I’m Sorry, I Must Be Stupid!

One would ask, how many times do you need to do something before you realize the same result is going to happen? For me, I guess I haven’t hit my limit, but I sure hope I’m learning enough to stop commenting around certain people. Maybe it is a generational thing as those younger are certain to be the ones that know more about things than those like me that have spent a lifetime doing it. But obvious to them, I suspect, I must have done it wrong and must have produced the wrong effects more often than they can count as they surely are the living results of my generations misdoings. I don’t remember, but I suspect I played the knowledge card against my parents and those of their age, but I never lost sight of the fact that they had knowledge I did not, no matter what the internet might be able to produce in support of anyone’s thinking. That is the one problem with social media and the internet, everyone can find the truth they want to hear and not the real truth.

Somehow though, through all my experiences and my own use of the internet, I have gotten more stupid as I’ve aged. I didn’t mean to and I know when I retired I was still respected for having some intelligence and responsibility. But in four short years, the old way has surely become the wrong way. I suspect it will take another 20 to 30 years to really know, as the all knowing younger generation will be subjected to the odd looks followed by comment about their own stupidity. I probably won’t be alive to witness the awakening this smarter generation will have as the offspring they are raising rise and assure them of their own stupidity and how wrong they were in doing whatever they did all their life. I wish I was though, just so I could laugh and say, I get it.

Mind you, not everything or everyone falls into this category. As I have written before, we have a generation that is seemingly mechanically ignorant, common-sense challenged at times, historically set on changing events to suit their sense of what appeals to them or makes sense in a technological world instead of the reality of the cold hard truth of events often played out in front of them. As I deal with many contractors, I continually hear how hard it is to find people that want to work and learn trades. They comment on how they want to stay on their phones all of the time instead of work. But that does bring up a big distinction, they run circles around my generation using technology.

It is a grievance generation never quite fully satisfied with the world. Constantly blaming others for the misfortunes or lack of opportunity and sometimes when the fortune is shining on them, they lose sight of the fact that the only one to advance their position is their responsibility. And sometimes, things are just fucked up and have no explanation. Our constitution is a prime example, especially with the Second Amendment. It is literally impossible to wash away history because one feels sad that people endured tragedy, but I do feel we can make changes without degrading the amendment. Most of the Second Amendment rights advocates don’t really oppose strengthening gun laws or even banning certain weapons intended for war, it is more a fear of giving an inch and having it be the door opening to banishment of the amendment.

Understand, I don’t believe the entire generation to be the bane of my ire. I see many trying to make a difference and yet still be respectful to generational differences. I see plenty of ambition and those that work harder than any three people. But in a world of social media, pathological lying from both sides, division of every subject imaginable and no desire to work towards compromise, those of my generation are baffled as to how things will ever get done. It is a contest of who can be the squeakiest wheel seeking to get greased first leaving nothing for the other. I can only hope that justice will arise, those in the middle will rise to the occasion and again make fringe left and right thinking a grievance and not the rule of law. Frankly, I am in as much disgust of the MAGA idiots and their extremism as the left’s destruction of history, saving the world from ourselves, and the unrealistic New Green Deal.

I always thought real history was used to decide the rights and wrongs of how we should conduct ourselves. Not for a lot of the younger generation though. They have decided how they want the world to appear and in doing so, they’ve been wiping out our past that was disagreeable for themselves. Things like removing statues, literary genocide, public building name changes, flag changes, sports teams being renamed and an expectation that the world is fair, even, and that everyone gets a seat at the table and when someone in Florida does the same thing from the fringe right, it is a ghastly move by the right and certainly must be unjust and unhinged according to the fringe left. One of these days, reality and truth will hit like a ton of bricks and everyone will realize the world is still, and will always be, a dog-eat-dog world and is unfair. Frankly, Logan’s Run was a fantasy and we all know how that ended. We must learn that every generation has wisdom, power, truth, justice, and a knowledgeable way to the promise land of freedom and peace and that history is just that, history. Personally, I don’t agree with either side clearing history that was unsettling or conceived to be celebratory of the past. No one is favored when you are given a unclear reality of the truth of our ancestors or events occurring today that will have the same reaction years from now.

At times, I feel I’m losing my way and purpose. Oh sure, I get asked about how to fix this or how does that work. The occasional, “can you just help me because I don’t understand?”. I generally do it, but maybe I should respond with the same opinionated rhetoric thrown at me when I throw my two cents into the ring. Maybe they just don’t want to hear what I have to say as a confirmation of what the wrong way is and that they’ll do it some other way surely achieving optimal results. I should get better about just saying hello, goodbye, and smile a lot in between. It would save me a lot of grief and ill feeling.

I’m sure some will be offended and I’m sure some will shake their head in agreement. Doesn’t really matter to me, what does matter, is that some people are expectantly allowed to voice their opinion and yet others are not allowed to argue with them or contradict their opinion. This mainly to prevent them from shutting down and declaring they are done! This to avoid a difference of opinion that will make them feel bad by being told they may not be right. I’m generally ok with someone telling me I’m wrong. But I tend to stew when it comes from someone with absolutely no experience as compared to myself. Self-conceived experts abound loudly and want you to understand how wrong us older were and they, in turn, will save the planet by doing it with the correctness unlike the previous generational experts. With justice and the internet to support them, they will set the record straight. As I said, the internet has a solution to support every ideology. And for the record, I don’t want to tell anyone they are wrong, but I may question why they think the way they do. There is a difference.

Outside of me just shutting up my mouth and smiling a lot, what other options do I have? I suppose I could say you’re right, I am wrong and I’m glad I got to witness the correct way before I die, but I would be told I’m a smartass. I should just keep my mouth shut and understand that anything I have to say will be unappreciated by some and appreciated by others and I shouldn’t decide who it is that I would like to be in good favor with. I suppose that is the real issue, I want to feel appreciated and I want to talk about differences without fear that feelings are getting hurt. But, I should shut my mouth and let some other sucker be corrected and told how wrong they are for having an opinion or any kind of perspective other than that of the offended party. At least I would get to laugh.

If only I wasn’t so stupid!