{"id":9146,"date":"2012-12-13T05:37:50","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T05:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2012\/12\/13\/on-being-26-rather-than-62\/"},"modified":"2012-12-13T05:37:50","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T05:37:50","slug":"on-being-26-rather-than-62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2012\/12\/13\/on-being-26-rather-than-62\/","title":{"rendered":"On Being 26 Rather Than 62"},"content":{"rendered":"

W. K. writes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

You recently mentioned<\/a> your being very happy, given what's wrong with the world, to be 62 rather than 26; I am 26. Although, sadly, I think liberalism will run until it destroys itself as a parasite that destroys its host, this metaphysical fact of evil's being self-destructive is reason enough for hope. People have always sensed that the world is falling apart, because in a sense it always has been, but even greater than the mystery of evil is the mystery of goodness. Rather than regretting my being 26 rather than 62, I remember, in my Mavphil<\/em>-inspired gratitude exercises, that the cruelest regime in the history of mankind fell during my lifetime.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I have always believed that Good and Evil are not opposites on a par, but that somehow Good is more fundamental and that Evil is somehow derivative or interstitial or parasitic or privative.  The Thomist doctrine of evil as privatio boni<\/em> is one way of explaining this relation, though that doctrine is open to objections<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I agree with my correspondent that, in the end, Good triumphs.  Unfortunately, it is a long way to the end, a long march along a via dolorosa<\/em> with many stations of suffering.  I don't relish making that journey.  Hence my satisfaction at the thought that my life is, most likely, three-quarters over.  As I said in that post-election post,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

One can hope to be dead before it all comes apart.  Fortunately or unfortunately, I am in the habit of taking care of myself and could be facing another 25 years entangled in the mortal coil.  When barbarism descends this will be no country for old men.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I too am grateful that the Evil Empire fell during my lifetime.  But now we have an incompetent jackass in the White House, a hard-core leftist, who was given four more years by a foolish electorate for whom panem et circenses<\/em> are the supreme desiderata.  Innocent of the ways of world, trapped in leftist fantasy land, he is the polar opposite of Ronald Reagan.  We are in deep trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I do not counsel despair. We live by hope, within this life and beyond it.  We shall hope on and fight on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>Liberty Forever?<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

W. K. writes, You recently mentioned your being very happy, given what's wrong with the world, to be 62 rather than 26; I am 26. Although, sadly, I think liberalism will run until it destroys itself as a parasite that destroys its host, this metaphysical fact of evil's being self-destructive is reason enough for hope. … Continue reading “On Being 26 Rather Than 62”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236,39,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ageing","category-human-predicament","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}