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The Greek classic playwright, Aeschylus, consistently articulated the theme, “Wisdom through Suffering,” in his venerable theater works. Said theme, in its ultimate empirical wisdom, has notable resonance in these contemporary times of despair and angst, consequential to the dystopic state of our formerly admirable Democratic Republic.

Analogous to Man’s health, the American body politic, salubriously affording personal liberty and freedom of expression, is empirically vulnerable, mandating diligent and dedicated nurturance; notably, in a Nation affording the universal right to vote, and, worrisomely incorporating a sizeable population of inadequately educated and poorly informed citizens rendering the Republic’s successful operation and endurance of policies, “by and for the people,” an eternal challenge.

Such challenge, as ubiquitously evidenced in American history in times of political stress, such as the Civil War and Restoration Eras, the Great Depression of 1929, and the roiling national opposition during the period of the Vietnam War, has been regrettably reprised by the populist elevation to ther Oval Office of Donald J. Trump, a demonstrated egocentric, incompetent, charlatan and declared autocrat.

The Trump Presidential Administration has been singular in its unprincipled rejection of the Constitution and the rule of law, abrogation of citizen rights, its policy of “Retribution” against all perceived political opponents, shameless deletion of programs of compassionate health and financial assistance to citizens and needy nations. elimination of agencies for health research, wrongful control over Universities and other salutary institutions of learning, his autocratic castigation of the established media, summary arrest of immigrants, and their summary banishment to foreign torture jails entirely without due process, pardoning of seditious insurrectionists loyal to him, while ubiquitously denying citizens’ rights assured by the constitution, inclusive of interference with the vote, and, additionally, shamefully enriching himself and his family, in violation of the Constitutional “Emolument Clause” and the high office’s implicit and officially sworn fiduciary duty.

We are obliged to relate that our historically admirable Democratic Republic has, under the errant tutelage of the Trump Administration, in the space of a short few months, been tactically transmogrified into a dystopic nightmare, resulting in prevalent feelings of despair and confusion among traditional American citizens. The latter tragic occurrence painfully anticipates four long years of predictable shame and tyranny, resulting from such cancerous attack upon the Nation’s body politic as relevantly equivalent, in effect, to the Constitutional proscription against “cruel and unusual punishment” and the opportunity to surgically excise such cancerous incursion from the American body politic, more than an additional three long years of the Nation’s predictably agonizing future.

We would offer in thematic mitigation to this “Devil’s Island” nightmare, possibly, a measure of material benefit from the experience of such painful and extended angst. We suggest that the same may be garnered from the aforementioned, ancient (5th Century) Greek tragedian, Aeschylus, the proponent of the universal theme of “wisdom through suffering.”

It is our belief and expectation that the evil orange cloud presently suffocating our historically venerable Democratic Republic will lift, and the relieved citizenry will have beneficially learned from its painful experience to remain more actively vigilant and affirmatively protective of our Democratic Republic’s precious and ever-vulnerable endurance.

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As a prefatory statement, we do not intend to castigate the human inclination to religious or otherworldly beliefs. We consider “faith” a naturally occurring supplement to the innate limitations of human cognition. Its existential utility resides in reconciling the most profound metaphysical mysteries whose origin and nature are beyond the prowess of the mental capabilities as evolved in the homo sapiens. The nuanced style and characteristics of various “belief structures” are usually inherited and taught to the young, becoming a significant ingredient in their cultural upbringing and perceptions.

The sad history of group accepted cultural beliefs at times in Man’s checkered history led to the wrongful prosecution of non-believers (including believers in an alternate style of “faith”), warfare, and unnecessary human tragedy. However, the overzealous evangelistic history of religious faith does not detract from our recognition of the utilitarian dynamic of non-factual belief and its beneficial role in, among other matters, ameliorating the fears of the “unknown.” That the “Sun God” died after the Fall and was resurrected in the Spring was an outcome of Man’s discomfort with the bizarre mystery of seasonal change.

