20 February 2009

Fight fantasy?  Well, at least fight the substitution of fantasy for reality.  You need fantasy?  Ok, but keep it in perspective, fantasy ain't life.

If I were to recommend two books to read in this regard I would list The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel Huntington and The Next 100 Years by George Friedman because if they do anything they debunk fantasy in the real world.  As has been said all too often, the world is a dangerous place.  Unfortunately, we don't seem to understand that - thus, fantasy.

That doesn't mean we all have to huddle around the big screen newscasts and wring our hands; actually that's not reality either.  In fact one of the most interesting things about Americans is their sense of humor.  We can make a joke about anything.  Cynical?  Uh huh.  Sarcastic?  Sure.  But that's better than listening to MSNBC for heaven's sake.  In fact MSNBC is something fun to ridicule - and we do.

It's good to be knowledgable - it's good to think.  We need knowledgable thinkers, as opposed to, say, our current national Democratic leadership.  Sorry, but let's call a spade a spade.  And that's the point - to take these fools seriously, even knowing they will do us harm  - is self destructive.  Doing us harm and destroying us are quite different.  We will survive; it is in our genes to survive - as long, that is, as we keep our genes intact, and do our best to keep them from getting away with it.

But let's just not allow ourselves to sink too deeply into insipid fantasy to the point of believing what many try to feed us is real.  Like what?  Peace and mutual love of all people, for example.  Would that be nice?  Perhaps.  But it is not reality; people just aren't like that.  Look at the playgrounds, the little childen.  They play so sweetly and peaceful together?  They do not.  It is in our nature to disagree, to see things differently - even to fight.   But must differences lead to war?  Apparently.  So we should like that, accept that?  Like it, no; accept it?  Grudgingly.  Just deal with it - with a little bit of knowledge and understanding, a lot of careful thought, and some intelligent thinking.  But then, maybe that's fantasy too.