I can think of) but the Confederates were at one time Americans and were again after the war. So in an attempt to love our enemy and to add to the scale of this war, the Confederates suffered 483,026 casualties including all combat deaths, “other” deaths, and wounded.

That brings the grand total to over 1,100,000; higher than the recorded number of WWII casualties. Making this not the second bloodiest, but the number one bloodiest war we’ve ever fought.

World War I

World War I is a war that has somewhat faded from memory despite being one of two world wars.

This somewhat makes sense because it lacks the crystal clear reasons that many of our other major wars had.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a member of the Austria-Hungary royal family and heir to the imperial throne, kicked off this war. What resulted was, to put it extremely generally, was a bunch of countries piling on and fighting together. The United States was one of these that joined the Allies (France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan) although we joined pretty late in the game in 1917.

We suffered 53,402 combat deaths, 63,114 “other” deaths, and 204,002 wounded. Which is exceptionally low compared to many of our allies in the conflict. France for example suffered over 1 million. Our comparatively low numbers is likely due to our limited involvement with the war.

Nonetheless, those American deaths shouldn’t be taken lightly.

World War II

It is strange to think that we were allied with Italy and Japan just two decades earlier in WWI and that we were allied with Russia for both world wars and shortly after got into a cold war that still affects our opinions and relations with Russia 30 years after the fall of the USSR.

In fact, some believe the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan was meant both to end the war with Japan and to act as a deterrent to the growing power of the communist Soviet Union.

In this war we suffered 291,557 combat deaths, 113,842 “other” deaths, and 670,846 wounded. Putting the total at 1,076,245 American casualties.

Vietnam War

I decided to include this war because although it might not be quite as significant as the other wars on this list, it certainly is among the more controversial and had a big effect on our culture.

In previous wars, soldiers often returned as heroes greeted by loved ones, with the Vietnam war, they were often considered villains and greeted by protestors.

This was also the last war that the draft was implemented in. So the Vietnam war was perhaps the end of the draft and the end of seeing soldiers as good.

The total casualties for this war numbered at 211,454.

Now certainly many of us still consider soldiers to be heroes so perhaps saying the Vietnam war marked the end of soldiers being considered good is an exaggeration. At the very least it raised those sentiments to a more public level.

Indeed perhaps we should not just throw a party or be thoughtless on our extra day off work but take a short moment to be somber and remember the millions of soldiers who laid down their lives for us to live in this country. Perhaps also take a moment to remember those scars we cannot see and from which veterans die of even after they’ve returned home.

We must remember the sacrifices made by better men than us to build and defend this country.

Thank you for reading.

God Bless America.

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WALL-E: the Necessity of Doing Something

It’s time to return to simpler times, a time we all remember fondly, a time of robots and spaceships and floating chairs.

This crazy time is the year 2008, when WALL-E came out.

For those who may need a quick refresher, WALL-E follows a robot of the same name, who has been cleaning up garbage on Earth for hundreds of years while all the humans are away in a spaceship. A probe robot name EVE comes to Earth in search of plant life and, having found some, returns to the ship where the humans are. WALL-E is whisked away with her and hilarity ensues.

She tries to present the plant she found to Captain, the aptly named captain of the ship (that’s his name in the credits) but the robotic autopilot has other designs. You see, the humans are on the spaceship because they ruined Earth’s ecosystem and they planned to leave for a while while an army of robots cleaned up the mess (thus the probes sent to discover if Earth is once again suitable for human life). But the mission was a failure and the man in charge on Earth told the ship’s autopilot to stay in space indefinitely. That order was given 700 years prior to the start of the movie.

Eventually, Captain decides to go back to Earth, things have changed in all that time and the plant recovered by EVE is proof of that. After defeating the autopilot he succeeds and the humans are able to go back to Earth.

And that is the very brief recap of WALL-E.

Eve Cheerfully Meets WALL-E for the First Time. Credit: Disney

As I sat reflecting on this movie I came to the conclusion that WALL-E is not the protagonist of the movie, at least not in the sense that he goes through some transformation or the Hero’s Journey.

Instead, the main character is humanity, or, more specifically, Captain.

