Personal Observations From The Other Side!

[HARDCORE]

PART I - INTRODUCTION

I have often heard it said that even the most brilliant and devout minds can have their darker sides, and that no man is totally sane or ever completely sober. Nor, for that matter, is any being ever free from the terrors of mental illness, the pangs of greed, the ravishes of evil, or even the threat of possible damnation.

Granted, there are more than a few people out there who have made a career out of creating smoke screens, or by taking on facades that they are usually not entitled to. And these perpetual deceivers are sometimes even the ?Above It All Swells? who somehow always manage to come off as ?Perfection Personified?? Some of these individuals in fact, are even the overly-affluent or well-connected cusses, to whom self is often of primary concern, and to whom country, family, and even the Almighty Himself, are but a sideshow that is to be embraced only when it benefits them or their agenda to do so!

This piece, or diatribe if you prefer, is a conglomeration of remembered observations that, right or wrong, echo my own personal feelings and opinions on complex subjects that have perplexed and troubled me for the better part of a half-century. And right or wrong, sane or deranged, these are my own personal views on a plethora of complexities that we may all some day have to face the reality of?

Will we greet that day of truth with courage and integrity, or will we meet our final accounting, attempting to utilize the same lies that have carried us forward upon that often-floundering raft of life?

The sometimes contorted dealings that generate worldly wealth and power, or that forever cement our station in life, are actions that are irretrievably recorded in stone - that stone often being our own tombstone! And after countless generations of human habitation, it is almost a given that each and ever excuse for atrocity or wrongdoing that has ever been thought up, has already been utilized countless times by some other imaginative lout during his own final accounting!

It is also an axiom, at least in my opinion, that Hell, if it does indeed exist, is inhabited by a plethora of mankind?s (so-called) finest! And if these observations make me a cynic, then so be it, for I can live with that. The only question now is: ?Can You?? For after all is said and done, it is not being able to live with one?s transgressions that count, but rather to die with them eternally etched into your soul. And this is, after all, the golden key that will finally determine whether or not your life really amounted to a tinker?s dam!

So read on my self-sanctified friends, for whether you wallow about in worldly riches, slither to and fro amidst the poor and the apathetic, or are defiant and combative to the end, the day will come when you all will be forced to shed your Earthly facade and made to stand tall before truth and the Man! For there is, after all, no shield against reality - not denial nor lies, not wealth nor station, and not even the deepest of hiding places, that can shelter one?s immortal soul from the penetrating light of pure truth and genuine honor! ?For where there is no truth, there is no honor!?

?And so it is, and so it will always be!?

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PART II - IN THE BEGINNING

In the beginning there was light, but was this light a harbinger of Eden forever after, or was it the blinding flash that occurs just before the big bomb detonates?

Was this light the result of some glistening enlightenment perhaps, or was it merely a naturally occurring phenomenon, or Big Bang if you prefer, that started the clock of evolution in motion?

Who can say in all certainty, after all, what it was, or if in reality, we today are the end result of some perfected plan, or merely just another painfully insecure step within a pointless evolutionary chain? An accidental meeting of volatile elements so to speak, that could someday reverse itself or evaporate just as quickly and as surely as it all began?

And will we too eventually greet oblivion with an explosion of internally generated flames, or maybe even at the hands of some space borne cataclysm? And are we really as mighty and everlasting, as some would have us believe that we are? For in the future, we may truly move on as a race of giants, or will we instead meet our end at the hands of a mere microbe or a germ. Perhaps, we may even blow ourselves to Hades in one glorious and blinding flash! One that befits technological insanity? ?Ah yes, therein lies the rub!?

Mankind, the thinking animal, has always attempted to control every aspect of his existence. But in reality, he is but a narrow and susceptible creature of habit that is almost totally manipulated by nature, his surroundings, his environment, his heredity, and most of all, by his inner beasts!

Mankind is also a rather fragile and timid creature that can only exist within severely restricted parameters, or securely contained within an artificial environment. One that if altered even the slightest bit, could spell the end of his existence, as he knows it!

And please consider that this race (mankind), one that envisions itself to be created in the image of the Almighty Himself, can exists only upon a minor planet that haunts the outer fringes of a rather insignificant galaxy. One that is aimlessly adrift in a vast ocean of nothingness, and only occasionally comes within hailing distance of other equally insignificant and lifeless chunks of careening rock and space debris.

Is there really intelligent life of any kind out there in that limitless void that is hanging ominously over our heads? Are any of those far-removed specks of light really inhabited by creatures of any size, shape or saving graces? And most importantly, are we humans really unique within the cosmos, or are we in reality, as insignificant to the greater order of things, as are the benign bacteria that we ourselves gaze down upon through our own primitive microscopes?

