As we get into the later years of our lives, after we’ve lost a parent (or both) and more than a few school chums, we start to consider, perhaps for the first time, our own mortality.
Dylan Thomas is best remembered for his poem that begins: Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
As shown at left, however, the Stoics had a far different, and, I would suggest, healthier approach to that event that ultimately confronts all of us.
Their Latin saying, Memento mori, “remember that you [have to] die’, may sound equally macabre, but it carries the same life affirming concept as does “Carpe diem.” Make every moment count, toward whatever you wish to achieve for yourself, and/or for those around you.
Seminal astrophysicist Carl Sagan explains why uncomfortable ideas may be banned in religion, they must not be shunned in science.
This is an important concept in American life today, as conspiracy theorists are convinced that climate change denial cannot be considered in scientific circles.
I happened to bring this up in my interview with Dr. V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution, who has been amassing data on global warming since the 1970s. He laughed, and explained, “If I could prove that human activity was not causing temperatures to rise, I’d be be one of the wealthiest and most famous scientists in world history.”
As suggested at left, a great deal of the hardship that has befallen the U.S. was simply bad luck. Al Gore came within a whisker of victory in 2000, a win that would have forever changed the course of our nation in terms of energy policy, education, healthcare, and international affairs.
If Bernie had become the 2016 nominee, we wouldn’t have had Hillary Clinton telling our country’s most mean-spirited and least-educated people that they were “deplorables,” ushering a criminal sociopath into the White House.
We Came Incredible Close to Averting the Disaster that Is Donald Trump
Social democracies are nations in which the tax base provides everyone with healthcare and education, and where the richest and most powerful people are not free to ruin the environment.
I run into someone from one of these counties a couple of times a month, and I like to ask why their people are consistently at the top of the World Happiness Rankings. The normal response is always some variant of the following:
It’s hard to be happy living in a society that is indifferent to the suffering of others. It’s part of the very nature of human beings to care about one another.
Something else I notice about these places is that very few people are religious. Sweden, e.g., is about 80% atheist.
That means no childish tribalism, no ridiculous dogmas, no worries about eternal damnation, etc.
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