Time To Step Back From All The Chaos

It's time to step back from all the chaos. This week brought an even bigger dollop than we've gotten used to since the inauguration. It came in the form of the now officially effective imposition of a whole laundry list of tariffs on...well, just about any country with whom the U.S. trades. (And, no surprise, we watched as stocks had their worst day since the Covid Mess in 2020. But you know all that, right?)

We've said enough about tariffs in recent posts, so we won't pile on here. We can, however, attempt to organize the hysteria into some sort of order.

On one side, we have those who claim the tariffs are a "tax" - and one that will slam the average guy more so than those of greater means. Include here the sub-group that shouts to high heaven that these tariffs will bring in revenue that will allow for a tax cut "for the rich." 

On the other side, we have the smiley faces who try to patiently explain that, while there may be some pain in the short run, ultimately the use of tariffs will cause our economy to run hot as more companies manufacture their goods here to avoid tariffs. Add to this the theory that will reduced import buying, folks will demand and get American goods made by Americans - or something like that.

So there it is. No answers will be forthcoming for the present. Time will tell - and it could be a long time.

Meanwhile, unless folks step back, take a breather, buck up and ideally get on with their lives by ignoring the cacophony of hysteria peddlers, we can expect more chaos out there.

And notice we're saying "step back" not step across the line and join the smiley faces - unless you're already so inclined.

What does everything look like when we step back? Well, first, if we're really taking this seriously, we're looking at what's important, ultimately what's real.

Let's take the latter, real, first. While the economy and the markets are real, they are tied up in this world. And if we understand that this world is a creation of, well let's just say it, God, then it's status slips a bit. It's not the be-all and end-all. Plato understood this when he gave us the image of men in a cave seeing only shadows on the walls, rather than the real world. He wanted to lift our minds and hearts from the ordinary circumstances that take up all our time and attention and redirect us. He knew that most of what preoccupies us is stuff that changes from moment to moment. He wanted us to see and to understand what does not change - the permanent things that never change. These, ultimately are reality. They are, in some sense, more real than what we typically take in as and consider real.

He may not have intended his analysis to speak of God as we know Him, but he was heading in that direction.

It was worth studying Plato in college. Some of it stuck. But he was kind of the first glimmer or reality that we who are born into this world might get of what's real. 

Let's shift now from a philosophical stream to something black and white that any of us can grasp, whether or not we studied Plato or even have any interest, never mind love, for philosophy.

To paraphrase the late beloved pope (and now saint) John Paul II, as the family goes, so goes the Church, the nation,  and the world. Considering that he was the head of the Catholic Church, this is no passing or light matter. The family stands at the center of everything. While all this hubbub and hysteria swirls around us, we might remember this. While we must survive the onslaughts of the world at times, we can always focus our minds and hearts on our families and see to it that charity prevails in all our interactions with them. And in doing so we are dealing with reality in much more substantial manner than speculating on the direction of the stock market or the effect of tariffs.

A stretch? Maybe; but likely not.

So now that we've stretch out a bit, let's get down and dirty and go straight for the source of everything - everything real that is. And you know what, or more accurately Who, that is. If you're not sure of this, you're this guy.  

It's an illustration from the Middle Ages. The fools says there is no God. Just look at it. See who the fool listens to? See how the angel is trying to get through to him?

Psalm 52 famously proclaims this. It's pretty direct and not very long. What the heck, let's just take a look:

The fool said in his heart: There is no God. 2 They are corrupted, and become abominable in iniquities: there is none that doth good. 3 God looked down from heaven on the children of men: to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God. 4 All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one. 5 Shall not all the workers of iniquity know, who eat up my people as they eat bread?

6 They have not called upon God: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men: they have been confounded, because God hath despised them. 7 Who will give out of Sion the salvation of Israel? when God shall bring back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Well, if you got this far, what are you? Not the fool, right? And with that, you can appreciate what's really real as opposed to what's less real.

So as the less real tugs and thrashes those who would surround themselves in the less real world of mammon, you - no fool - take a few moments to step back and remind yourself of what's really real, and what really matters.