We have elected to overlook the historical record of communal faith relative to its anecdotal need to enforce its belief system upon other human beings. We also recognize the utilitarian benefits of common religious belief in its contribution to the human need for societal and personal identity, and its communal role in softening the ultimate tragedy of death. In sum, we affirmatively recognize the pragmatic service rendered by ” faith belief” in the existence of a universally stable and all-powerful governor of matters beyond Man’s ken.

Nonetheless, we have observed that, in sync with many others who enjoy great intellectual and moral veneration, including: Locke, Descartes, Kant, Leibniz, Hume, Erasmus, Bacon, Hobbes, and Spinoza, that the progress of Mankind, socially, intellectually, and morally is more efficatiously, accutely and justly accomplished by the enlightenment derived from empirical experience as opposed to culturally derived, atasvistic belief in non-factual, superior powers.

Penicillin and the polio vaccine were not discovered by “faith,” nor were the railroad and the airplane products of religious inspiration. The scientific method of inquiry, was the source, as distinguished from non-factual belief in superior, omniscient entities; as in all other discoveries, such as Copernicus and the heliocentric understanding of the Solar System, viz. that the Earth travels around the Sun, and not the other way around. The latter erroneous theory was based on the universal religious belief that “Man” is the “Center of the Universe.” The atom, for better or worse, was not split by religious ritual, but rather per the natural law of physics. Hungry people should be fed, not because it is pleasing to the Deity, but based on the human capability for empathy. People do not go to “heaven” as a reward for good deeds, but enjoy a good conscience in their elder years. Morality is not enforced by punishment in some “afterlife,” but experienced or fondly recalled by others.

It is our respectful view that religion has certain cultural and social interactive benefits, however, ultimate enlightenment by human reason derived from empirical experience is the sole route to Mankind’s ultimate realization of its award of Natural Evolution’s golden Trophy.

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We would prefer to write on metaphysical or societal subjects, indeed, on any topic of contemplative interest; however, the endeavor to satisfy such an aspiration, these days, is dynamically analogous to an effort to eat a plate of pasta carbonara on a fast wheeling exercise bicycle or to pick up viscous mercury with a baseball catcher’s mitt.

The temper of the present political scene may be aptly conveyed by the second half of the opening sentence of Charles Dickens’ novel, “Tale of Two Cities: viz., ” it was the worst of times.” A “Code Blue’ emergency is now relevant respecting the present health of our body politic, aan S.O.S. radio signal, to a Mayday” call, from our Ship of State and its Constitutional history, a 911 telephone call, as empirically warranted in the case of an observation of an evidentstroke, regarding the survival of the liberty of our citizens and its inclination toward humanism, and a plea of “Help me! ” for the very endurance of our Democratic Republic.

Until the advent of the metastatically toxic Trump pandemic, we, at plinyblog, castigated all aphoristic assertions of faux wisdom as lazy and reductive. However, we have been painfully disproved at least regarding the old chesnut, “One rotten apple can spoil the barrel.” Despite our Nation’s consistent (anecdotally somewhat flawed) democratic history, beginning on July 4, 1775, the Nation had prospered and, thematically, became an avatar of democratic rule to its global neighbors. Yet, sadly, it took merely 100 days for the “rotten apple,” a/k/a Donald Trump, to infect and metastasize with his egocentric toxin, the entire inventory of comestibles, resident in the previously wholesome larder of the American Nation.

Trump’s egregious acts of immorality and criminal sociopathy are notorious and publicly known. We may have exhausted the readers’ patience with their outraged recitation. Nevertheless, the Nation has alarmingly reached the “inflection point” of its existence and duration, and “code blue” alarms are urgently appropriate, relative to its existence as a democratic republic and consequent avoidance of the spiritual and moral death, the latter, constituting the historically predictable sequelae of the toxic disease of autocratic tyranny.

