A Quick Look At the Basics

This comes up a lot lately - i.e., what's really worth our time. Why is that?

Well, one can site personal reasons: We've gotten so busy that what seemed important just gets squeezed out of our orbit. Not so important anymore!

Or maybe our focus shifts, as happens if we change jobs or switch careers. What occupied our time and attention shifts with it. 

We could go on, but you get the point, right?

The flip side of this what's-going-on-in-life personal stuff is the world "out there." Anyone who studied the Greeks knows that the early philosophers thought stuff was fixed and permanent (Parmenides) or constantly changing (Heraclitus) - with some falling between those two. And this theme persisted in some form for centuries. On the moral or ethical side of the philosophical ledger, this debate settled into those who believed that some kind of absolute Truth could be found and known, vs. those who wobbled in a world where there was nothing absolute. Absolute truth means just that. Those who espouse a relative approach think everything is relative (relativity) to not simply other things, but to our own subjective view. 

Don't you think this can lead to moral chaos? Hmm...And maybe some of us think it already has, no?

Now this is a bit of a gross generalization, and the question arises: Why think about such (these days) arcane matters? Well, there's a couple of basic reasons.

First, we're a drifting people in so many ways. We bounce from one thing to another. Having some foundation for our thinking can provide an antidote and settle us. Our education ought to have provided this, but that's sadly lacking these days. So if we don't have a settling ballast to keep our feet on the ground, we might consider working on this in stead of paying so much attention to the dross and drivel that constantly assaults us.

This can be quite beneficial when making decisions about just about anything. In our recent election, we might ask why we voted for x or y. Was it because one or the other was seen as being the conduit for our prosperity, security, sanity...whatever? Did we ever ask whether they espoused policies that promoted what is True, Good, or Beautiful. If not sure about the importance of this Big Three, well, think about it. What stands in their place in your universe? Whatever strikes your fancy in the moment? Seriously?

If God created the universe, and of course us, along with that we can find our way to some understanding of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful exist. And if we're God's creatures, wouldn't we want to know more about these, and aspire to promote them?

Instead, it does seem we've locked our time and attention into a never-ending vortex of sense impressions, both audio and visual (never mind touch) that stimulate our brains to react this way and that, driving our emotions up and down, leading to a whole lot of drama and drugs to calm us down.

Sheesh!

Why this look at the basics at this time?

Well, we're in a bit of a foggy zone right now. For example, it seems our economy, burdened as it is with massive debt, holds up in the hope that the new administrations policies invigorate it and allow it to chug away while it somehow stops the explosive growth of debt that characterized recent years. This would avoid both the potential default on debt and/or massive inflation to reduce the value of said debt that many have predicted. And so the economy "sniffs" this out and remains buoyant - barely - despite the heavy weight of debt.

Same holds for the stock market. After months and months of noting hos over-valued it is - and remains - it too may be sniffing a boom in economic activity that justifies the ridiculous valuations that should cause it to at least correct sharply. And yet, with some wobbling here and there, it soldiers on.

Can it possibly be that the election of the Big Orange Man has been the salvation of us all that was advertised? It hardly seems likely. And yet one of our most reliable analysts has stated that the recent election signaled the greatest political shift in the last 120 years. Yes, this relatively sober individual really said that. And with that he has held forth the salvation theory in spades ever since the election.

Does this make your head spin?

With spinning heads, let's therefore look to the basics in life and attend to those as folks perhaps much smarter than us prognosticate on these highly unusual interpretations of what we can see, smell, hear and touch all around us.

If we do look, will we hold forth that the decades (some would say centuries) of drift from a belief in absolute Truth and moral Good will now - because of the election of one man - decisively reverse and allow the True, the Good, and the Beautiful to ascend in our hearts and minds?

Seems a bit far-fetched, doesn't it?

Perhaps we rein in our aspirations and simply consider that both the economy and the stock market will indeed resurrect themselves from what seemed a sure stretch in hell the heaven that will be created by the new administration with all those oh-so-smart, moral, patriotic, honest citizens who will man the critical positions of power and decision-making in our country. 

Perhaps.

Then again, we might individually attend to the basics and see if we are living according to the precepts laid out so carefully and lovingly by our Creator when Moses ascended to the summit of Mt. Sinai and brought back those Tablets that summarized clearly what would promote the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.