A Foolish Old Man?

When young, I read "Marriage and Morals", a book dealing with a subject of considerable interest to persons of my age at the time. Its 1929 author, Bertrand Russell, was years ahead of his times. A decade after the publication of that book, Russell, whom many consider to be the foremost philosopher of my generation, accepted an offer from The City College of New York to teach in America. When guardians of our public morals discovered that Russell was the author of "Marriage and Morals", the court ordered the termination of his academic position at CCNY. He returned to England.

Bertrand Russell became a hero to many of us during horrors orchestrated by a few in our government during what has come to be known as the Vietnam era. Russell wrote and spoke his objection to the American government's Vietnam policy. He strove for peace and for the accountability of war criminals in our government. Over ensuing decades, a majority of sentient Americans have come to embrace views which he then held. Bertrand Russell, by then an old man, was again years ahead of his times.

I was relatively young when I joined even younger men and women in protesting that Vietnam disaster. I will always remember the comment of one of my older business friends. He referred to Bertrand Russell as "that foolish old man".

I, who love a good book, classical music, interesting conversation, attractive young women, green tea, and a peaceful life, today tend to consider myself an unlikely political activist. I am reminded, however, when recalling Bertrand Russell, that one is never too old.

This past week, on the day before Christmas, I launched a new website with the goal of starting a local group affiliated with the NY grassroots social activist organization known as "We Are Change". Perhaps, this is a foolish venture. It has given me an opportunity to write this blog, however, and to repeat here a bit of what is written on that site:

"What is happening here in South Florida is happening all across America. Older persons who planned and looked forward to secure and peaceful retirements have seen pensions, savings accounts, and incomes sharply reduced. Their futures and those of their children and grandchildren seem increasingly bleak.

"Working Americans, who depend upon steady paychecks to meet living expenses for themselves and their families have been hit hard. Unemployment eventually spells disaster for them. Rising living costs, uninsured medical expenses, and temporary layoffs have swelled the ranks of families dependent upon social welfare.

"Those still employed have a huge bulk of their earnings confiscated in the form of 'income taxes' and retain barely enough to support their families. Having nothing left to spare, they are financially unable to help less fortunate neighbors.

"The social 'safety net' for Americans is breaking as financial programs, states, cities, and more and more people approach financial bankruptcy. Social service agencies, churches, and private charities are stretched very thin.

"Money taken from Americans together with huge sums created through inflating the nation's money supply is spent on wars waged after bullying public support through scare tactics accompanied by government issued propaganda that later proves to have been blatant lies.

"American armed forces, instead of being used for the nation's defense, are employed to protect and to further financial interests of a wealthy few, bankers and multi-national corporations. Young Americans die or are critically injured in this charade. Surviving veterans return home to little in the way of opportunity. Largely overlooked, many become part of our nation's huge and growing homeless population.

"Misinformation continues to be spread by mainline media which now speaks incessantly of foreign countries, tribesmen, terrorists, trivia, and celebrities instead of addressing critical issues facing the lives of Americans, our reputation as citizens of a responsible nation, and critical issues faced within our own communities.

"Such problems have not been created by you and by me. They are the result of policies arrogantly and unlawfully implemented by only a very few. A handful of men and women, raised in and belonging to a privileged minority, now control the reins of a government that has now fully discarded Constitutional precepts upon which America was founded.

"These few pursue a policy of aggressive warfare and of world conquest for the purpose of militarily and financially subjugating humanity worldwide. Their goal is to gain full access to the entire resources on this planet and to control existing governments. Rationalizing such a policy by invoking a vision of world peace through their own one-world government, what Bilderbergers now define openly as a "new world order", is the height of hubris and personal hypocrisy. It is simply the ages old lust of a few for ultimate power, a natural failing understood by the founders of our country.

"Wielding unbridled power, with the conviction that they alone have the intelligence and the vision required to lead and to control mankind, they have foolishly 'killed the goose that laid the golden egg' in the United States. They are today creating havoc, both here and abroad.

"We are not fomenting violent revolution. It is our goal to inform and to recommend ways in which We the People of this nation, under our Constitution, and given more than two-hundred years of experience, can begin to solve these problems before they overwhelm us completely.

"If we wish to do this peacefully and intelligently we need your involvement. We are Change, right here in this community, can join hundreds of other chapters along with a number of like-minded groups. By forming a huge coalition, overlooking differences and focusing on areas in which we agree, we intend to do this job democratically. We need your support and cooperation. Please join us now."

I am curious to see how many, if any, of my neighbors here in this quadrant of The Sunshine State express an interest. I am far from equating myself with Bertand Russell, that brilliant man whose books and activites made such an impression on my own thoughts.

In "Thus Spake Zarathustra", Neitzche wrote, Not around the creators of new noise doth the world revolve, but about the creators of new values. Silently doth it revolve..

A New Year is fast approaching in which I plan to celebrate my seventy-seventh birthday. Written words may have power eventually. With this knowledge, in increasing numbers, we internet bloggers in the USA continue in courage and hope. I am aware that even friends and a few business associates will refer to me, hopefully with some fondness, as "that foolish old man."