Biologists term creatures with short life spans “ephemerals.” Comparing our lifespan with that of our planet, we may be considered ephemerals. Perhaps, it’s presumptuous of us to think of ourselves as owning things we can enjoy only briefly. As adults we become aware that we can initiate changes, but we can’t control results. A rational response to our situation would be to learn to live gracefully with our limitations while celebrating our freedom. Our bible would be the book of nature. Our leisure would be spent flirting with the muses, our excesses controlled by our devotion to the golden rule. In our age of plenty, all humans could be free.

Many people, unreconciled to human frailty, try to gain emotional security by owning physical property. These hoarders encourage us to enslave ourselves to our material appetites. The resulting system of western capitalism has created a world where 5 percent of the people control 30 percent of the world’s resources. Our economy produces more stuff for those who have plenty and $300 million warplanes to defend your stuff from those who have nothing.

Patriarchal organizations have the potential to be benevolent dictatorships but often become despotic. Corporate organizations follow this pattern often becoming criminal conspiracies. In addition to the economic damages employees find it impossible to harmonize their participation in criminal business enterprises with the call of their conscience. Isn’t it foolish to spend billions of dollars on space technology, which would spread the twin poisons of patriarchy and private property throughout the cosmos when we have failed to build civilized societies on earth?

Mark Twain warned us that, “We have the best government that money can buy.” “The Greatest Generation” has failed to take corrective action and allowed our two-party system to sell our government to the kings of commerce and industry. We are witnessing the death of representative democracy, man’s best attempt to move toward freedom for all.

John E. Gibson

Owatonna