Has our nation become one giant festering wound no longer capable of fighting off adulteration? When an infection attacks the body, the body sends white blood cells to the site, the white blood cells attack the infection and as they degenerate they drain off (along with injured tissue) as pus. Gun violence is an impurity that because there is such vitriolic division (i.e. widespread infection) inflaming the living tissue of these United States we do not have the resources to spare to heal this other wound. All of our defenses are being spent on imperious entrenchment protecting us from them, whoever them may momentarily be, and allowing unchecked gun violence to continue.

There was another incident this week.

If only I could refer to the perpetrators as pus to be drained, but pus is a sign that we are healing; we are not. The perpetrators, the agitators, the perpetuators, are the feverish red streaks spreading tendrils of hate and violence ever outward. It is of considerable note that agitators and perpetuators are the caustic thruways enabling realization; and it could be argued that anyone shrugging and excusing their self with “What can I do?” is a perpetuator.

It is true that where there are guns there is gun violence. And it is true that our nation boasts more guns and more gun violence than any developed nation on this planet. This week I am once again reading a parade of statistics that show us for the fatuous simpletons we are. Individuals nurturing a system that is threatening our survival, bracing a structure that is collapsing in upon itself. Individuals pretending empathy and compassion to perpetuate irresponsible power. Individuals not in search of Beauty, Truth, Wisdom, Justice, but in defense of bureaucracy, convention, certainty, division. Individuals so full of their self they cannot see the self in another; they see all others as mere extensions in place to serve.

Agitators and perpetuators. This is our problem. Every nation, state, culture, group, faction and/or cohort includes individuals who (in their fight against them) may be inclined to perpetrate. In this nation, regarding gun violence, we (the fatuous simpletons) make it easy to perpetrate. America began as an experiment in which our government was created to protect individual freedom and it has evolved into a conflagration in which factions define then dictate only freedoms consistent with their specific ideology and agenda. United my ass. A country that allows the indiscriminate killing of its citizens, its children, to the comparable extent that this country does, is a country that does not care about its future.

I have always maintained that happiness as one's search for Beauty, Truth, Wisdom, Justice is hopeless in that we can only approach and will never attain Perfection in these Ideals. I have also always maintained that to advance, improve, progress we must (regardless) consistently work toward these Ideals. Yet partially because the future is accelerating but mostly because we are fatuous simpletons, as a nation we have now fallen so far behind in this effort that our future has given up. Our future has stepped aside allowing us to pass with nary a nod. Our future has become this moment; bureaucracy, convention, certainty, division. And this moment will only stretch… so… far…