There are of course climate implications and criticisms of throwaway consumerism, but that is not the purpose of this discussion. Instead, I want to discuss the change that Captain goes through, and reflect on what that can mean in our own lives.

The humans have been on standby for hundreds of years now, living in what’s basically a retirement community in space since they left Earth. They have grown highly overweight and never leave their floating chairs that will take them anywhere they want on the ship.

When the plant is discovered, Captain realizes it’s time go home. While Auto stands in his way, he says, “Out there is our home! Home, Auto! And it’s in trouble. I can’t just sit here and do nothing. That’s all I ever done. That’s all anyone in this blasted ship has ever done. Nothing!”

This line seems to me the most important line in the movie.

Captain is fed up with doing nothing, particularly when he discovers that there’s something else to do other than nothing.

He wants to take action, he feels that they need to. Instead of abandoning their home planet, they need to return and help it.

And Captain’s words are indicative of our human nature, our conscious.

We must do SOMETHING, or we’ll become like the humans in WALL-E before they discover another choice.

That is to say, ignorant, lazy, and easy to take advantage of. And quite possibly obese and unable to leave our floating chairs (bone mass shrinkage from space travel not included).

If we don’t do ANYTHING, it’s no wonder we can be taken advantage of. We don’t know any better, we never learned it in the first place.

Why wouldn’t a computer be able to keep us on a spaceship for 700 years if that’s all we’ve ever known?

Our nature is to do things. Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher, once wrote in his personal journals, “In the morning, when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into this world? Or have I been made for this, to lie under the blankets and keep myself warm?”

Captain and His Fellow Humans Return Home.

So, follow Captain’s example and do SOMETHING. It doesn’t even matter so much what it is. Just SOMETHING.

Don’t allow yourself to be too paralyzed over if what you’re doing is the right thing either. That can also lead to doing nothing. And it’s possible that you will never know if it’s the right thing until you’ve already started anyway. Luckily, you can adjust along the way.

Make a choice, take action. We are creatures of action, not leisure.

When they return to Earth, Captain tells the kids about food that they’ll grow in the ground and all sorts of things.

But take a look at the scenario from a distance. Do you suppose it would be easy for them to fix Earth in it’s current state?

Certainly not, but Captain is excited about it anyway.

That’s the meaning of life. Leaving behind his life of leisure and pleasure and entering a life of struggle, and therefore a life of meaning.

Perhaps we should do the same.

Thank you for reading.

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The True Meaning of Christmas

Firstly, Merry Christmas to one and all.

Secondly, I would like to examine two stories that we all know and love, and discuss what their purpose is beyond entertainment.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens; and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.

To explain what these stories want to teach us, perhaps we should look at what Christmas has become: a commercial holiday. After Thanksgiving, there is a mad dash to buy things. And at the end of it, we are all worn out and not very merry.

Perhaps, if there was not so much pressure on buying things, we would not find the holidays to be so stressful. We would not be so tired of Christmas before it arrives.

In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is guilty of allowing himself to be, well, a Scrooge, and ignoring the true meaning of Christmas. Ignoring the plight of less fortunate people and ignoring his family.

I find the Ghost of Christmas Present to be the most impactful of the three. The ghost uses his own words against him when Scrooge feels bad for people struggling. “Are there no poorhouses?”

Indeed, there are poorhouses and social programs. Indeed, Scrooge’s taxes do pay for them. And still, there are struggling people who government programs cannot or will not help. So perhaps something else is required. Christmas Present shows him the ignorance of his words.

Instead of Scrooge being mad that his taxes are not doing enough, perhaps he himself is not doing enough. Is he not of means? Can he not offer them alms or perhaps even a job, instead of hoping someone else will?

The same occurs when he witnesses the Cratchit’s Christmas dinner. The goose they eat is small. But it is all Bob Cratchit can afford on his wages. The wages that Scrooge is in charge of.

In the 2000 version of the Grinch’s story (the Jim Carrey one), the Grinch berates the people of Whoville for their commercialism. Proclaiming that all their gifts eventually go to him, on Mount Crumpit, in their garbage.

Why do the people of Whoville spend money and rush about to have the perfect gift if most of those gifts end up in the garbage?

The Grinch steals their Christmas. Or at least, he thought he did. But still it came. The people of Whoville gathered to sing even though they had no gifts and no roast beast.

