Ignoring the richness of life

The ungrateful may destroy all we cherish.

We are often reminded of aspects of society that are far from ideal.

Poverty and extreme inequality are constantly discussed. Slum dwellers are contrasted with the wealthy living in mansions.

Damning statistics are endlessly quoted to support arguments for one policy or another, many of them bleak, painting an unflattering picture of how we live.

A conveyer belt of haunting, emotive anecdotes featuring hardship, unfairness or destitution are used primarily in the traditional media just in case we miss the point.

This compendium of dysfunction, failure and defeat is endlessly with us, broadcast at anyone who will listen.

There seems to be no end to the misery around us. Our world has never had it so bad.

Enragement is everywhere

There is a great deal of agitation to right these wrongs and socially engineer new ways of living.

Although much of it emanates from the powerful and influential, some of the action is at street level, with local activists protesting and demonstrating as they wave their cardboard signs and chant focus-grouped slogans.

This legion of the unhappy constantly work to ensure we never forget how unfair, racist, sexist, imbalanced, exploitative and outright wrong our society is.

The emotions on display are predictable; typically rage that such horrors exist. Life should be fairer, more equal and with a greater sense of balance. In a rich country like ours why is anyone unemployed, homeless or depressed?

This presents such negatives as aberrations. It ignores the human condition and overlooks most of history.

Activists are shocked at the unemployment, homelessness and anguish we see around us. This mentality misunderstands how rare affluence, abundance and peace are. The prosperity we enjoy is historically unusual and difficult to explain.

Much of the angst ignores the observation that fairness exists nowhere in nature and equality is a damaging fictional concept when imposed.

Things are not perfect in the poisoned minds of the resentful so we must amend this imperfection even if it takes everything we’ve got.

We have heard this our whole lives. It seems to be everywhere, and yet something about it feels off. We sense something is operating beyond superficial concerns about the downtrodden.

An absence of gratitude

Too many overlook what we possess to focus on what we lack. This is an orientation, a way of seeing the world that misses a great deal.

It ignores how rare our bounties are which in turn rests upon a spoiled belief our advantages are automatic. They can then be used to advance more pressing ambitions because they will always be present.

The result of this ingratitude is usually loss. We lose the things we took for granted because in the rush to improve them we neglect their foundations.

Which is what we now see. Every day in Western nations we witness some rare jewel built up over centuries sacrificed to the whims of feminists, diversity quotas or climate models.

We abuse school education to spread propaganda to children because activists cannot resist a captive audience. Over time this destroys something precious and deeply erodes the trust educational systems require to remain in operation.

We damage the effectiveness of the armed forces to flirt with novel ideas about gender or sexuality and ignore the purpose of the institution itself, leaving ourselves open to invasion or worse.

We pursue disgraced ideas about central planning and government control to indulge fantasy schemes around wealth distribution that overlook what we have learned about human nature not to mention market dynamics and economics generally.

When given influence and power over society the unhappy will destroy all they touch.

Acting like gods

The ungrateful are not anchored to reality. Their grand visions entice them with a dazzling future the rest of us cannot see.

The fantasy-prone mind stands at the distant periphery of life and mistakes it for the high ground such is the clarity of their vision, misunderstanding success is not about visions it is about effort, often a long process of trial and error involving numerous painful course adjustments as real life asserts itself.

Because our unique society’s richness is taken for granted it is squandered chasing illusions of something even better. All that we possess is never enough. Some want more and dismantle what we have to get it.

Those at a distance from maintaining our world are especially prone to this. The mundane reality of managing complex systems is lost on them so they easily become detached and drift into the heavens where they look down on life from a great height and overlook its myriad of details.

The complexity of sanitation systems, the brittleness of farming and food logistics, the difficulties of healthcare delivery. You can wreck a lot when you act like a god and chase improvements no one involved in their delivery would want.

We see this everywhere now.

Feckless politicians destroying reliable energy sources to chase the dream of zero carbon. Media celebrities endorsing the mental abuse and mutilation of children. Dogooders campaigning to open borders or welcome incompatible aliens with no understanding of the consequences for civil unrest or economic hardship.

All this is based upon insufficient appreciation for all that we have and a disconnect from the realities of maintaining it, a hallmark of the ungrateful.

They won’t stop

We see constant resentment the world does not match the pictures in the heads of dreamers. This is a permanent displeasure so capitulating to them never helps.

They will always do this as their orientation is to focus on what is missing, not making the most of the advantages they already possess.

The lives of the ungrateful are poor because they cannot see the riches at their disposal.

This is glass-half-empty thinking writ large. These are the pessimists, rationalizing their bleak outlook as cosmic wrongs only the enlightened attend to and not as maladjustment to life.

Many of today’s causes are driven by these self-proclaimed visionaries. They seem to be everywhere.

They remind us of the heirs to great fortunes. Too removed from the hard work of wealth creation so they misunderstand much of what they see. Life is easy when someone else is managing the trust fund.

Worse, they imagine themselves an aristocracy, better than the small minded who miss the bigger picture. So they detach from the everyday concerns of the ordinary, entranced by utopian ideas that seem sophisticated to them, much of it a substitute for real purpose and the hard work it demands. Life inside our heads is soft and pleasant unlike grubby reality with its sharp edges and abrasive uncertainty.

We must remind ourselves how rare our amazing societies are. Most of the world cannot build or maintain complex first-world structures and institutions.

Nor can the ungrateful since they are too busy tearing them down.

Perhaps it is time to remind the dogooders our world is not theirs to wreck. Their preoccupations should be treated as early warning systems, a signal something needs extra protection from their predations. If not, they will destroy everything we value and all because the ungrateful were given influence and power instead of being chased.

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