Lotus Eaters

"A grown man knows the world he lives in." Pontius Pilate to Judah ben-Hur.

It seems the Western World suffers a shortage of such grown men at this juncture in history. How do I make this assertion? Well lets look at some datum shall we?

An oppressive totalitarian nation that is busily starving its people to death is preparing to aim a long range missile at Hawaii.

Another tyrannical regime is busily killing its own people as it rushes to complete a nuclear weapon.

We have an American legislature that is willing to pass laws who's length exceeds 1,000 pages without reading them and all in the name of expediency.

But the Western World is willing to stop in its tracks to honour a performer who's personal issues eclipsed what meagre contributions he offered to Western culture when that person dies.

AndyJ wonders where we are going? My optimism with every such display of navel-gazing diminishes. Will we, as Aeneid had to do, press on and leave the land of the lotus-eaters to find a new homeland? Or while we vainly try to warn them and to be ready, will we all suffer a cataclysm? The future is very cloudy on this issue with catastrophe being a surer bet right now.

Sic transit Logos, ave Mecca.