“God Is Great, Beer Is Good, and People Are Crazy”*

We are getting angrier.

It’s evident in the media and in our streets.

I feel it myself!

Singer-songwriter Paul Thorn, wrote a song titled, “What the hell is going on?”

I’d like to know!

My buddy Tom claims much of the blame can be placed on Covid. He says it’s a crime against humanity. Not only did it sever our contact with friends and family, it isolated us from the Uber driver, the barista, the grocery checkout clerk, and dozens of other people who didn’t seem to matter until they did.

I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I think he’s right.

Social dis-ease should be added to the list of long-haul Covid symptoms.

Social dis-eases have a common root cause. They derive from separation; me from you, us from them. At first Covid isolated us, increasingly it’s now dividing us!

Sadly, there is no end in sight. Delta won’t be the only variant we face.

So yes, I’m angry!

A few years ago, some friends formed a discussion group. Each month, we meet to exchange views on selected questions. During the past year, meetings were conducted via Zoom. It hasn’t been the same experience. Looking back, one of our more interesting meetings concerned the question, “What Is Truth?” It’s not an easy question to answer in an era of CNN and Fox News!

When it was my turn to speak, I referenced Plato, drawing upon his definition of “the three transcendentals,” the beautiful, the true, and the good.

Beauty is an aesthetic defined by the beholder (I); truth is objective and defined by independent standards and measures (It). Goodness is intersubjective and concerns universal justice (We).

For millennia, philosophers have tried unsuccessfully to unite beauty, truth, and goodness with universal definitions. It can’t be done. Perspectives from the vantage point of “I,” “It,” or “We” differ. I think that’s a clue to the anger we are witnessing! I know it’s the source of mine.

The data and studies I follow say vaccinations and wearing masks in public help to reduce the transmission of Covid. Shock rapidly degrades to anger when I speak with people who don’t see it that way.

Plato no doubt would not classify my view as truth. Instead he would likely categorize it as a subjective aesthetic, since the vantage point is “I.”

In the end, that’s why I prefer song lyrics to philosophy!

God (Love) is “great!”

Beer is “good!”

And people are (f’ing) “crazy!”

Truth in a nutshell!

I’ll take lyrics over Plato any day!

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*“People Are Crazy” was written by Bobby Braddock and Troy Jones and recorded by country music singer Billy Currington.

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