it's a binary thing

 I had someone tell me my time is running out, I'm getting old, and will soon be gone. That was in response to a debate being held on current events/issues. My old-fashioned ideals and ideas had to go, it's a new day. It's a new world where things aren't binary, there are always several options, several choices, depending. It's always based on an arbitrary set of values. You can't have a fixed system of morality or ethics, it all depends. That's the problem with religions, they have set values for those things. That's the problem with the justice system, you can't punish everyone the same for committing the same crime. It all depends. Take capital punishment as an example. Just because someone kills another person deliberately and without remorse of any kind that's no reason to execute them. Why that isn't right. But if a woman gets pregnant it's a choice to terminate the baby. You see, it all depends. 

 Well, this person is right about one thing anyway, I'm getting older. I would remind that person they are too, and their time is coming as well. Neither of us know when that will be however so I'm guessing that individual is just speculating, playing the odds. Doesn't bother me in the least, I'm aware of time and mortality. I buy lottery tickets occasionally and I know those odds, but hope springs eternal, as the poet said. I still have hope for the future that the Republic will endure. The odds are stacked against that however as history has shown that a republic generally lasts about two hundred and fifty years. It could be argued that our republic only lasted one hundred and sixty nine years from 1776 to 1945. Some experts would now classify us an empire. But that is another topic altogether. (Is the USA Still a Republic? | The Pavellas Perspective) It's a never-ending cycle of change. I'm aware of where I am in the cycle. There isn't much I can do to change that. I was amused by that statement though. Yup, I'm going to die someday, maybe soon. It could happen. It's a binary thing, you are either alive or dead. There really aren't any other choices. Either you want a republic, or you don't. The people will decide. Or will they? Not when the government begins to tell them what they can and cannot say. Not when that same government begins to rewrite the rules to favor themselves. The very first step is to disarm the citizens. Then the real changes can begin in earnest, when there is nothing, you can do about it. You are dependent upon the government. When the middle class has been eliminated all that is left is the ruling class and the poor. Which one will you be? It all depends.