LIVING IN A CIVILIZED WORLD

Civilized I suppose like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. At least on the surface we call our society civilized. We have laws, leaders, religions and all the other things that might allow us to claim to be civilized.

If only those elements were enough to guarantee that we behaved civilized. Having a new brand of gun to shoot someone is hardly what I would call progress in terms of being more civilized. However sometimes I do wonder if that I some way doesn’t become one of our standards.

After all when you think about it we do seem to be far better and inventing newer ways of killing each other more often than improving ways to preserve life. And from a civilized standpoint that is hardly logical when you figure death comes naturally without any of us working at it. Whereas surviving and living as long as possible are real challenges.

I believe all of that in part is because despite the capacities of our brains we are also still animals in part. And it is the animal instinct that has to be appeased from time to time. So we go a little crazy in the head and do something well, like an animal.

All of that to me is the natural order of things. Which is why it does annoy me when we try to pretend we are somehow able to rise above that aspect in our essence. It might be noble to want being civilized to mean we all turn into pussy cats in terms of how we treat each other, but let me tell you some are still going to have plenty of lion in them.

No, I’m not intending to use this given posting to wax philosophically on life in general. I’m just making an observation for what it is worth that to me it seems we are hopelessly fickle creatures who want the best of all worlds. You notice I didn’t say the best of both worlds.

The way I see it there are more than two options in that regard. We can have a compromise of sorts on this civilized thing. That is providing people will stop getting ridiculous about their expectations. When they do we get the utopian advocates. They are the ones that believe we can fix our problems in such a way that we can truly be nothing, but civilized.

Good luck is all I can say. You can spend all your spare time contemplating that possibility and in the end it won’t happen. I’m not being a pessimist. I’m simply stating the obvious.

So take a little advice for your Uncle Rash. Give yourself a break. When you feel that urge to act a little goofy don’t feel guilty about it.

Okay maybe you should consider not necessarily sharing the mood with the rest of the world, but go ahead and act a little weird. Just be sane about it. Try to find a way that won’t end up getting you a free holiday at the hotel with bars on the windows. The boys in the uniforms who carry guns and badges don’t have much of a civilized attitude when it comes to that kind of behavior!