Slip Slidin' Away

Slip Slidin' Away

God only knows
God makes his plan
The information's unavailable
To the mortal man
We work our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway
When in fact we're slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
Slip slidin' away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're slip slidin' away

Paul Simon

As we go through life, if we survive long enough, we begin to develop a feel for it. When we begin, we are dependent, naked and unable to walk on our own.

If we are lucky, we will have a safe and loving family that will feed us, clothe us, and nurture us in such a way that we will one day be reasonably self-sufficient.

Along the way, there are things we learn. Some of them we know, some of them we feel. And some of them, we only suspect. As a child, we are sometimes read stories referred to as fairy tales. In those stories, there are sometimes magical animals, powerful wizards or witches, and little known spells that can change frogs into princes or dirt into diamonds.

Now, as we age, we are told that those were merely children's books, and we are to discard them as we learn how the "real world works". The real world - we are told - depends on hard work, fair play, and following the rules of the game. If we do these things - we are promised - we will find happiness, love, luxury and long life. That is the American Dream.

Recently, however, reality has harshly reminded us that what we've always been told is not always as true as we were told. No, as we see the rich become richer, the poor become homeless, and the sick become bankrupt, we are startled to see that there are rules that suckers follow - and then there are the secret rules for the elites of the world that keep them over and above those of us who are merely hard working.

Whether it is Donald Trump's masterful playing of the banks and the bankruptcy laws - or the GOP-backing, penthouse-owning, Cayman-banking hedge-fund managers who pay a lower effective tax rate than most plumbers or school teachers - Americans of the new millineum have learned that George Orwell was right. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." ― George Orwell, Animal House

And how does that leave us? Defeated? Deflated? Resigned to our fate? Surely, that is true for some. As noted in a recent New York Times article,

"Something startling is happening to middle-aged white Americans. Unlike every other age group, unlike every other racial and ethnic group, unlike their counterparts in other rich countries, death rates in this group have been rising, not falling. That finding was reported Monday by two Princeton economists, Angus Deaton, who last month won the 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, and Anne Case."

Yes, it is true for some - but not for most of us. No, when we are scared, when we are threatened, we do what we do best. We get angry. We get self-righteous. And in a frenzy of mob-fueled rage, we lash out at whatever group is beneath us on the social register and blame them for everything.

Because, in some sort of kindergarten flashback, we are suspecting that all those childhood scary stories weren't fiction after all. No, there really are hidden schemes at work - and there are strings being pulled and spells being cast - and the sun is about to set on our story. And we all know, what awful things happen once it is dark…

And as pundits and Bush bundlers are frantically trying to find the meaning in all this - and while the favored few are calmly pulling the levers of power as they always have done - the rest of us are left with that sinking feeling that it is all sliding away from us. And just like desert mirage, that sand we thought was water is slipping through our fingers - and we are left parched.

Are you puzzled at the polls where Donald Trump and Ben Carson prevail? Don't be. As every Pentecostal knows, these are the end-times of our democracy. That noble experiment in equality - always promised but never quite delivered - is no longer plausible.

And once the masses lose faith, beware. All bets are off. And anything can happen in a country with more guns than people.

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908 Vista Oaks Ln, Knoxville, TN, United States

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