A trope of the times is that parents are super beings, good or evil, who shape us all our lives. We emulate them or revile them, but their effects and examples are with us always and influence us deeply, if only subconsciously. Consequently, conscientious modern parents take their duties fanatically.

As a student of real history, I know how false this image is. We are formed by all our experiences, children are educated by the adults around them, but parents are generally just more “big people.” Certainly in my own case I saw my parents as fine folks, with many traits to be adopted, but also just adults with an extra role as my parents. Joan’s family was prone to a little more hero worship of her father.

And never forget that in the not so distant past there were slaveowner parents, Nazi parents, witch-burning parents and on and on.  Hardly the right kind of gods …

We are never slaves of the past, unless we choose to be so. We can pick and choose freely among role models. For the most part, we can escape and transform any past experiences to anything we want. Only those who want to wallow in victimhood use the past as an excuse for the present.

Because of all that, I am horrified by the intrusion of “parents’ rights” into education. As in most of our current culture, it seems that only the most ignorant and fanatic among us are so sure they are right that they will seek to disrupt what calm and normal people believe in, and which will allow a child to learn to function in society. “I know what is right for my children” is stupid, wrong, and has a touch of the slave holder. I cringe as these loudmouths take over our institutions.

At least as a metaphor, “village privacy” is an oxymoron. There is none. That is why people _ especially in Western cultures _ have traditionally run away from small local towns to the fresh start and anonymity of big cities or a frontier. 

When everybody knows everything about you, that means you are judged, prejudged, and evaluated with prejudiced awareness of all your previous activities and plans. The past is always with you. You are never free and secrets are impossible.

On the other hand, in a village you are fairly secure from your neighbors. You know who is what and what they are likely to do who is honest or helpful or not. Strangers are the dangers. If such a society is stifling, it can also be remarkably cohesive. That does not, of course, mean such cohesiveness is necessarily good or fun for any given individual. 

The reason I mention all this is that we approach a global village status, at least electronically. If you are not known to the increasingly integrated electronic systems, you don’t exist. And existing without electronic recognition is in fact becoming all but impossible

The terrifying truth, for those immersed in Western ideology, is that there may soon be no city nor frontier to which to run for a fresh start. A universal ID solves an awful lot of problems, and it is already de facto embraced by the wealthy and middle class, who cherish their credit cards and internet identities.

And global privacy? Well you know…

Fanatic partisans of free speech assume an absolute immunity that is not implied in the “right.” It may, and probably should, be true that one should not go to jail just for saying something. But that little ”just” contains barbs.

For one thing, free speech does not imply anonymous free speech. The speaker should be connected with the words. Anyone who shouts “fire” in a crowded theater has no right to not be identified as the instigator of the panic. Privacy is not part of the equation. 

Similarly, free speech does not mean “free of consequences.” If someone dies or is injured as a result of what someone says, blame should be assigned. Legal procedures should be involved. Nobody has the right to injure someone else with made up fantasies.

Basically, the main flaw in our free speech “rights” interpretation may be that shield of consequence. It should be much easier to sue for damages in the case of deliberate lies and imaginary accusations.

That’s where it gets sticky, unfortunately, for authoritarian countries restrict anything which may “damage the state”. Yet free speech should have some legal guardrails, particularly with respect to those injured by false accusations. Set a low bar for most private libel action.

I’m disturbed not only by the current excess of free speech, but also even more by the lack of common sense and established fact as counter balance.

Traditional political wisdom claims that anyone who is not a radical when young and a conservative when old is an idiot. In the modern era I would further subdivide a normal life into four 20-year stages: childhood, young adult, middle-aged, and elder. Plus, beyond 80, “coda.”

Any true moral or philosophic guide must realize that it needs to be flexible. Even simple rules like “do not lie, cheat, or steal” vary by circumstance. And few circumstances change as much for us as human beings as simply aging.

I’m not going to attempt to generalize too much, nor to try to be too specific. Obviously, the young are more adaptable and more restless than older folks. And they are afflicted by many other attributes, often driven by age-related hormone issues.

What is sad in all this is advice to a person in any of those subsets to pick an inappropriate philosophic guideline and stick to it, thick or thin. Nothing is more ridiculous than a youth playing wizened guru, nor an ancient wreck pretending to be as young as springtime.

Life can be long, and should be varied, and points should never be awarded (internally) by being consistent. For all the blather about capitalism and religion, the real key to Western economic and cultural dominance has always been a belief that an individual could change and start over. 

When we do, we should find some position that agrees with our situation, and adopt an outlook which serves our current existence. 

Of course, the real drive for immigration limits has always been to keep out “others.” I fear it will be solved in the modern world only with biometric IDs for everyone. But the anti-immigrant crowd in the US _ historically a uniquely immigrant country _ has adopted a strange twist, saying we should only allow in highly skilled people like doctors and scientists.

This is a very odd attitude when you consider it. Generally immigration to this country has been “poor huddled masses” totally unskilled. They worked at awful hard jobs nobody else wanted to do in hopes of a better life and dreams of a future. We still have lots of jobs nobody wants to do. Waves of German, Irish, Italians _ peasants or equivalent _have built the United States.

The only “people” who truly want skilled immigrants are the corporations, who can use these more compliant and less well paid professionals to keep down the positions and wages of the native-born and educated. As a programmer, I saw these tactics for years, as companies pleaded for high-tech immigrants because of a “labor shortage” that only existed because they did not want to pay more. 

