I am so far quite unable to justify one of my central convictions: that, even if it were possible to make all men happy by an operation or a drug that would stultify their development, this would somehow be an impious crime. This conviction is ultimately rooted In the Mosaic challenge: “You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.”   Walter Kaufmann

The above biblical phrase quoted by Walter Kaufmann is from Leviticus 20:26. What Kaufmann is getting at, I think, is that we must face life as it is, the good and the bad and do our best. It isn’t ever easy or comfortable especially in our fast paced world. We understandably want to drown out all the trivial pieces of information overload we are confronted with today. It’s perhaps comforting to know that information overload, while raised to new heights by our modern technologies, is nothing new. Poets as diverse as the free thinker Piercy Shelley and the Anglican T.S. Eliot wrote about it.

We want the creative faculty to imagine that which we know; we want the generous impulse to act that which we imagine; we want the poetry of life. Piercy Shelley’s Defense Of Poetry

Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T.S. Eliot’s The Rock

Stoicism, one of the ancient Greek philosophies, advises cultivating inner calm through meditation and contemplation. So do the teachings of the Buddha.

We live at a time when we are confronted not only with information overload (including disinformation overload) but also with unprecedented division between groups (political party, economic status, sex, race, age, ethnicity, nationality and so on).

America is a wealthy country. Our problem is not one of production or consumption. It is a problem of distribution. In one of my first blogs on this site (The Trolley Problem, April 15, 2016) I specifically addressed this problem.

Those who benefit from the changes capitalism brings should share the benefits with those who lose through no fault of their own. 

There is nothing new with that idea. Economists have known it for years. While David Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage proved definitively that we are better off with free trade (even if our neighbors engage in protectionism), the benefits are not equally shared. Some “lose through no fault of their own.” The gains from trade are more than sufficient to compensate those who lose. That is the way to address the problem, not through tariffs, isolationism, or the imposition of other non-tariff barriers to trade. There are special considerations related to national security, so-called “infant industries’ and so on but these can be dealt with individually without destroying the benefits of free trade elsewhere in the economy.

America is a complex country. There are many problems that crop up in the ordinary business of living in a complex country. A great country can deal with and should deal with these problems without destroying the basis upon which it became great.

We go on until we can’t. I’m reminded of one my heroes (Charles Peguy): On the first day of the first battle of the Marne, about twenty-five kilometers from Paris, Péguy was felled by a bullet through the head. “For God’s sake, push ahead!” are said to have been his last words. He was forty-one.

There are times for enlightened stoicism and there are times to push ahead to preserve our ideals and to make our lives better. And yes, there are risks as Peguy found out. Nothing risked, nothing gained. We must try. We cannot let “I dare not” wait upon “I would” as Shakespeare warns us.

As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that

Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,

And live a coward in thine own esteem,

Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’

Like the poor cat i’ the adage?  Lady Macbeth

The adage refers to the proverbial cat who wants to eat fish, but is afraid to get its feet wet. This is a lesson for all of us today and especially the President and his Cabinet, our Senators and Congressmen, and the justices of the Supreme Court whose positions were set up in our constitution as the checks and balances and safeguards for our democracy. The uber wealthy must also consider their responsibilities to the country that made them successful. Man shall not live by bread (or tax cuts) alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Mark 8:36

Roger Waters was asked about the meaning of the lyrics to the popular Pink Floyd song Comfortably Numb. He said the lyrics are about what he felt like as a child when he was sick with a fever. As an adult, he got that feeling again sometimes, entering a state of delirium, where he felt detached from reality. Waters said part of the song is about the time he got hepatitis but didn’t know it. Pink Floyd had to do a show that night in Philadelphia, and the doctor Roger saw gave him a sedative to help the pain, thinking it was a stomach disorder. At the show, Roger’s hands were numb “like two toy balloons.” He was unable to focus, but also realized the fans didn’t care because they were so busy screaming, hence “comfortably” numb. He said most of The Wall is about alienation between the audience and band

We have that disconnect today. We are the audience and the band. We have to sort that out. You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy. Leviticus 20:26