Thinking Through Time

Truth reveals itself in time.  That -- which is false, will fail the test of time.  In all probability, it will just be forgotten and ignored, because there is no payoff for sustaining the belief-- with no facts to substantiate it -- until maybe some time in the future, when someone revives the old as the new -- for one more time, to those who haven't heard it before.

There is always a fresh class of recruits who will revive an old fallacious idea, thinking it merely failed before -- for the lack of trying, and not that it was recognized as a bad idea -- with good reason.  For that reason, many think the secret to youth, is doing the things one did as a youth -- with realizing, that is what caused them to lose that youth -- or they wouldn't be trying to regain it.  So one can't simply do what they did at their prime -- thinking that is all that is necessary to remain so -- indefinitely, because those peak performances, also have (had) a cost, even if it was one they were willing to pay at any price -- thinking that was all they needed to attain "immortality" -- in whatever hall of fame was important to them.

In that way, many sacrifice their health (and sanity) -- for that moment of fame and glory -- for as long as they can, which no matter how long, will only be momentarily in the greater scheme of things -- which is their greatest life, at every stage of it -- and not extinguishing it prematurely, in going beyond the point of no return or resuscitation.  That has always been a difficult balance for those trying to fine-tune to their optimal lives.

Youthful misjudgments, take the lives of many too soon, while many others are waylaid onto a path of lifelong dysfunction, criminal and antisocial behavior -- never seeing the light of what they are doing, seeing the consequences of their actions -- which requires other people to do it for them.  But the efforts of all the others, can never be enough, if one thinks their part, is to oppose all the others --  in a relentless struggle and competition -- as though that's what life was all about.

That may be so in prisons and restrictive cultures limiting one's choices -- but obviously not the case in a society and environment of the greatest choices and freedom to make those choices without duress and biases.  For many nurtured in an oppressive condition, the very thought that one can choose without limit -- was never a possibility they were prepared to encounter in life, and so their instinct, is to destroy it for everyone else also.  Only in that way, could they achieve a competitive advantage in playing the "only game in town" allowed.

Not that one has to buy every "latest, greatest thing," but one should be open to the possibility that there are other things, than just the one way they were thought -- and punished for thinking any other.  By that, some think that the only way they can win, is to cheat -- even when it is not necessary to gain that advantage.  That is the only way they know how to play the game -- which obviously has to result in chaos and anomie in society, as well as breakdowns and crises in individual lives, they even think is the normal process of aging -- rather than taking full responsibility for their bad choices, and resolve not to change.

Of course it is an untenable position to maintain and defend -- despite all the information to the contrary.  The only hope, is that one will change, and when they can't, their situation is hopeless and unsustainable.  So one asks, "What is a sustainable?" -- and not that, "It won't matter because I won't be here to see it -- so why should I care?"  That attitude allows them to evade the responsibility and ownership for everything going on in their world -- to which they are just a tourist, having no right to determine the course of that culture.  One's total responsibility, is to "Enjoy," as though that were an end in itself.

Such people are lost, and will never care about anything of significance and consequence -- because they are not producers of anything, but only consumers after all the work has been done.  And so they think it's always been there -- just for the taking, and become skilled and clever at "taking more than their fair share," as all they become good at.

If a person produces everything, or most of it, certainly they are entitled to all or most of it -- and not rather, that they should be in line like everybody else, or even as they now will insist, for that very reason, should stand in the back of the line because they are capable of producing even more.  That's how societies and individuals, begin to fail in time -- because that is not a sustainable society.

One ultimately will reap what they sow -- even if they don't like the results.  But rather than ignoring or denying the results, the wise individual, uses that information to determine what they do next -- and keep improving, as their way of life.