Donald J. Trump, despite his public declarations of his intent to be a dictator, ran for office, nevertheless, by the democratic process of free election. His successful election enabled him to tactically and perniciously take advantage of the rights appropriately afforded to citizens and other persons protected under the American Constitution, to strategically and perniciously transform the democratic Nation into an autocracy; the usual recipe for incipient dictators.

It is most perturbing that Trump’s MAGA legal team played the melifluous tune of the Constitutional right of “Due Process, as often and as skillfully as a flute sonata by Vivaldi, I’m order to keep him from being ap[propriately incarcerated for his many venal criminal felonies, while, contrastingly, the felonious Trump, programically tramples the Constitution and denies those fundamental properly enjoyed by others, most especially immigrant families.

Like all aspiring dictators, Trump has tactically and falsely created the illusion that the Nation is in the state of a roiling crisis, among other nefarious tactics, by the creation of the false threat to the effect that the American Nation is under attack by invading hordes of dangerous and reprehensible immigrants; regarding whom he has, in Gestapo manner, denied due process in their cruel and arbitrary banishment to foreign torture prisons. Trump’s extreme and arbitrary practice of dictatorial criminal punishment without due process or legal proof of guilt offends the most bedrock principles of the American legal system (regarding others than himself), exemplifies a fatal stereotype of autocratic tyranny.

In Monarchical, self-aggrandizing fashion, Donald Trump has, in addition, inappropriately and illegally (ref.: “Emolument Clause”) misused his executive authority and influence to substantially enrich himself and his personal family by way of questionable bitcoin and “meme” coin transactions and a full plethora of inappropriate enterprises. The American Presidential office is not analogous to an unlimited monarchical franchise to personally accumulate treasure.

The enormity of Trump’s improperly acquired wealth and its shameless criminality are redolent of mafia kingpins as contrasted with elected executive public servants. Such vast and insatiable accumulation of illegal treasure is astonishingly contrasted with Trump’s deprivation of funds to charitable organizations like USAID, which supplies fooid and medicine to needy countries, his attack on Medicaid and social security, monetary withdrawal of financial support for University Education and education in general, elimination of support for NIH, CDC and other vital governmental health research entities, denial of financial support for Public Radio and Television, inhumane elimination of food programs for needy schoolchildren, opposition to veterans’ health benefits and environmental causes.

Donald J. Trump, with the support of his coterie of cultish and self-serving lemming-like p[opulistsycophants, has been perrniciously successful in the space of merely one hundred days, in the transformation of our unique and venerated democracy to an offensive, “Gangster State.”

The citizenry needs to be responsibly awakened to a warning alarm, and our Democratic Republic, on an emergent basis, be redeemed and thereafter, effectively safeguarded.

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Our proclivities for secular empiricism are not relevant to the present writing. Nor does the same intend to bear any relation to the eternal, metaphysical debate between secular epistemology and religious faith. Our theme, instead, relates to the erroneous, all-too-prevalent tactic of adopting a repugnant position for the perceived benefit of a dedicated cause. Recent events reveal the ultimate error, often the embarrassing foolishness of such fallacious tactics.

Our perception of contemporary events reveals a consistent and ardent support by the various Evangelical Churches and, in general, Evangelical Christianity, of Donald Trump, an observably bizarre and inconsistent choice, considering their bedrock belief in atonement for sin and redemptive virtue through devout piety.

As we understand Evangelical Christianity, the signature concept of redemption by the acquisition of religious faith and recognition of the essential “holiness of life” is equivalent to being beneficially “born again” to a life of faith, sexual restraint, relevant morality, and, more recently, academic scholarship.

For some time, it had discombobulated us to comprehend the apparently bizarre confluence between the American Evangelist population, its avowed, definitionally lofty religious and moral standards, and its bizarrely adamant support of Trump; the latter, the publicly demonstrated avatar of societally immoral, and even, pernicious criminal behavior. The solution to the morally principled conundrum was, at various times, provided to the public by way of media inquiry.

