We’re All Gonna Die – With or Without Insurance – Let’s Aim for Magnificence in the Face of Fear
California Democrat Nancy Pelosi made a dire pronouncement regarding the Senate bill on the Republican version of health insurance legislation. On CBS This Morning, she warned, “We do know that many more people, hundreds of thousands of people, will die if this bill passes.”
All of the drama and wringing of hands concerning the false right to health care serves as an effective distraction to reality. The very idea that humans have an unalienable right to “affordable health care” mandated by an oligarchy exempt from the very insurance purchases they have mandated for their serfs should make every American choke on bile. It’s akin to demanding the right to infallible airplanes.
The face beyond the barricade
How ya dance and ya sing to every single line
Like it was you up on that stageI mean to know your secret
I’m asking you for help
How do I fall in love with anything
Like you seem to do so well?
I gotta get back to when it came out
The way it was supposed to sound
Before money was ever changing hands
And my feet were on the groundWhen I could feel the wind’s direction
When I knew what songs to singAnd he said, “Try not to get upset
Let it all go by
Because how can it be that bad
If we’re all gonna die?”So I started to think about
That girl that disappeared
And if really was the road that pulled me away
Or if I’m still a victim of my fearsAs she showed me, the machine ran
That our words protect us from
How she could keep me in the moment
How that’s all there ever wasAs she called, I asked to see her
Even if it’s just a couple days
I could meet her out in Georgia
She could fly out to LAAnd if the plane goes down on her way to me
I think I know how she would react
She’d smile and close her eyes..
Think about her life..
While some voice screaming in the back
“We’re all gonna die.”
So try not to get upset
Everything is fine
Hey, it’s not that big a deal
We’re all gonna die
But fear has always been an effective motivator and persuader. An article in Psychology Today reveals the danger:
“Nothing makes us more uncomfortable than fear. And, we have so many: fear of pain, disease, injury, failure, not being accepted, missing an opportunity, and being scammed to name a few. Fear invokes the flight or fight syndrome; and our first reaction is always to flee back to our comfort zone. If we don’t know the way back, we are likely to follow whoever shows us a path.”
When the vast majority of Americans abdicate their own responsibilities, looking daily toward a central government to provide basic needs, it becomes all too easy to fall into the trap of misplacing trust in those who foment fear to assuage their own anxieties. Another Psychology Today blog makes this astute statement:
“An individual’s motivation for power is to acquire control over his environment. A certain amount of controlling behavior is a healthy natural survival instinct, but after a point it becomes harmful. When that happens normal survival is no longer the motivator. Underlying the quest for power is fear, and the desire for power is to eliminate fear. The more fearful a person is the more control over their environment they believe they need to feel safe. When they seek out public office this becomes a problem, because those who use power to assuage their own fear, also use fear against others to bolster and maintain their power. Citizens, who are also fearful, support the power-monger to the detriment of all.”
Fear is best utilized as a short-term inspiration. Once it becomes embedded in an individual or society, fear becomes its own threat to our better natures.
Faith is the opposite of fear. Faith motivates selfless actions and service to others. Instead of seeking empowerment from others, faith seeks to empower others.
Fear is self-interested and mercenary. Faith is eternally-focused and altruistic.
Fear leaves you cowering before your master. Faith inspires sacrificial courage.
Instead of merely accepting mortality with a vapid sense of resignation, let’s aspire to something more.
Every once in awhile, we all need to watch The Magnificent Seven. A disparate group of impulsive heroes converges to wage a suicidal war against a mining baron who is terrorizing a small prairie town in the old West. Most of the combatants die. The good guys win anyway.
Let’s stop ceding our liberty, dignity, and integrity to fear. Let’s feed our faith instead. Resolve to die while doing the next right thing. We’ll all win in the end, even when we’re dead.
Let’s commit ourselves to being magnificent.
