"God Is Merciful, But He Is Also Just"

I was perusing one of the news sites on the Internet the other day and came across a piece titled, “Corporate CEO ‘Extremists” Target Social Security, Medicare”, amplified by ‘For the wealthy, pampered, and narcissistic CEO’s of the Business Roundtable, sacrifice is always for someone else.” Now I ask you, what could be a more noble pursuit?

Since time immemorial, the most despicable characteristics of Homo sapiens have manifest themselves at the expense of the finer aspects of human nature. It has always been a struggle by a small minority with insatiable materialistic appetites to oppress and feed on those whose character is more aligned with those of the Divinity. It is and always will be, the eternal quest for survival of the “fittest,” however one may choose to define the term, the measure for which is always based on materialistic possessions and consumption of more than one comfortably needs. The rationale is always rooted in an inherent contempt for those who reflect back to them all they lack in terms of the finer attributes of the human condition. They are, quite simply, predators of the worst kind. They have no conscience, no morals, no principles, no compassion, no spirituality, ad nauseam. They are lifeless beings whose only contribution to the four score and ten years allotted to them is the production of human waste in one form or another. Try as they may to purchase a lasting and eternal legacy in their cursory belief in an afterlife, at the end of the life process they are, at best, simply a pile of excrement, foul smelling and the stuff upon which green flies subsist. A noble and fitting end to the time they have spent on this earth.

If one takes the time to study their habits and to learn from their narcissism, they have no trouble, whatsoever, in rationalizing all they covet and possess. No matter how altruistic they attempt to make their “charitable” endeavors, they simply cannot give freely. What they may choose to give to less favored mortals always comes with strings attached so the benefactors will always maintain ownership and control of all they have left behind. I find that personal aggrandizement is paramount and human suffering is the least of their considerations. Personally, I find that common thread woven through the fabrics of the various “Foundations” among the more pre-eminent examples in our contemporary society.

Throughout recorded history, the pattern of their existence has ebbed and flowed in very predictable ways. The gorge themselves on the labors of the poorest among them, only to have all they have accumulated forcibly taken away from them by those they have exploited, reduced to rubble with their mortal remains summarily dispatched in the least ceremonious and revered methods imaginable. The legacy they have so coveted and labored for is a mere pittance compared to that left by those they have exploited in their materialistic and rapacious pursuits.

As I look around and listen to the plight of those who have lost so much, I am reminded of how, in the natural course of events, the rich and powerful manage to reduce the common man to that of some form of servitude to those of “privilege and wealth.” The last major thrust in that cycle of events occurred when an “all volunteer” army was created. The draft was eliminated, consigning those from the “working” class to a lesser status in society. They are the ones, because of reduced opportunities in life, that were reduced to availing themselves of the option of laying down their lives in the “service of their country,” as one means of earning a meager sum for the support and welfare of those who were dependent upon their sacrifices. They are the ones among us, today, who wait for their just dues in terms of veterans’ benefits, disability assistance and rehabilitation, while their “privileged” counterparts revel in the environs of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT and other bastions of snobbery and higher learning, acquiring the very skills that will ensure a permanent place in society, not just for themselves, but for those who have made it all possible by their sacrifices in one form or another. They are the ones we honor at ceremonial funerals in Arlington while their counterparts insulate and entomb themselves in mansions, estates and yachts.

These are the ones who are burdened down with debt in order to acquire a college education. These are the ones whose homes are repossessed in order to satisfy the loans given to them by the predatory rich. They are the ones who haunt the unemployment lines, hoping for the opportunity to earn a decent and honest living for themselves and those who rely on them for survival. These are the ones the rich laugh at when the periodic photos of poor hapless souls shopping at Wal-Mart are distributed on the Internet; a stark reminder that they are simply fodder for the canons of those who have “made it,” aided and abetted by the very institutions of government that were assumed to be there for all of us in order to underwrite and support an economic and social agenda for a better life. They are the ones who bear the burden of contempt because they dare to demand a better shake in this one journey through life. They are the ones who regularly frequent the food banks and soup kitchens in order to keep their children from crying on an empty stomach. They are the ones who simply want an honest share of the pie.

What, I ask you, justifies this kind of an existence? Is the rationale to be found in the temples of greed on Park Avenue, in Stamford, in Chevy Chase, in the gated mansions in The Hamptons, in Miami Beach, on Beacon Hill, the North Shore of Chicago, in Bellaire, in Beverley Hills, on the beaches of Malibu, in Pacific Heights, in Lake Oswego, on Mercer Island, just to name a few? Those are but a mere smattering of where the remnants extracted from honest working human beings are deposited, all in the greater glory of every oligarch, plutocrat and corrupt politician walking the face of this country.

History has shown that everything progresses in cycles. If you pause and listen carefully, you will surely hear the Grim Reaper sharpening his scythe in preparation for the Divine Justice that will surely result from the depths of decadence and depravation into which the “privileged” in our society has sunk, all because they somehow believed they were deemed by their creator to be superior beings, entitled by their station in life to deprive all those who have tried so hard to simply earn an honest and decent right to a better life.

It has been poignantly said that “God is merciful, but He is, also, just.” The sun has yet to set on this tragic period in our national existence.

Sleep well.

Cowboy Bob
The Sagebrush Philosopher
January 19, 2013