It is one of the hilarious twists in fate that human nature insists that we all learn our own lessons the hard and painful way, rather than being taught them the easy and painless way.
We all have to test that fire we have been told will burn us is hot enough to burn, that a blade we have been told is sharp will cut us, and so on and so forth.
This isn’t because we are stupid, I think it is because we are hardwired to crave the direct memory experience, and also because we are hardwired to gather empirical evidence before putting trust in another and their knowledge.
Of course when it comes to mating and reproduction this shit all goes out the window.
Which brings us to an interesting question.
What is the difference between a father of 20 years of age holding his newborn son, and a father of 50 years of age holding his newborn son?
How you receive the answer to this question will be totally dependent upon your own age, and experience…. TOTALLY.
The answer is the 20 year old father wants to do everything possible for his son, and his heart breaks at every little thing he fails to do, while the 50 year old father knows that there is nothing he can do for his son, except be there when his son comes calling, particularly after his son reaches 16 himself, and no longer needs a father but needs a man whom he can trust to teach him how each fuckup he made was made, and why it was a fuckup, and how to learn from it.
You see we are talking about perceptions shifting with the passage of time and accumulation of knowledge and experience.
You simply have to live a certain number of years before you realise that your human time span is simply far too short for many many things, and far too long for others, and confusing the two can often be fatal.
You also have to live a certain number of years before you truly understand that human society does not change like a river course slowly and gradually eroded over time by the river, well actually it does, but those changes are gradual, you have to live long enough to see the periodic torrential floods that completely alter the landscape to understand that they are where the majority of change takes place, and it takes place very very rapidly indeed, and with apparently little or no warning.
The Men’s Rights movement is one such, the older bastards amongst us realise that while it is important to keep the seeds alive, gradual growth and change are not realistic goals, the sole purpose of keeping the seeds alive and distributed widely is in readiness for the torrential floods that will literally alter the entire landscape overnight.
The older bastards amongst us are also old enough to see impending torrential flooding, we saw the dark clouds and flashes in the horizon three days ago, we have lived long enough to learn that the current topography of the valley could not be explained by gradual erosion alone, so some nights we would climb the peaks and sit quietly and talk with our peers and gaze out at the horizon.
The other thing we would do is compare notes, because the older bastards amongst us were not just told that fire burns and blades cut by our parents, who of course had first hand knowledge of this, but also about the Great Depression and the two World Wars and poverty and society, by our parents, who of course had first hand knowledge of this.
One of the greatest dangers you younger bastards face is this lack of knowledge, you do not know, deep within your bones, that what is legal and proper today can merit 20 years in prison this time next year, that the person or indeed institution who is your friend today, can be your implacable and deadly enemy this time next year.
In short, you all think you can change the world.
We older bastards know that yes, each man can have a very small and local influence on the world, but the world will have a massive and irresistible influence on that man… we are all individually changed far more than we could ever change the world, and this is even true for those with the most personal power, the Hitler’s of this world, so it is true a billion trillion zillionfold for the small man in the street, you and I.
Indeed, the older bastards will nod and agree that the Hitler’s are made from small men in the street who are too stupid to learn that life changes you more than you can ever change life…. nobody, not Galileo, not Newton, not Einstein, not Jobs, not Gates, nobody was changed by what they did, they were essentially the same people throughout life, being changed by the world they inhabited.
The older bastards will nod and agree that no idea ever was born from one man, no matter that the history books say otherwise, but rather like a solution becoming saturated to the point crystals can form, the world creates conditions where many men working on similar things from similar foundations arrive at similar answers at similar times.
We older bastards also know, direct from our parents who we know for a fact were not lying, but trying to teach us, that they lived through these torrential floods where the entire landscape changed overnight, and the effects upon them and their attitudes was not merely life changing but character changing.
And if you younger guys are nodding and thinking you get it, character changing like guys coming back from the Nam or Iraq with PTSD, then you don’t fucking get it… you don’t fucking get it because only a very small and easily ignored minority of the population came back from “war” with PTSD.
What my parents and grandparents were trying to tell me about was EVERY SINGLE MOTHERFUCKER ON THE ENTIRE PLANET WHO LIVED THROUGH IT getting changed FOREVER.
NOBODY did not get PTSD and a permanent character change, and these were the lucky bastards who lived through it. Those who failed to adapt died, literally… irrespective of age or sex or how hard they had had it, failing to adapt and change utterly forever was literally fatal.
So the bottom line is be very careful what you do, and do not do, today, because you could very easily find that next year a law is passed to make that thing retroactively illegal, with a minimum sentence of 20 years hard labour.
Being the small man on the street has its advantages, you get to stay under the radar, unlike the French nobility, when TSHTF… not if, when.
