Angels and demons

 

This weeks topic - angels and demons - was suggested by Pravin, Besides being an excellent prequel to Dan Brown's terrific novel The DaVinci Code, angels and demons make a good metaphor for the notion of choices in life. Choices both good and bad, the important notion being the choice is ours to  make. It's that pesky free will thing. We get to make our own choices.  Some might go so far as to say we  have to make our own choices and others might say their god makes the choice. Those folks lay it all of on god. Anything good is the will of god, anything bad is their bad choice. With free will comes responsibility - and in  theory we make thoughtful decisions based on the available information. At least in a perfect world we do. Sometimes. Of course the minefield of life certainly keeps us on our toes - until we manage to blow those toes off with a misstep.Dang – life can be complicated can’t it?  Oh well – it would be boring otherwise IMHO. What fun would that be? The eternal struggle of our conscience = do this – no, do that  - and so on. And now you know where my saying “Life’s a bitch, Then you die” comes from. The ongoing WWE tussle in my brain literally wears me out sometimes. Not often, mind you, but certainly on occasion. It is my contention we live our lives largely by habit – not having to ponder every decision, simply keeps us functioning and allows us to ponder those things which require pondering. Chicken or fish for dinner, white or red. Lager or stout. Glenlivet or Macallan - or a nice blend like Johnnie Walker Blue.

Now about that  conscience thing. The part of us that helps us distinguish between right and wrong - the repository of that set of principles/values hat guide our moral judgments. We all have one. Its that thing that, hopefully as the late Christopher Hitchens said helps us make the right decision when nobody is looking.  Some conscience comes from a religious view, some from a secular viewpoint.

One of the growing fights these days is the battle between globalists and the national populist movements being waged  politically. In many folks the conscience has not yet advanced beyond national borders. While his weeks blog is not intended to address that issue, merely point out its existence, one sill cannot but hope more folks come around to a global vision IMHO. The planet grows smaller every day and is it really such a leap to go from the US B9ill of Rights to "Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more.  Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination."  How does our conscience help shape our consciousness?? Alas, I am  afraid that is the cliffhanger for this weeks topic (at least foe me).

As you may have noticed, I am typically of  late the only LBC blogger posting from a western state of mind. This weeks comments from my cohorts should be interesting.  Ramana, Pravin, Maria and  Ashok.

See ya next week, same bat time; same bat channel. RIP Adam West.