Most people, in fact, should want only unskilled workers to compete in the marketplace. Anyone in a better position_ even including only speaking English better _should be happy to have an unskilled person _ who is no threat to their job _ washing the dishes or doing the other necessary menial chores. As the poorest have done throughout the ages.

The Fed is currently battling inflation. Of course that is a condition of rising prices _ most notably food. Revolutions are more often caused by a spike in the price of bread than in the cost of a coat.

One of the main indicators this economic elite considers most strongly is “wage inflation.” But not wage inflation of CEOs, bank managers, or corporate board directors. No, the wages they care about are those of waitresses and taxi drivers and retail clerks. The peasantry, in fact.

Of course the Fed wants to keep down the price of a loaf of bread. But its real judges _ who control the jobs of the Fed governors via massive political bribes _must pay for services. How much for a good meal, or a car ride, or a nanny. They want the peasants kept where they used to be. 

I know it’s a cynical attitude. But seriously, do we ever hear the Fed claiming that “CEO’s pay is rising over 2% a year, something must be done!”? No, of course not. How could the salary of a king or anyone else in the elite possibly matter in the grand theme of things?

So I take all the babble about wage inflation and shortage of labor with not even a grain of salt. It’s high-toned economic gibberish.

Like much economic doctrine, by for and of the elite.

In this crazy meteorological year, the rest of the world and country has baked, while around here it has been cooler than normal. In fact our first heat wave of three 90° days just occurred, following Labor Day. 

The beaches officially close, no lifeguards nor pavilions. But on our town bay sands, people still gather and dip into the calm waters now and then. Mostly seniors, with a sprinkling of anyone else lucky enough to find time in this busy season.

I took my beach chair, an old paperback, and sat for hours. Hot blazing sun, cool calm saltwater with lots of little fish. I stared at the horizon, prepared to think all kinds of grand thoughts, and suddenly found myself hypnotized and emptied of all save a remembrance of peaceful meditation.

Unfortunately, that happens a lot these days. Good intentions to think deeply and in focus, somehow led astray and into a tangle of minor observations and memories. 

I suppose I should feel guilty. Yet I’ve put in my social work time over the years, for what that may have been worth to the greater good. There’s 8 billion other minds out there, many younger and sharper. Let them do some of the heavy lifting.

In fact, I wish a lot of our industrial leaders and politicians would put down their self-anointed leadership roles and spend some mindless time on the sand themselves. I’m less and less sure a geriatric-led society is good for anyone. Grand thoughts and assumed wisdom or not.

One of the things I learned as a sheltered young man reading the autobiography of Malcolm X was how rational it was for poor people to “waste” money playing the numbers lottery. Saving a quarter was hardly worth the loss of a dream even though saving those quarters might add up.

The idea that quarters add up is something that everyone pays lip service to, and that is mostly preached by the wealthy. For those with lawyers and accountants and lots of assets, quarters more or less add up by themselves. For the rest of us _ not so much.

As many have realized how economically stuck their lives have become, the lightning strike of fast wealth via magical luck has become ubiquitous. Much in gambling and lotteries, of course, but also in lots of other dreams of small enterprise or legal lawsuits.

Well, like the numbers and the poor, such dreams do help to keep us sane. In spite of hype, standard meritocratic propaganda hardly applies to most people. The hardest working and best employees are not usually the ones making a lot of money, nor the ones most likely to do so in the future.

It’s an old affliction of civilization, going back into prehistory. Gambling is human, and must help us cope with cultural restrictions. For the most part, it is a fairly benign activity, rational within limits.

Like lightning strikes _ amazing when it happens, but pretty rare for any given individual.

Metaphors and imagination are wonderful tools with which to control our mood. Imagine, for example, that the sky seems to be going crazy. Then imagine two scenarios. In one, you are secure in a snug cabin while the storm rages. In another, you are harnessing its power and surfing the changes in exhilaration.

I’ve fluctuated between both states, as I guess is normal. As an elder, I find many current social turmoils frightening and even incomprehensible. And some days I retreat into my snug internal cabin, shut out interruptions, and read or putter away at projects while the weather is forgotten. But other times I float above the angry clouds, enjoying the wild entertainment, even dipping in here and there as the notion strikes.

I think in many eras, those fortunate enough to reach old age have been confused and upset at how their world has become different and usually more hostile. When that happens to me I severely remind myself how privileged I am to have been granted so long a period of existence.

Of course, that does not help the young _ even if they ask me for my opinion it is usually of little help. I have mostly outlived my days of riding the storm, even though I can remember doing so when (I think) the storms were far different than they are now.

As far as we can tell, most mammals dream. For whatever reason, we also do so. Dreams can be controlled, wild, incomprehensible, fantastic, immersive. Mostly, dreaming is a wonderful entertainment.

We can, of course, carry that into our waking hours. We imagine all kinds of things, often believing them to the exclusion of mundane reality. Sometimes it is a coping method to escape a harsh environment. Sometimes it is just a means to relieve boredom.

Many sober instructors harshly tell us to keep dreams under control. A few, carefully nurtured, they accept as a spur to ambition. “Do this and you will be rewarded!” But extravagant dreams, too often, we are warned, are simply gateways to lazily doing nothing and wasting time.

I suppose there is some truth in that. Reading too much fiction or watching too much entertainment can become similar to an enforced catatonia. As can obsessions such as religious visions. Better, perhaps, to jump up and actually do something.

But I also think a life without fantasy is kind of like a nutritious meal with no taste. We can survive day-to-day in a gray slog of useful activity, but at what cost to our psyche?

So, at least within reason (and what would that be?) I applaud fantasy, and try to treat it as another remarkable gift of human existence.