The Kafka-esque explanation for such support provides the instructive raw material for this writing; it constitutes a tactically sophomoric explanation amounting to the support of a shameless and systemic miscreant (Donald J. Trump), but one who, empirically, could protect Evangelical Christianity from attack by the secularistic “left.” The resultant exercise of such principled protection was not only a shameful revelation of a flawed fundamental doctrinal principle but, predictably, an absurdly conceived strategy.

We, of course, are not privy to the resultant facts to enable comment on the impact of such sophomorically flawed tactics on Evangelicals, generally. Nevertheless, the public perception of Trump’s egoistic and delusional behavior might, in conception, lead to a general public caricature of the faith movement for which his presence was deemed beneficial.

Trump’s insincere brandishing of the New Testament (upside down), at a political demonstration, sale of Trump Bibles with favorable inscriptions, with the same religious zeal as his sale of “golden” sneakers, and his recent gold-colored publication of himself adorned as the Catholic Pope ( especially, in consideration of the recent decease of the publicly beloved Pope Francis) is a testament to riding the wrong horse, and fundamentally to ill-conceived, tactically repugnant motivation.

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Until the regressive choice of the Trump Presidential Administration, the American Democratic Republic, with ample justification, boasted of its material abundance, as well as its afforded liberty and demonstrated humanism; the latter, symbolized, among other things, by the Statue of Liberty, the former, incorporated into its Constitutional Bill of Rights. The Nation’s signature grant of freedom of expression was inarguably evinced by a large, independent media, by its free Universities, and a system of Nationwide, unencumbered public library system, museums, and National Public Radio.

The Nation’s statutory and judicial determinations were responsibly charged with the resolution of human issues, “without fear or favor.” The Founders’ politically fundamental principle was the institutional aspiration for a governance, “by and for the People,” as faithfully guided by the citizens’ right to vote. A tripartite architecture of government (“Separation of Powers”) was construed with mutual authority to prevent any abuse by another branch (“Checks and Balances”) as a legal restraint to deter excess and ensure democratic rule.

Despite some discrete (but notably instructive), low points in the history of our Democratic Republic, the Founders’ conception was successfully accomplished, or at bottom, well along in the process, and the Nation experienced the desirable benefits of democratic rule, as well as material abundance. Policies of compassionate capitalism were construed to avoid or ameliorate the harsh personal eventualities of the dynamics of free market capitalism. The mantra of “moving up” by educational advancement has been reliably proven to be a personal dynamic to improved material success.

The comprehensive patchwork quilt of available abundance and quality of American life and opportunity was rudely shredded by the populist elevation of Donald J. Trump to the Office of the American Presidency. His atavistic efforts at authoritarianism, encompassing a philosophical blindness to the constitution and the rule of law, his complete lack of societal moral compass, and his neurotic egocentrism, combined with his ignorance and a warped reductionism, have morphed the Nation from a traditionally reputed avatar of justice and freedom, and a successfully abundant Nation, to a mimesis of reprehensible atavistic tyranny.

Trump’s systemic amoral baseness, diagnosably explored in length in previous writings, appears, as previously observed, to have its singular etiology in a lack of normal socialization, resulting in delusions of grandeur, inclusive, thematically, of a reductionist understanding of National and International issues; contextually including trade relationships. His delusional persona adds impetus to his distorted understanding of interactive world trade issues, including appropriate relationships with the United States’ long-established trading partners, as well as with its empirical competitors. Such a flawed understanding of commerce, international and domestic (as well as other personally perceived interactions), is part and parcel of his sophomoric mindset, that all trades and commercial relations necessarily evince a “winner” and a “loser.”

