Tuesday Journal
Observations on anarchy
You must forgive me, as I wrote this piece I realized I had to share part of it on Medium, so I did, and it is not entirely for this column. At least the first part.
I do, as always, intend to continue working on it throughout the day, so it’s often possible that if you read one of my pieces in the morning, it may have changed by the afternoon.
I had a fair amount of time to think yesterday.
The thoughts I actually publish are more socioeconomic than political, out of politeness not lack of passion.
My attention had been directed to the increasing number of people in this country who are acting like anarchists.
I have come to the conclusion that it very well may be society’s fault. Not in the “blame us for everything” way as previously thought, but rather in a way that truly IS our doing.
The abdication of leadership contributes to the lack of respect for authority or rules and laws.
The human being has always been a self-preservation sort of creature, of course, and the evolution of society has worked to tame that one-sidedness. We had rules. We had leaders.
From time to time, we humans, or we, in a specific society have gone through changes or upheavals. Still, the changes generally have been directed by the current leaders and rules.
We have now put ourselves into a time when our leaders generally abdicate their position in reality, maintaining it only in a ceremonial way, if that.
Our leaders are too shy or self-conscious, or too afraid of repercussions to lead on their own. Even a sole proprietor today often leads by committee. He leads by having meetings.
Physicians don’t always make decisions but refer patients to specialists.
Attorneys refer clients over to specialists.
Governments are huge entities composed of committees. The leaders will whistle past all the graveyards basing their actions on a statement that the voters want something, rather than understanding that voters elected them to be their leader.
Rules and laws are often ignored, sometimes blatantly, because they may be disliked. Rules exist because the correct behavior is not always the human default behavior. Sometimes laws must exist BECAUSE they are unpopular.
But at the end of this road is the department that enforces the rules, which are confused by the fact that something that is not accepted one day becomes embraced the next day. That practice encourages them to kick the enforcement can on down the street.
Sadly, the end of this story is a civilization, or, better said, a group of people, who always do what’s right in their own eyes. And that is anarchy.
Observations on ultrasound scans of my aorta and legs.
First my aorta.
I had to get my uncooperative body onto a special yet uncomfortable bed, so the examiner could have me pull up my shirt, thus fully exposing my rather ripped six-pack abs.
She began painfully poking around all over my abdominal area, trying to measure clearances. The soundtrack of my heart was boring at best but was much better than the “Hooked on the Classics” soundtrack I was exposed to for hours during my last MRI.
There was also the introduction of some attractive colors on this screen, reminiscent of weather radar and the Fillmore West posters produced by the Family Dog.
I had been told not to ( and did not) eat for six hours prior to the time of my appointment, so I am unclear as to how this occurred.
“I’ve got an amount of gas in the way here.”
“In the way of my aorta?”
“The view of your aorta. We call it Wind in the Willows. I’ll simply have to push harder and more painfully, but we can work around it.”
“Thanks,” I said sheepishly.
On to the legs!
I had advance visions of a quick scan of my manly, yet courteous ankles, but that was not the case either. It turned out that in their search for a blood clot, they were needing my entire leg. The whole thing. Both of them.
I think I may have had on some underwear embroidered “July,” but I’m not sure that any one thing was responsible for all the unprofessional grins. General patient shaming, perhaps.