The First Step is Always the Hardest

It seems now that whenever one looks at the Hawaii media reports, things are getting uncontrollably worse, and the people have lost their hope and will that they can get any better.

The latest stark image is that the communities adjoining Waikiki -- where there is reportedly a resurgence of customers and business -- is that the sidewalks outside of a public library branch, has become a homeless campground -- because apparently, there is no law against it.

Those who initially demanded that something needed to be done about it -- on the eve of such a resolution and enactment, then turned against the measure, undermining that will, confidence and community resolve -- because of the possibility suggested by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), that such an obstruction might be an expression of a yet-to-be-found individual expressing their right to freedom of speech in such a manner.

Of course that is hypothetical, and quite a shift from the past precedent that somebody actually in fact, had to have had their rights violated in that way, and not simply the possibility that it could be plausible. That is, one had to have an actuality of actions and events, rather than simply the thought of it -- blurring the lines between fact and fiction, plausibility from actuality, and not being able to differentiate any difference -- which of course, is social anomie and disintegration, even in a self-proclaimed "Paradise."

The reality of life now, is that it has become unaffordable and untenable, for all but the most fortunate, greedy or ruthless -- and of course, those who cannot distinguish such differences, which are the extremes of the very rich and the very poor. But a pleasant and easy middling existence, is all but impossible anymore.

That won't have been the first time such imbalances have ever existed -- because it has always been a precursor to societal decline and disintegration -- even if at one time, they were at the greatest heights of civilized social organization. That's why the Greeks, Romans, Macedonians, Egyptians, French, British, and some would say, Americans, are no longer there.

But there is always some other social organization/entity eager to replace them -- as the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, and Russians again, now think is their destiny. Otherwise, the king lives forever, rather than just another king.

The hope for any declining society, is the example of societies that are working and emerging -- and not those in their twilight. So while the civilizations in decline are becoming more "socialistic," the societies on the ascent, are becoming much more "capitalistic," or demanding and determined that they are going to reward and fund profitable enterprises rather than the counterproductive -- confident that they can recognize and know the difference, while the backwater societies slide into a hopeless quagmire of despair that such things are still possible.

The first step is always the hardest.