The latest, and most devastating iteration of his winning-losing neurosis is inarguably demonstrated in his reductive understanding of “tariffs” and the latter’s implications for the Nation’s businesses and its consumers ( to whom he pledged lower prices in his “snake-oil” campaign promises.) In empirical fact, the raising of tariffs is not an aggressive assertion of power against a foreign nation (“winning”) but leads to the inevitable effect of domestic increases in prices, to the consumer in the price of imported goods. Trump’s singular neurotic predelection that all transactions imply a “winner” and a “loser, analogous to his egregious and authoritarian lack of recognition of the American system of human rights, will ineluctably result in a pandemic of empty store shelves as well as the grim potential of a National authoritarian wasteland.

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Mainstream American citizens, by now, doubtlessly have concluded that the current Presidential Administration is far from acceptable based upon its demonstrated incapability, lack of moral responsibility, and convenient repudiation of the Nation’s Constitution and rule of law. While, concededly, American history reveals the Republic’s experience of other disreputable Presidential Administrations, none of such comparable historical miscreants exhibited an effective regression of the dynamic process of Man’s political and social development.

President Andrew Johnson was impeached for the wrongful dismissal of a prominent member of his Cabinet and certain other offenses, Andrew Jackson is revealed to be shamefully guilty of “racial cleansing of indigenous Americans, Richard Nixon had his celebrated, “Watergate,” however, notably, no previous errant Chief Executive has chosen to openly violate established legal and humanistic societal standards other than Donald Trump; in his assertion of unrestrained power, analogous to an absolute Euroopean Monarch or an intimidating Chieftain of cowed Stone Age cave dwellers.

The beneficial development and pragmatic endurance of human society are existentially dependent upon Man’s acceptance of, and compliance with, what Locke and Rousseau termed “The Social Compact” (“Contract”). The theory suggests that societies are formed under an implicit agreement in which individuals mutually surrender certain freedoms in exchange for communal security and safety. It contextually implies that governance is attained by an election conducted in compliance with such accepted standards of behavior.

Unfortunately, modern history demonstrates a (mercifully, small) genre of homo sapiens who elect not to, or are not able to join as a party to the social compact and perceive themselves as outside its communally accepted criteria regarding acceptable behavior; these include criminal and other dignosable psychopaths, and delusionally egocentric neurotics; the latter, empirically inclusive of the persona of dictatorial autocrats ( and ” would be” dictatorial autocrats).

We have amply commented on Donald Trump’s nuanced standards of acceptable behavior, the latter, resulting in numerous criminal adjudications, outstanding indictments, systemic rejection of factual truth, in favor of the subjective promotion of “alternate Facts,” denigration of the constitution and rule of law, opposition to education and human advancement, unrestrained violation of theEmolument Clause” to illegally garner personal enrichment, payment of “hush money” to prostitutes, incitement of insurrection, criminally premised upon his deciertful and un-American denial of the results of a valid election; followed by his pardon of such insurrectionists, his repeated treasonous liaison with the leaders of the Nation’s defined enemies, attempts to weaken NATO, purloining of top secret documents, attack on America’s elite Universities and on education itself, evident bigotry and support of un-American White Christian Militias, and his opposition to all programs of compassionate capitalism, voz., social security, disability, and Medicaid ; we might go on, ad infinitum and ad nauseum.

The contextual message of this writing is intended to proffer a rather simple, but, profoundly impactful, explanation of the deplorable, morally offensive behavior of Donald J. Trump, regarding such ubiquitous, offensive and immoral behavior. Our message is that he is neurotically egocentric and thus emotionally unable to be a party to any humanistic societal contract, but rather, singularly and determinately, resides in his perceptive bubble; neurotically insulated from established societal and moral propriety.

Those who would, nonetheless, support the leadership of Donald J. Trump might well be reminded that they are dealing with a complete stranger to the established societal standards of decency and moral accommodation, implicitly subscribed to by its members. The nature and extent of expectations of his singular behavior and bizarre proclamations of governmental policy are thus as perversely predictable as an infestation of a nest of subterranean termites on fundamentally important wooden house supports.

