Purity is a dangerous goal but this nation seems suddenly impressed with that word.  How many times have we heard that dodgy family of superlatives like pure, perfect, and great used in the current political narrative. Take the stock market.  Yes, this writer loves seeing his meager net worth creep up but whats the logic or rational for things looking good right now? It is clear that if the stock market indexes were driven by morality and love, the net worth of this nation’s indexes would be tanking below a bear market given the crude, rude and rough reign of terror being launched against immigration, brown skin and the Spanish language. So no, we have to conclude only economy drives the stock market levels and it is a near pure transactional index. Purity over time purges human goodness in the clockworks of profit. Purity is a stranger to the human heart.  

A modest proposal for good

The music group called Over the Rhine has a song this writer finds good called “All My Favorite People are Broken“.  We need to understand our own brokenness because empathy, and compassion cannot co-exist with the delusions of purity. Purity is a dangerous neighbor.  The sense of good this project promotes is just a sense, not a judgement, not a certainty, not a meritorious level of achievement, but simply a first step in weaving and weighing the human truth of options being considered. Love, empathy and compassion and most importantly, forgiveness are needed in the family in the same way the kitchen pressure cooker needs the pressure cock that relieves too much pressure when the heat reaches a certain level. How can we not hear the screaming whistle of our nation’s pressure valve.  No nation on earth is great, pure or perfect.  Some nations, at any given moment, are simply better than others. A democracy is dependent on the citizens of that political culture to advance its goodness. It is clearly time for an examination of conscience in our communities because we are undergoing a dangerous and cruel spasm of deluded purity.  Such an honest look would be good. Have a heart.