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Opinions! Opinions! Opinions!

 After falling asleep in his usual spot - ensconced underneath the juniper bushes near the steps opposite the library window on the south side, they brought old man Edgecomb back to the facility somewhat kicking and screaming. Eventually he calmed down. (Such forays to his favorite former place of higher learning were not entirely unusual.)  At the "positivity session" the next day he was adamant - I want it known that I have opinions - yes,  many many opinions - strong opinions - some might say harsh  opinions - yes, some of them, blunt,  old-fashioned, hard-wired, convictions that some of you would not like - if you heard me utter them out loud (ha, ha) - and i have learned over the course of many decades to bury those opinions, to keep them carefully wrapped up and held close to the vest,  to censure and self-edit myself as a survival strategy.... but now - just when i am at an age where i figure - hey why not - it's time to share these opinions wily-nily with you lovely people - as i see fit... it occurs to me that perhaps some of these beliefs - that once induced sheer paroxyms of real feeling - are slowly fading as i begin to wonder - well - is it worth it - even to share and raise a ruckus... I can always write down my thoughts and bury them under a rock...  BUT CAN YOU GIVE US AN EXAMPLE - someone shouted - because the old would usually shout at one another good-naturedly. I like chocolate chip ice cream... I prefer cotton sweaters... I believe in home ownership... Driving on the right side is the way to go... Rudeness is unforgivable... Dog lovers are sane, cat lovers - well I don't know... Ha! There's some ...How d'you like them apples?.... That's it? Even Dr. Rathskellar was taken aback... Can you find something a little more provocative Mr. E? Okay, then...something from the second shelf is it? ... How about this one - our civilization is doomed - delusional... fragmented beyond repair... sinking into the vast twilight... BECAUSE?  Well - it's simple - in part because we let fools and knaves (or dare I say ordinary dimwits like you and I!)  do whatever they want and we call it good whatever each individual decides -  whenever and however, subjectively decides that is.. If they chose X - then X  on Monday (for that moment in time) becomes their "happiness." And if it's Y on Tuesday - well then, make room for another version of that same happiness. Let's applaud everyone for the choosing of X or Y or W or Z and not for how any of it shakes out... There's judgment and disapproval like you've never seen - enough to fill an oil tanker... but aside from violent crime and abject dishonesty (or perhaps not even that)... what is there let to prohibit?  No brakes in our society... No guardrails... Too few taboos... And what to show for it.... agony, despair, loneliness,  regret...discontent, self-sabotage... Too many sad outcomes... I rest my case... YOU SEEM TO BE PINING AFTER SOMETHING MORE AUTHORITARIAN IN PLACE OF OUR LIBERAL WORLD - eh? Edgecomb looked out the window.... A guys wants to know what the rules are that apply to everyone most of the time - and for that they think of him as authoritarian... Norms - used to be a word for it .... the norms of human nature... But now you see, there's something deeper going on - even more sinister, for what we take to be the idle passing of time is actually the turning of the gears for that invisible malevolent cloud... I see an age where each person - lost in their own numbed up misery - is less aware, more forgetful, more cut off from the source... set adrift in the la-la land of personal pleasure den and avoidance technology... And in such a world where people are not aware - yes - that's a danger - b/c when the clouds rolls in so thickly - none of us - know where we ought to be... 

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