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Since the formation of the white supremacist organization, the Ku Klux Klan in 1865, the notion of “White Christian Supremacy” has fueled reductionist hatred and bigotry in the United States. Relevantly, the “Great Displacement Theory,” ethno-nationalist, i.e.,” White,” groups have maintained a neurotic fear of being “replaced” by non-white immigrants. Their blatantly hateful offences against non-Christian and brown or black individuals have varied empirically. obnoxious, prejudicial conduct to homicide. In common with implicitly reductionist features of race and ethnic prejudice, they forego humanistic recognition of the “other,” and, in their egregious intolerance, routinely eschew the provisions of the U.S. Constitution and the law of the land.

The bigot’s declared, reductively ignorant, but passionate cry is: “They will not replace us!’ The latter martial battle cry demonstrates not only a betrayal of the American mantra of liberty and its avowed motto, ” E Pluribus Unum,” but also an ignorant and delusional mindset. Aside from its lack of empirical recognition that Homo Sapiens are born in different colors and diversdely acquired ethnos, the illusion that such miscreants represent the epitamy and ultimate embodiment of the standard and acceptable iteration of the human race, is as farfetched as its pronounced, reductive and delusional hubris; illustrative of the empirical observation that ignorance and resultant reductive thought are conjoined twins, difficult, or anecdotally impossible to separate.

Modern human beings, according to scientific human anthropology, originated on the continent of Africa and subsequently spread worldwide, replacing the Neanderthal and other early species. This theory is the universally accepted model in the field of paleoanthropology, relative to the geographical origin and early appearance of the modern iteration of the human being. Any “selfie” will attest to the discernible plethora of human change and “replacement” since the Stone Ages.

The profuse tattoos on Trump’s selection of our aberrant Secretary of Defense, attesting permanently to his support of Christian White Militias, is a demonstration that such xenophobic and religious bias, shared by a ubiquitous assertion of reductively ignorant citizens, relative to their delusion that white American Christianity is the ultimate zenith of Natural Evolution and that they are mandated to avoid its pollution. In addition to its being morbidly delusional, as testified to by Man’s known developing and changing history, the ideation is harmful to the retention of liberty and democracy; the latter, our Nation’s aspirational foundation.

Based upon our previous perception of some of the enraged militant faces of the Trump-inspired insurrectionists, it would be conceivable to imagine a conceivable scenario in which Neanderthal Man might, programmicly protest against the developing appearance of the Cro-Magnon, the protesters bearing heavy stone-sculptured signs enunciating, in prehistoric pictorial symbols, “We will not be replaced.”

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The publicised event of Pope Francis’s historic passing seemed to evoke thoughts concerning the traditional Biblical religious canon and its singular social impact upon modern empirical thought and prejudices. We have previously conjured up the Bible’s apocryphal recitation of the beginnings of Mankind, specifically portrayed in the Book of Genesis, which, for believers, apparently has had an enduring effect on social thought and behavior. Thematically, it is understood by countless believers to justify the arcane concept of “Original Sin,” as well as having an enduring effect upon the unfairly assigned status to women (ask J.D., Vance).

The universally accepted message is well known: Adam is tempted by Eve to eat a fruit ( an apple) from the “Forbidden “Tree of Knowledge on which the inciting serpent resided, resulting in the banishment of the couple (mankind) from the “Garden of Eden.” ( previous condition of ignorance). A simple conceit, but which thereafter evolved to be humanistically devastating. In our view, it is symbolically erroneous, albeit retaining an enduring and cogent religious and social significance.

