Giving Thanks: for the Cake and the Eating of the Same

As we look back on the presumed historic context of today’s celebration, Americans have a lot in common with those societies we have been seeing on shows like Lost and more recently The Walking Dead. We have come from and are influenced by people who were pioneers, who faced a lot of challenges but built the world in the way they saw fit. We (for the most part, and up until recently, anyway) are a society that questions the status quo and embraces change. We do not like being told what to do, but prefer to live by an ethical standard that we choose for ourselves. We have become completely dependent on each other and on the society we have built (not many of us would last long alone on a deserted island) but we value to fact that we do not much get into each other’s business.

It is amazing to think that such a society ever came into existence and that it has lasted as long as it has. The fact is that the majority of people prefer to either tell others what to do or be told what to do. Every group in our history, from the very conservative Puritans to the very liberal Hippies, have been all about proclaiming the way they think other people should live their lives. How we ever came up with a system that keeps groups from dictating how individuals should live and keeps government from being dictatorial is a mystery and in every election it seems in danger of falling apart. This is lately more evident than perhaps ever before, not due to threats of war or crisis, but simply due to the personality of the masses today.

For now, this type Gamma personality is thankful that he is still a citizen of a culture that allows you the freedom to have your cake and eat it too. I could never make it completely on my own, but I am glad to pretend that am free to live how I like and that (so far) no one is telling me how to live to enjoy the benefits of our great society.