In Praise of Common Decency

“Ashram” by Russian artist and mystic Nicholas Roerich

“It is natural to appreciate men and women for the gifts they possess. Whether they are writers, artists, scientists or even athletes, one cannot but marvel at their talents and sometimes even their genius. But is this any reason to neglect their moral qualities? Are they good, fair, honest, and generous? Often this consideration is secondary, and it is only talent that people notice. It is talent that everyone tries to cultivate, since; it is for this that people are so highly esteemed. This is why the earth is now populated with capable, talented people. It is incredible, there are swarms of them, but why are all these abilities, all these talents, all these geniuses unable to save the world? On the contrary, it could even be said that they are contributing to its destruction! We often hear people say: ‘Ah! He is so gifted; he has so many abilities that he can be forgiven everything!’ Well, this is very bad reasoning. Someone who is particularly favoured by nature must, on the contrary, make great efforts to uphold, to crown his gifts and talents with moral qualities. Otherwise, instead of becoming what he should be, a benefactor of humanity, he behaves like a thief! Many people tend to believe that the fame and fortune they have achieved are a justification for their way of doing things. Since up until now they have been successful, it must mean that they were in the right, and they can continue to impose their own views and their own decisions on everyone else. What an illusion! Material success is no proof of their good judgement. On the contrary, wisdom should make them more prudent – and also those who admire them, those who stand by and exclaim: ‘It is extraordinary! What activity; what energy!’ They say that such people are afraid of nothing. But to be afraid of nothing does not demonstrate the virtue we call faith, but rather that which we know as presumption. And not only do the presumptuous eventually take a fall, but – as history has shown us time and again – they drag others down with them!”

 

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

 

Eleven prominent bankers have committed suicide in the last 3 months.

Under normal circumstances, you could easily dismiss it as either a spate of bad luck or unfortunate coincidence but since I have a naturally suspicious outlook on things, I think the timing is extremely eerie. Not unlike the number of bankers who killed themselves in the immediate aftermath of the start of the Great Depression of 1929, things literally did not start to look up economically until after World War II in 1945.

War, unfortunately has always been the economic engine which keeps things humming along. I have a feeling those bankers saw the writing on the wall and decided to do themselves in and I DON’T find it coincidental in the least that suddenly the war drums are drumming vis-a-vis Russia over the whole issue of Ukraine and the Crimea. 

In short, they are using war to save the economy. Again.

If Crimea goes the way the US wants it, Venezuela will be next on the hit-list and after that…well… the list is pretty obvious by now, no?

I like this Aivanhov quote because it shows up the real stupidity behind politicians, industrialists, businessmen, bureaucrats, technocrats, professors as well as many mainstream artists and performers. In short, just about every acting party who is part of this reality hack. True, they may very well be the smartest minds in the room, and usually coupled with charisma, talent and good looks, that makes for a potent and heady mix, but not a single one of them, for all their knowledge and talent ever demonstrates any selfless kindness, wisdom and above all, humility which is the level where the real problem-solving will happen.

Public “intellectual” and political commentator Niall Ferguson is a right-wing, imperialist apologist. Watch him closely.

When someone does, you never hear about it, mostly because I think we live in a world where those aforementioned qualities are not celebrated and therefore doesn’t sell print or generate hits and internet revenue. There’s no place for wisdom and humility when you’re on a world stage which is all about ego, vanity and control.

Some of you may laugh at me or dismiss me as a flake for following the lives of old Hollywood actors and rock musicians like I do, but I have found that there are many lessons in examining some of those lives.

You know. There is something to be said for aging gracefully…

It’s no secret to my regular readers that I intensely dislike Madonna. True, she is an extremely shrewd business-woman and she has achieved more than any of us ever will in our lives with respect to the music she has made, the revenue she has generated, the number of albums she has sold and how she was one of the first artists to publicly embrace the LGBT community.  However, I find her to be an ugly human being. It’s her character. Her calculating nature, arrogance, attention-whoring and unending vanity which does it in for me.

Whenever I look at her, all I can ever think about is Oscar Wilde’s book, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” where Dorian makes a deal with the devil and stays eternally beautiful and youthful on the outside, all the while committing heinous acts. Meanwhile a true image of him hidden away, shows up his real reflection and visage, aging and becoming the beast-like character that he really is. It’s not *just* Madonna, practically everyone in the public eye is like that, particularly in professions like politics, sports and entertainment.

On the other hand,  there are a handful of artists who I’ve noticed seem to become better and better at their craft as they age, and in some cases, even become more beautiful and graceful (minus plastic surgery) and about whom I’ve never heard bad stories or gossip.

They may not have been the smartest, most talented or even the most good-looking persons but they often demonstrated kindness, humor, wisdom and generosity. They usually led low-key lives, didn’t seek the limelight too much, and seemed to be very happy in their personal lives.

I think of Audrey Hepburn,

Audrey Hepburn in Ethiopia for UNICEF. She helped out UNICEF because during WWII, as a child, she and her family went hungry in Holland during the Nazi occupation and she never forgot the hunger children feel.

James Stewart…

It wasn’t until he was way past his prime, could James Stewart play psychologically complex characters and pull them off fantastically, like Scottie Ferguson in “Vertigo”, recently voted the best film of all time.

Sir Alec Guinness…

Yup. That’s Obi Wan Kenobi from “Star Wars” playing a Hindu Brahmin priest in “A Passage to India” and nailing it.

and Paul Newman….

Paul Newman used to joke that his salad dressings and popcorn made more money than his films, which funded his camps for disadvantaged children.

and more recently Bryan Adams, Isabella Rossellini, Jeff Bridges and Pierce Brosnan.

Former model, now actress and producer, Isabella Rossellini is looking more and more like her mother, Ingrid Bergman, with each passing year.

I don’t understand why people don’t talk about and celebrate common sense and common decency more often. I think if the general culture was infused with more of those qualities and made THAT the new normal, we’d have less to worry about in places like the Crimea and Venezuela and it would expose these narcissistic power hungry freaks in Washington DC, Brussels and London for who they are to everyone.