(repost for Steemit)
“寧為太平犬，莫做亂離人” (nìng wéi tàipíng quǎn, mò zuò luàn lí rén), or “Better to be a dog in a peaceful time, than to be a human in a chaotic (warring) period.”
The above line is also known as the “Chinese Curse”, and is often translated as “May you live in interesting times.”
Why do I bring this up? Because we are in a chaotic period. According to StyxHexenhammer666, it’s a moral panic, or shows signs of being a moral panic and it will pass. Now, he might be right, but that doesn’t take away my worry. I read and have read quite a bit. Silly tomes like “Fahrenheit 451”, “1984”, “Animal Farm”, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and more of those apocalyptic stories about what might happen when horrible ideas get their foot in the door and are allowed to expand.
I’m a centrist. I don’t like what either the left or the right is doing, and especially the extreme sides of the spectrum. What worries me even more, is that the people that call themselves the “left”, are using the books I mention as manuals for attempting to create utopia. They aren’t. They are warnings.
The crux of the matter is that we need ideas and ideologies of both sides of the spectrum. The will to change of the left, and the stability of the right, in perfect balance. This requires all sides to listen to each other. Right now, surprisingly, the conservatives are seeing that, and the “progressives” aren’t. Right now, the right is fighting for free speech and liberty, and the left want censorship and totalitarianism.
It’s like I’ve fell asleep and woke up in bizarro world. Left is right, up is down, black is white. War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength.
It’s disturbing. And it should disturb you.