The Grinch realizes that Christmas, “came without ribbons, it came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags.”

In his attempt to stop Christmas, the Grinch brought them a truer Christmas than before.

Take to heart the lessons of these stories, and consider how to apply them in your own life.

Perhaps you can give charity to those in need. Perhaps you can forgive someone who has wronged you. Or ask forgiveness for something you have done wrong. It is up to you.

Do not forget the Truth behind the tradition.

And remember, “Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Thank you for reading, Merry Christmas, and God bless us, every one.

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Why Everything Matters

A friend of mine recently expressed that Millennials and Gen Z have it hard because they have to try and plan the rest of their lives while simultaneously being aware that there is no future and it doesn’t matter.

The proposed lack of a future was because the world as we know it might end; that a supervolcano like Yellowstone might erupt and send us into a new ice age, or that our atmosphere will get so hot, life will be impossible. Or that there might be a nuclear war. Or that at best (or maybe worst), our economic opportunities will evaporate and we’ll be doomed to a life of debt-slavery and meaningless toil.

Unfortunately these are feelings we have all too often. And why we feel them today more than yesterday is probably a complex question to answer. My estimate is that it’s in no small part due to being able to compare ourselves to those who seem to have it better than we do at any time via the internet. And that media, politicians, and universities constantly tell us that the sky is falling. It could also simply be the struggle of coming into adult life that twenty-somethings are prone to.

But instead of complaining that the internet is a force for evil and that twenty-somethings need to grow up; I thought I would use the internet as a force for good, and explain why, in fact, there is a future, and that it does matter.

There are certain things we all agree are good. The life of a child, puppies, or even something as seemingly benign as a tree.

And there are certain things we all agree are bad. Apathy, suicide, or even something as seemingly benign as too much television.

Why is it that we can all agree on things that are good and bad? If nothing mattered, then there would be no such differentiation.

If nothing matters and there is no future and we’re all meant to die and then darkness, then perhaps we should hurry that process along and ease our suffering.

But, of course, we are compelled to believe something does matter. If nothing mattered, then I would not have to disclaim the above paragraph and tell you that I do not think suicide, or at least, self-destructive behavior, is a good idea.

Indeed, if there was no agreed upon view of right and wrong, we would not view suicide as the result of mental illness. And the fact that we think it is bad, and even have careers centered on helping those people, proves that life does matter.

To the Christian, it matters because it is the Lord’s work, and because He has commanded us to do things for His glory. And if we don’t, we will spend our time here, and then eternity being very unhappy (to put it mildly).

And to an Atheist, they might do good things because otherwise they will spend their only time alive being very unhappy.

Either way, the effects might look quite similar to us.

It all mattered to someone else, so who are we to decide that it doesn’t? Should a man work hard his entire life to make a better future for his descendants only for his descendants to be stuck in nihilism and meaningless impulse gratification?

And it matters to someone right now. Should a child suffer because the parent decided that nothing matters? Or should the puppy and duckling in this post’s photo suffer because we allowed fear and doubt and hopelessness to paralyze us and neglect them?

Should we pursue pleasure and forsake our responsibilities because the world MIGHT end?

To use the Christian example again; the Bible tells us that Christ is coming soon (Rev. 22:12). And also that no one knows when but the Father (Matt. 24:36).

Such a thing can sound scary, particularly to those unfamiliar with the text or the faith. If I had heard such things this time last year, I would’ve been quite afraid indeed.

But now that I have learned more, I don’t think it’s meant to scare us. It’s meant to remind us to do our good works while we can.

Regardless of whether you’re a devout believer, or a more secular person, the potential for apocalypse at any moment is no less true.

Christ might return five minutes after you finish reading this, or he might not come for another 1000 years. We have no way of knowing.

In the same fashion, Yellowstone might erupt or nuclear missiles might be launched at any moment. We can predict those things at least a little bit, which makes them different than the second coming, but the possibility is there regardless.

But even with all these things being possible, that’s no excuse to act poorly and make things worse. Instead, you should work hard to make things as good as possible for as long as you can.

Indeed, Christ might return five minutes from now, or a nuclear war might kick off, or a giant volcano might erupt.