If the latter is indeed true, and I for one hope that it is not, then we are indeed totally alone, marooned and at the mercy of forces that are far beyond our control and comprehension. For we may surely be a race of relatively puny creatures that are in great need of a far more benevolent being. Mere infants, after all, who are adrift and all but abandoned to the ravishes of time and space - immortal and important beings, in but our own minds!

?AND SO IT BEGINS!?

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PART III - HYPOCRISY INFINITUM

I have always found it somewhat amazing to ponder just how many within our own social ranks practice not what they preach? This, unfortunately, is a trait of humanity that has been with us ever since Cain took it upon himself to brain Abel, or if you prefer, ever since Great-Grandpa Ameba first crawled forth from the primordial ooze!

We are, it is said, a nation of laws and not the bastion of perfection, pure logic, ideals or even equal rights and justice, that was envisioned by our Founding Fathers. We have, however, come a long way along the road of personal advancement, and in the process of our own social evolution (or is that de-evolution), we have grasped the world by the neck, and shaken this planet to the core - economically, socially, and even in an industrial fashion. Unfortunately, however, we have taken half the world to the infernal regions with us in the process!

The United States was of course, the impossible dream, an oddball ideology, and an upstart conglomerate of the unmixable. We were, the world thought, a flash in the pan of human history and nothing more, but we sure as heck fooled them all! We did not implode as some thought that we might, and we were not taken down from within, as an illustrious senator once predicted. ?Not yet anyway!?

We have been generous to a fault, even with hostile foreign entities, and more often than not, at the expense of our own people. The distinctive class separations that existed within many a failed European and Asian power, were not supposed to infect the matrix of our own incorruptible body armor, or so we have been led to believe?

Also worthy of note is the fact that our own destiny was constructed in such a fashion as to insure that it would always remain firmly within the grasp of the people, or so again we thought? After all, even the hint of any foreign interference in our American way of life, or in our internal affairs, would prompt us to action - once upon a time that is!

We have often been a nation of individualists who were securely melded into a common cause. Mutual survival, the public welfare and national defense, were always paramount issues to us all, whereas foreign intrigue, vested interests, and an alien agenda upon our sacred shores were never (in times past) to be tolerated.

And this too, at least in my opinion, has at least partially faded into the past!

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PART IV - A QUESTION OF TRUTH AND HONOR

Truth and honor are traits that many (if not most) erroneously claim as their own! The proof, however, is in the pudding, as far too many men can talk the talk, whereas precious few always walk the walk!

I find it exceedingly amazing, however, that with the capture of an elected office, a scant few lifelong cads can suddenly be transformed into the ?Honorable This or That!? Nowadays, even a few bums like me, or so it seems, can be converted from a mangier stray into a first class political show dog?

And what about truth - does it ever enter the same arena as honor? Are not these two attributes married in concept and in practice, or does a title, position or a medal alone, automatically instill honor? ?I was raised to believe that it take far more than that to make a real man??

Our great nation has always made a big thing out of honor and truth, as it should! And as a matter of fact, we have even gone to war to preserve these traits! As such, I find it personally disturbing to discover how many people who lack these attributes now occupy international positions of great power. Positions that if ill-used, could lead to the needless deaths of countless millions who currently inhabit this planet!

Who then, will again champion the banner of honesty, for the sake of honesty?

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PART V - HISTORY v FICTION

For years, I have heard it said that, and I quote:

?For every man that you can show me who is not a Christian, I will show you a Christian who is not a Christian!? Unfortunately, however, the same can be said about far too many pseudo patriots!

My father once showed me a picture of an American military cemetery that he took in Europe during World War II. He then commented that under that sacred sod and beneath those crosses of honor, rests the remains of the true heroes of our nation!

A few who return home after these horrific conflicts, however, quickly forget what they are all about, and even though many entered positions in which they could enhance the future lot of their comrades, they chose instead, to become part of a system of problems and denials! They also opted to only march to the drum beat of powerful bureaucracies, and not to the echoes or the cries of their fallen brothers and sisters.

And how will history remember those who turned their backs, closed their hearts, or covered their ears to the pleas of their American brethren, alive or departed? ?Thankfully, however, there are many who choose never to forget??

Will the people, who transformed their hearts into cold, hard stone, merely rewrite history to soften or alter their deceit or callousness? And will some with the power to right long-standing wrongs, continue to condone or overlook that which must be immediately addressed and rectified?

In the end, there are two books that can and must come into play. The first, ?A HISTORY OF MANKIND? can, and often has been altered to fit a current, politically correct agenda. The ?BOOK OF LIFE?, however, is unalterable and in the possession of far greater powers than can be contained in the world of man!

And in this book, ?TRUTH REINS SUPREME!!?

VERITAS