Opus 2024-363: A New Contrast

I have several times made the statement that I am not a cynic, I’m a skeptic. I stand by that.  I have no trouble with it.

A new contrast came to mind as I was thinking about my children and the children of friends.  They are all very bright young people.  OK, they’re not so young anymore but compared to me they are.  They are wonderful, warm hearted, compassionate.  In a word they are what anybody would want his children to be.

But where I am overjoyed with how my children are turning out this others area bit disappointed.  My children are more conservative than I am in many areas.  We have our differences but that mainly in areas where flexibility is an asset.  My friend has children who have become Never Trumper’s with a lot of values consistent with woke progressivism.

Why the difference?

Obviously I am not God and I cannot give you a definitive answer.  One of the things that came to mind as I was making comparisons and contrasts is that people would think we were both a bit out of the box, shall we say.  We don’t just go along with everything.  So why the difference?

I am wondering if the difference is that where I am a skeptic and refused to accept things just because someone says so, he is a rebel that refuses to accept any authority that doesn’t go along with what he wants.  There’s a real difference there.

I think that perhaps the difference comes out in our children.  Mine are rebels but they are thinking rebels.  They know why they are rebels.  They refused to go along with the crowd.  His children have done well for themselves.  Money is no object.  They are successful professionals. In the process they seem to have sold their souls to the devil.  I exaggerate.  Consider that hyperbole.  But the principle is there.

So think for yourself.  Don’t accept whatever people tell you just because they are authorities.  But don’t fall into blind rebellion.  Set your  course based on your compass, not the direction of the wind and current.

homo unius libri