But Christ will not save you if you chose to do nothing just because he might come in the next few minutes. And if he does not come in our lifetimes but we do live to see a giant volcanic eruption, or perhaps, a global pandemic, wouldn’t you rather reach that moment knowing you did the best you could with the time you have?

I set out to prove that everything matters. But in a way, I don’t have to; because we already know that it does in our hearts. We already know that suicide is bad, and, if any of us have had those thoughts, we know that we should try to overcome them. We know that we would be glad to see a puppy and a duckling play together, not the opposite.

The simple fact that you know what I mean when I say, “the best you could…” proves that something, everything, does matter, even when we feel that it doesn’t.

Thank you for reading.

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Liberty’s Kids: The Show Americans Need and American Children Deserve

Given the tension with the drawn out election process, and the increasing lack of social cohesion, I decided I’d give a quick review of a show from my youth: Liberty’s Kids.

As I said, I first watched it when I was a kid, but I re-watched it this past summer.

I was highly impressed with it after watching as an adult. This show manages to be neither doggedly pro or anti-America.

It was made in the early 2000s, a time when our society was more, well, civilized. I fear that, given the increasingly overt politicization of our entertainment and the common political leanings of those who work in entertainment, it would be strongly anti-American if made today.

Then again, if it were a show made by a right leaning institution, it might be too pro-American.

But instead, it avoids this problem entirely and presents the founding of the United States in a positive light while also pointing out the shortcomings and intricacies of that time period.

The show features a very star studded cast to boot.

It includes Walter Cronkite, Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, Whoopi Goldberg, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dustin Hoffman, Yolanda King, and more.

Kids today might not recognize those names and they should be grounded for that transgression. And if an adult today doesn’t recognize at least most of those names they should be grounded without dinner.

Liberty’s Kids covers touchy subjects like slavery in a fair and sensitive way that’s appropriate for kids. It points out the hypocrisy of demanding freedom from Britain while owning slaves while also pointing out that many of the founding fathers were adamantly against the practice and that some of them knew it would take another war to abolish it.

It covers stories that we might not know about like Elizabeth Freeman a.k.a. Mum Bett, who was the first person to sue for her freedom and win. The Massachusetts supreme court ruled that slavery was inconsistent with the Massachusetts constitution.

Or James Armistead, who acted as a double agent for the Americans. He knew the British would think nothing of his slave status and so he reported British movements and plans to Lafayette while reporting fake American movements and plans back to the British.

It also covers the heroism of women like Margaret Corbin, who, after her husband was downed, continued to operate the cannon he was stationed on until she herself was too badly injured.

And Deborah Samson, who disguised herself as a man in order to serve in the Continental Army.

One of my favorite episodes covered Benjamin Franklin’s inventions and achievements in life. Including things like the bifocal, a more efficient fireplace, and the founding of the nation’s first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital.

The show offers a historically accurate view of our founding, without political leanings and emotions getting in the way.

It’s also interesting to compare their problems to ours today. Some, while vastly different, are eerily the same.

They had issues with Congress being painfully slow and being more interested in arguing than they were getting anything done. They had many concerns about the integrity of the mail system too.

I won’t spoil any more of the show in case some of you are interested. If you have kids, or you’re a kid at heart, give it a watch and decide if it’s something your own kids should watch. You at least have this child at heart vouching for it!

And best of all, you’ll get to hear what might be the corniest intro song of all time.

Thank you for reading.

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Do Not Vote Blue (Or Red) No Matter Who

Woman can't decide on the ass or the elephant ass

Let me start out by saying that I have no intention of becoming a political commentator.

I find politics exhausting and, these days, very divisive, so talking about politics here will be an anomaly. Even so, I won’t be talking in favor or one party or another.

Indeed, the only reason I’m writing about this topic at all is because I find what I have to say bipartisan, or even nonpartisan, and I think my point can and should be applied to a great many topics.

That point being this: Voting along party lines no matter what is simply not using your brain.

In a broader context, doing or going along with anything without thinking about it is, quite literally, not using your brain.

So do not vote blue no matter who. Or red for that matter. Or yellow or green.

I recently saw a post on social media, something I’ve been consuming less and less of lately, explaining why it’s so crucial that people vote blue no matter who this November.

