Learning From Your Mistakes

What is the mission?  So that’s the first mistake.  When I was young, I was told by everyone that being an American meant that I could be sure that I was living in the land of opportunity and all I had to do was work hard and follow my dreams.  And to some extent it proved to be true.  What they didn’t say was that this was a temporary situation and my children and grandchildren would be out of luck.  Lesson learned.  Opportunities are as you find them.  Just because a college has a course in classical languages does not mean there are paying jobs for people who take those classes.  Or in English Literature, or Art History or Gender Studies for that matter.  There may not even be jobs for engineers or accountants.  It’s strictly up to you to figure out what people will pay for.  And that’s part of the mission.  Because the mission is to thrive.  It’s not some automatic thing.  You are constantly figuring out the changing rules and playing field that is life in 21^st century America.

How about safety?  But America is the safest place in the world.  We have safe water, safe air, safe food, safe medicines, safe cars and safe roads.  There’s the EPA, the FDA, OSHA, the DOT, you name it.  We’ve got local law enforcement, the FBI, NSA, CIA and another dozen alphabet soup agencies keeping us safe from bad guys foreign and domestic.  And yet crime, property and violent, are skyrocketing.  To a large extent you have been thrown back on your own resources to avoid becoming the victim of accidents and attacks.  Now you even have to consider whether the banks you keep your money in are safe from mismanagement and malfeasance.  All of this is on you now.  Where you live, where and how you travel and what institutions you interact with and trust, you must carefully decide these things and base those decisions on accurate evaluations of the way things actually are, not what they’re alleged to be by the government or the press.

And then there’s the federal government.  The old joke was that the scariest words an American could hear were “I’m from the federal government and I’m here to help.”  Well, they don’t pretend any longer that they want to help.  If the feds come looking for you, they’re probably going to bust down your front door and perp walk you to their gulag.  The government has made it their sworn duty to separate you from your constitutional rights and as much of your money and possessions as they possibly can.  Avoiding the malevolent influence and attention of the feds may now be the number one priority of people who hope to thrive.

But the picture isn’t all doom and gloom.  There are still lots of good people and opportunities to live a meaningful and happy life.  What it takes is a mindset that accepts that life isn’t a cakewalk and that the government isn’t your friend.  You must decide how you will navigate the hazards of our society and pass this knowledge along to your children.

If you are realistic and aware of the pitfalls that have been planted in our landscape then you will have a better than even chance of avoiding them and living a rich and productive life.

But for those who either can’t or won’t heed the danger signals and instead blunder through the minefield that is today’s America, there is the high probability that you will become one of the cautionary tales that litter our society.

Be smart, stay safe, thrive.