Ages in Chaos

In the Internet age, any culture and society is capable of playing and being among the best -- unless they choose not to, and judging from the barbarization of thought overrunning the mass media and the institutions of Hawaii these days, a great age of darkness is about to settle over the Islands for an unforeseeable and undeniable future.

The most revealing insight into that state of mind and mentality of any society are the unedited comments of its public forums -- relying on the participants own restraint and sense of decency and regard for others, as a reliable guide on their future prospects.

And while the comments on the pubic forums indicate something about the fairness and respect due one another, the shocking incivility and pure barbarity of these discussions have driven those with any sense of fairness and sensibilities away.

Although the newspapers will say they have no control, they led the people there in the first place -- or they would not be outdone in what people think is now permitted and permit themselves to say to/about one another. That’s how community standards are established and maintained -- in the doing, and saying.

When there is no such restraint, there is only savagery and barbarity -- even towards their highest leaders and figures of authority. There is no longer respect for anyone. -- not the children, not the elderly. Everyone just becomes a target -- for another’s hatred, anger, bitterness, frustration, resentment, self-loathing and pettiness.

No one wants to be there any longer; to remain is to admit one is a loser without options. One can still insist one is the lucky -- but deep down, they know that there is no future anymore, even for those at the top.

Societies do not all succeed; some most assuredly and determinedly fail -- and must fail. And when they fail utterly, something new may come into being that is the seed of something successful -- but it can go for many years without knowing that success, and even knowing success is still possible.

And how did that come to be in a place formerly called “Paradise?”

Every paradise has fallen from grace -- and that is the great lesson of every society and culture -- that none are guaranteed their place in heaven and grace. They must earn it and prove themselves worthy of such designation -- no matter how lofty a beginning they are given, because it is no one’s entitlement and birthright.