Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it’s
the courage to continue that counts,’ extolled Sir Winston Churchill.
Euripides said: ‘I would rather die on my feet than
live on my knees.’
My family coat of arms embraces the Machiavelli dictum:
“Virtu et Fortuna”.
Yet, for they who strive, be it from helot to bourgeois, or those born to the Manor (where bequeathments from they who before them strived, are often squandered), debt is a companion for life – an albatross around one’s neck.
What is debt?
A promise to repay a favour?
Only a rogue would break his word.
A legal obligation to repay money borrowed?
The curse of capitalism, an essential feature of which is
the motive to make a profit – Shylock
still lurks in the twilight of Venice.
Money. Is this now fiat fantasy, the latent
human instinct which drives our search for happiness?
Ahhhh! Love is happiness.
Yet, it was
Formula One race champion Nikki Lauda who cautioned; ‘Happiness is the enemy. Happiness is
something to lose. One become afraid to lose. One does not take risks,’
Machiavelli said, ‘It is better to act and repent than not to act and
regret for never was anything great achieved without danger’
Perhaps a contemporaneous interpretation of Si vis Pacem para bellum -To make peace you must prepare for war, Rudyard Kipling said, ‘No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning
yourself.’
But, in a system where Justice is Money; Just Money, “the
price” for many is too high.
Without money, what do we have?
Schopenhauer penned, ‘They can take your
pride but they can never take your love’.
Without money, what do we have?
Health may be the exception.
The standout gift of The Gods. Yet, if the Gods pass us bye, the healthiest
amongst us, can still fall.
As Princess Catherine of Wales recently acknowledged:
‘Life as you
know it can change in an instant and we have had to find a way to navigate the
stormy waters and road unknown.’
Wherever our feet may now tread in this Odessey we call
life, few do not or have not or will not feel the pain of the unexpected.
Physical illness which all can see.
Mental illness which none can see. Financial stress which money
delivers.
Now, in the Land of the Long Black Cloud, a
latent anxiety emerges predicated on threats by radical elements to steal the
assets (money) contributed to by us all – i.e. taxpayers.
What pain will this quest for separatism cause? What are the consequences?
Santa! Will you
deliver my present, please?
Albeit irreconcilable with his earlier axiom, from the mists
of time, Euripides did forewarn: “Those whom the gods wish to destroy
they first make mad.”
Ross
Meurant BA
MPP. Company Director. www.gena.co.nz Former Police Inspector, Member of Parliament & Honorary
Consul.
3 comments:
Ross, it's Xmas - that's all far too deep for this time of year. But, you are right, a very dark cloud is upon us and it does not forebode well, unless we stand united against it. You might hope Santa delivers - I'm more a pragmatist and it doesn't come in the form of our PM.
Rossco, and again - bloody brilliant Mate. I can partly agree with Peter above but NEVER is there a time when the truth is too dark. Luxon - yes - woke/scared. We must get the TRUTH - the REAL interpretation/meaning - of the Treaty of Waitangi out there to everyone and let our people decide. For too long these activists, led by those who went to Cuba to be indoctrinated, have twisted the truth to suit THEIR agenda, Lets return our once wonderful NEW ZEALAND, for whom my late Father spent three years as a Pilot O/Seas during WW 2, to how it once was, PLEEEZ.
Sadly, peace and goodwill to all men , is likely to be lacking both at home here and globally in 2025.
And we can easily identify the main actors.
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