__Anyone who really knows me -- and AG is one of the precious few -- knows that I am one cantankerous old coot, and getting more ornery the older I get.
__But I was younger than AG is now when I came to the stark realization that there really wasn't much I could do to change the truth of my life: nevermind the outer facade, this world still comes down to Owners and Owned, and all the appearance of Democracy couldn't do a hell of a lot to change that.
__Not unless I chose to make Acquisition my Goal and my God... chose to subordinate and subjugate all other aspects of my life to Naked Greed. People, love, all would have to be declared "unimportant", next the Great Quest for Gold...
__I was unable to do this.
__So, knowing that this "weakness" in myself precluded my EVER becoming one of the Owners, one of the Gentry, I had yet another choice to make: to reconcile myself to the place of a serf in the retinue of one of the Elect, or to become, in my own, small, way, a member of the Underground... one of those who refused to enter the lists, refused to play the Great Game... refused to cooperate in any way, large or small, in the Feudal World of Owner and Owned.
__In short, I chose to NOT comply.
__The decision HAS cost me, of course. When others go to visit friends in other places, I have to beg off. When my dearest friend/sibs are in need of a few dukats to pay Black Prince John, I'm usually unable to help.
__Indeed, often my only consolation is that I've not been a party to the rape of the Earth, to the murder of hope, to the hypocrisy of offering a dream, the fulfillment of which renders one unable to enjoy it.
__I remember vividly being told, and believing for a while, that, if I too pursued wealth and power, I'd be in a position, finally, to Change Things for the Better...
__I've seen few people, (Bill Gates aside) who've actually accomplished this, and even the billions of the Gates/Buffett collective can't prevent the gutting of the original American Dream, of Liberty, Peace and Sufficiency... nor can it slow, even by a minim, the rocket-propelled pursuit of Armageddon which the "powerful" are, all unknowing, funding.
__So, I take my small joy in the knowledge that I have spent my lifetime just saying "No!" to the venal, to the avaricious, to the dehumanizing...
__Is it enough? Guess it has to be!