It listed off things like potential supreme court justices, administration officials, cabinet picks, etc. And then it listed off other, more polemical things like border control, abortion rights, and law enforcement.

Ending with stating something along the lines of, “Even if you don’t like Joe Biden, this election is too important to vote otherwise. Vote blue no matter who.”

That post was in favor of the blue team. But the red team could take that exact same post, change the word blue to red and it would be in favor of the red team. And there lies my problem with hyper-partisanship.

Saying that this election is too important sounds like a good argument, but I believe it falls apart when confronted and examined.

“I would vote third party but *insert election year here* is too important.”

If you believe that your party is always the right choice, then it won’t matter what election year it is because you won’t have to decide for yourself.

And if some partisan shill convinces you that a certain election is too important to vote third party then why would they not do the same for the next one?

There’s also the argument that we have to choose the lesser evil. And the lesser evil changes based on who you ask.

Doing this will lead us into a downward spiral that will eventually look like this:

“I don’t wanna vote for Satan but at least he’s not MegaSatan.”

Jokes aside, it’s best to vote for neither the Beast nor the Dragon.

There are other options out there. And the only reason they don’t get enough votes is because we’re… You know. Unwilling to vote for them.

And I’m not pushing for you to vote for the Libertarian party or the Green party, or even to write a candidate in. Instead my point is to simply stop and think about it before you make decisions.

You might be stuck in a bubble when you accept one team without question. We all know that the mainstream media is biased these days, even, or maybe especially, when they claim to be unbiased.

All you need to do to see this is look at the coverage of any current event by Fox News and then look at the coverage of it by CNN. If Fox News is in favor of it then it’s highly likely that CNN will be against it, and vice versa.

Instead, perhaps you should make up your own mind about the event instead of absorbing what the talking heads have to say about it.

A blue team member might express his disappointment with red team voters. Claiming that they just repeat word for word what their leaders say.

Well yes, I’m sure some of them do. But there are also members of the blue team that regurgitate the same exact things that their own leaders say.

So who’s right and who’s wrong and who’s hypocritical?

That’s up to you.

I know such a thing is not easy and I by no means am perfect about it either. But it may help to take a step back from everything before you decide.

The amount of polarization we’ve seen in the last few years won’t get us anywhere.

Calling the people on the other team, “Deplorables,” or Nazis, or communists, or thugs, or any other vitriolic term, isn’t exactly going to change their mind.

That said, IF someone actually is a Nazi or a communist or a thug, then we can safely be united against them. But throwing those words around like candy doesn’t make it true.

What it does do however, is make those words less effective when you actually meet someone like that (see: the boy who cried wolf) and it makes the accused resent you.

Instead we should reserve judgement until we’ve looked at things with a calm, dispassionate mindset.

What are this person’s policies? Do they line up with my beliefs? If someone is being accused of something, are they actually guilty of that? Or is the accuser just a deranged, radical person?

I read something that makes a very good point the other day; the general message was that in these next few months, we will be barraged with messages that try to tear us apart and convince us that the other team is bad. And that we can’t let ourselves fall for it.

That point is the reason why I’ve been referring to the Democrat and Republican parties as the blue team and red team.

“Yeah go blue/red team! The red/blue team sucks!”

“Why do they suck?”

“Well uh, because they’re the red/blue team and I’m on the blue/red team so screw them!”

Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of treating the future of our country the way we treat sports teams.

Do not allow politicians, media, intellectuals, or anyone else, convince you of otherwise.

Once you have taken a sober look at what each group stands for and you’ve found one you agree with, vote for that group.

Vote blue or red or yellow or green or whatever you genuinely think is the best choice according to your conscience.

And the only way we’ll escape this two party system that we all seem to hate so much is if we actually vote according to our consciences and not just for the party or candidate that we think is, “not as bad,” as the other one.

George Washington and John Adams both warned us against becoming too partisan and Abraham Lincoln told us that a house divided amongst itself cannot stand. Although well over a century too late, maybe it’s time we take their words to heart.

Regardless of who wins, we are ALL Americans and therefore in the same boat. And a ship will never leave the harbor if its crew is too busy fighting each other.

Thank you for reading.