The Great Divide

Sadly, Hawaii is divided now into two classes of citizenry:

Those who can and choose to leave Hawaii for better prospects elsewhere -- and those who have no choices but to resign themselves to the fallout from the struggle between the powerful self-interests attempting to increase their share of a shrinking economy and revenue base.

That has finally become the fate of Hawaii -- unlike every society that has now designed its culture on the premise that that society is to be shared as equitably among its citizens as possible -- rather than only by those who organize best for the sake of their own narrow interest group, and can grab and hold on to that advantage, they now regard as their entitlement, of irrevocably being in the ruling (upper) class.

Fate and history are not kind to those who think they are entitled to permanent paradise and privileged status. They have all fallen -- including those who thought they could build lasting monuments to themselves that the people throughout history, could never forget them by. But eventually, those monuments to themselves, turn back to dust and mud.

Life in Hawaii was very good -- as long as it was for a privileged few; but when everybody wanted to be in the "upper half" without anybody leaving, that would be the undoing -- and then the only ones who could improve, were those who could leave that overcrowded society -- not because it was inherently so, but because there is never enough room for everyone to be at the top, and nobody can be disqualified.

As long as there is growth in the economy, that fact can be obscured, but when there is no growth or stagnation, the problems become obvious, and obviously what to do. Those who can, explore and exercise other options -- and are never trapped in ultimatums in which they have long ago given up any other alternatives and choices. They then become victims of their own paradise gone so horribly wrong. They had adapted to only one vision of life evermore, and now could not adapt and grow themselves beyond. They were like prisoners who had adapted so well to their lives, that they no longer wished to leave -- even if they could now, and if freed, would do everything that was necessary to return. It is not a healthy attitude but that doesn't prevent a few from becoming that way.

Most, after struggling with denial, resistance, anger, and bitterness, come to resign themselves to the new realities, and in time, recognize that it was all for the best, all that was necessary for them to grow beyond -- which they would never have chosen to do unless absolutely forced. That is the point of no-return for everyone -- celebrated as the foundation of Western civilization as the dying to the old, so that one can be reborn in the new, and in that way, experience life everlasting.

But until that moment of triumph in every life, is the intense, dark struggle against oneself and every other -- to retain the life one has always known -- as the only life they could ever know. Such moments are celebrated in these enduring great civilizations as the realization that a flight from the known, is their only hope and savior.

Some come upon that time sooner than later.