WMD’s

Aahh, the ’90’s. Is it just me, or is every decade a time that each of us never want to see again? True, the fashions of this decade were nowhere near as hideous as the fashions of the ’80’s. The hairstyles also seemed to be gravitating back to planet Earth from the extensive over-use of “Upper Stratosphere Hairspray.” It seems that throughout the course of history, new years, and particularly new decades, would be quite boring if there weren’t some major catastrophe occurring. To solve that problem, the One World (oops… I meant American, silly!) Government gave us the gift that keeps on giving- war.
 
I remember the beginning of the Gulf War. It was the first televised war in history, right there on prime-time. The first night, I grabbed a cozy spot on the couch and settled in for some awesome night-vision bombing SCUD and fireworks. It was almost as entertaining as MTV. Almost.
 
With each passing day, I found myself flipping channels between Nirvana and our puppet President, George W. Bush. I honestly don’t know who was more entertaining – the drugged-out, depressed Kurt Cobain hoarsely lamenting over his unfortunate life of multi-million dollar record deals, or the President, who couldn’t read a teleprompter to save his life. Talk about a nudnik – every time Dubbya appeared on TV, he used his favorite phrase meant to scare the wits out of the American people in order to gain their approval of his (c)overt undermining of the Iraqi government, a former ally: “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” It became his mantra. Could he even spell those words?
 
More than two decades later, most people still don’t understand why the United States invaded Iraq, or how Dubbya managed to secure a second term. These questions will probably be left unanswered until the Mashiach comes.
 
Let’s backtrack so I can make some sense out of all this. Travel with me back to one of the most horrific times in history- the Holocaust. Many Jews died sanctifying Hashem’s name, and their souls reside in the highest realms of Heaven. Of the righteous Jews that survived, I would like to focus on one in particular: Viktor Frankl. Dr. Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist before the war. He was the inventor of Logotherapy, a technique that helps people apply meaning to their lives in order to overcome personal obstacles. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he writes that those who survived the death camps all had something in common- they had a greater purpose they were living for. Their greater meaning could be family, career, friends, and religion, to name a few. Those who gave up felt they had nothing to live for.
 
So what does Viktor Frankl have do to with Dubbya? It goes something like this…
 
These days, life is more complicated than ever. Even our children’s lives seem to be that way as well. Each kid has at least 3 after-school activities per week, plus tons of homework that most college professors can’t understand, plus loads of friend-related drama that no adult can understand. Many adults struggle under burdens that push the limits of human capability. Some have more than two jobs, some are single parents, some have no job, and all have tremendous stress just to get by in life. That’s not even including all of the extra stress (I mean joy) that comes with raising kids.
 
But is this all that there is to life? Are we all just struggling to get by? It seems that everyone is busier than ever. That being the case, it’s easy to lose sight of a main, greater purpose to life.
 
Underlying the dizzying pace of life that causes us to lose focus, lies a stealth killer that compounds the problem to Biblical proportions. I like to call this killer Weapons of Mass Distraction. In yer face, Dubbya.
 
What exactly are these weapons of mass distraction, and why are they so dangerous? Well, are you reading this article? Then you’re probably online. A lot. A lot more than you care to admit. By now you’ve probably figured out what I’m referring to. The internet is one of the deadliest WMD’s, and for many reasons. What’s another WMD? Television. And let’s not forget movies, social media, magazines, what’sapp, video games, and other stupid and pointless avenues of entertainment that waste our precious time and brain cells.
 
Hollywood and celebrities are a HUGE WMD. I remember wasting hours and hours of time philosophizing with my girlfriends about the theoretical chances of the hottest couple of the hour breaking up before or after the weekend. And when I wasn’t wishing I were Pamela Anderson, I was daydreaming about Jason Priestley. Okay, I admit it- I had a massive crush on him. Gevalt, how many years I spent my precious time thinking about such nonsense.
 
Society in general is also a weapon of mass distraction. All of modern society’s etiquette rules, or lack thereof, dictate our wants and desires. We’re so distracted with the latest fashions, making money, attracting the opposite sex, financing our latest round of surgical enhancements, going on vacations that we can’t afford, blah, blah, blah.
 
Which leads me back to Dr. Frankl: with all of these distractions, where can we find the meaning in our lives? How do we find a higher purpose for living in Facebook?? What are we living for, then- vacations? The weekends? Retirement? As if! Most people can’t afford to retire these days, anyhow.
 
So we’re supposed to work like pack mules until we die of exhaustion, without stopping to think if we actually have a higher purpose in life? And if we want to stop being bombarded by WMD’s, how do we go about doing that?
 
Have no fear, dear friends! The answer is forthcoming in next week’s issue!
 
To be continued…