Today I decided to thin my pile of unread articles which I’ve torn out of Discover magazines but haven’t had time to read until now. The first of those articles triggered a flashback to the time I was a teenager. I read a book titled, Trees. Like the retrieved Discover article I read today, that book’s theme is the communication of trees with each other. Haply, that flashback supports a concept that is at the base of my lifestyle. By definition, the word style implicitly suggests change. But when combined with the word ‘life’ it gains meaning.
Very early in life I realized that most people retain their resistance to a truth if it is in opposition to a long-held belief. Conversely, I realized that whenever I need to consider the truth or falseness of a belief, I must adjust my old belief however contrary it may be to new information. A belief must conform to a truth, not the other way around.
It is my intellectual and moral responsibility to maintain a non-contradictory and comprehensive lifestyle no matter where cool logic leads. Although the word ‘lifestyle’ is convenient, it does not reflect the constancy of my anchor. Styles come and go. My anchor is constant. That does not mean that my judgment and behavior are frozen in some specific time frame or other. On the contrary, I am never fixed on a mind set.
As a teenager it never occurred to me to smoke tobacco because my peers did. I was never curious about the effects of drugs or alcohol. I was not at all interested in getting drunk. There was always one me, not because I forced myself to be a ‘good boy,’ but because I chose to be one person for my own comfort, well-being, and identity.
None of my self-assessment is meant to be boastful. It is merely a description of who I am and who I am not. For example, I abhor slavery, Plato and Aristotle not withstanding. Only humans and certain species of ants practice slavery. I deeply value understanding and compassion. And I don’t consider my lifestyle as noble…it’s just a fact.
Emotionally, I’m not in a cocoon of complacency in contrast to the tragic political turmoil in today’s America. The animosity between and within our major political parties has reached a level almost as severe as that during our Civil War. If for no other reason, there won’t be a literal civil war in America (to the disappointment of anti-Americans like Antifa) because a war among separate states is at the very least impracticable. But, whatever our political differences, a return to one America is urgent.
Severe damage to the American way of life is the result of blatantly unreasonable demands from a handful of socialist officials in the Congress who are relentlessly attempting to ‘cancel’ any vestige of America’s past. The revered ‘melting pot’ has become a hotbed of debilitating contention. Democracy and Socialism don’t mix well despite naming socialist nations, ‘Democratic Socialist Republic.’
The United States doesn’t need a lobotomy.
Reflections and commentaries by the other Mario Martone 