The presence of a serpent (the snake) in ancient mythology and belief was universally considered a symbol of fertility (Freudian?) by recognized mythologists such as Joseph Campbell. To our resultant perception, a symbol of fertility, residing in the “Tree of Knowledge,” would empirically symbolize mental fertility. Eve’s apocryphal ooffering of the apple from the “Tree of Knowledge would symbolically and affirmatively accord credit to women for Mankind’s acquisition of consciousness of self (“of his “nakedness”), no longer, thereafter, to remain insapient like the other creatures of creation (i.e., “banished from the Garden of Eden.) In our view, the concept of every infant as being born in sin (“Original Sin”) is more than bizarre and pessimistic, but, thematically, symbolically erroneous.

The enduring concept of Eve (Woman) as temptress and Adam sinfully partaking of the “Forbidden Apple,” might, consistent with ancient beliefs, more justly, salubriously, and perhaps, consistently, be perceived as symbolically demonstrating that it was woman who delivered knowledge to Mankind, rather than tempting him and his entire Earthly progeny to life-long sin. Unfortunately, and undeservedly, like the Greek God, Prometheus, she was granted a rather bad rap.

Having desirably declared our critique of misapprehended Biblical mythology, we would affirm our strong and enduring preference for judging people, irrespective of their sex or gender, by their empirically demonstrated character.

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In our late octogenarian musings, we have often analogized our ancient condition to a used automobile, viz., worn joints, slow mobility, and the frequent need for service. At times, we see ourselves as an old “Chevy,” needing frequent mechanical service, and, for some of our contemporaries, a change of parts.

In this conceptual analogy, we have had the exotic experience of perceiving a mundane television commercial as having an unintended and unexpected metaphysical significance. The relevant advertisement relates to an automobile service that offers the service of determining whether an apparently shiny, new auto offered for sale has previously been in a damaging collision. The advertiser styles the offered service “Carfax” and presents an alert car fox who utters, “Give me the carfax (car facts) ” relative to its possible history of an automobile offered for sale as “new”, despite its having empirically sustained a collision.

As declared, we were somehow inspired to conceptualize the commercial as symbolic of a humanistic message concerning our perceptive appraisal of others with whom we interactively relate. The commercial advertiser offers for sale its investigative services to determine the possible existence of an accident-damaged automobile, deceitfully offered for sale at full price. Analogously, as interactive members of society, are we responsibly obliged to consider the possibility of human trauma in the societally pleasant smile of others? Pragmatically missing is a smart and discernible fox to guide us in our appraisal of others, appropriately deservant of empathic consideration.

Anecdotally, as unsophisticated young first generation American children growing up in the immigrant ambience of the 1940’s Brooklyn, we regularly witnessed the elements of past trauma and struggle, reflected in the time-worn, tragic faces of the elder generation bearing personal histories of suffering from European antisemitism and severe economic privation; regarding which troubles apparently seem to make their enduring imprint, notwithstanding their occasionally smiling face.

The readily available inclination to such perceptive sensitivity was implicitly imprinted on our psyche, maintaining its enduring cognitive application in our contemporary interactions; the outward stimulus for the caution being, anecdotally, less readily apparent and discernible.

In our view, successful societal life mandates an appropriate awareness and sensitive consideration of the experiential history of other societal members regarding the possibility of past challenges and their sublimina. endurance, as analogously illustrated in the contextual television commercial.

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The recent passing of Pope Francis, followed, thematically, by his previously requested, abridged official ceremony, appropriately warrants our sincere condolences. In addition, it presents the observation of certain singular phenomena relative to the phenomenon and dynamics of ubiquitous human change, notably those relating to Man’s eternal religious beliefs and practices.

Generally speaking, religious faith involves adherence to a particular religion and spiritual system of doctrines and ceremonies relative to the worship of a God. It represents a specialized choice of mysticism and significantly affects the manner and cognitive process of believers.

As we read history, Catholicism, knowledgeably, ruled by a papacy, the latter, the reportedly oldest continuing absolute monarchy in World history, developed a highly sophisticated mode of theology and an elaborate organizational structure.

A reading of medieval history reveals the “Dark Ages” periods of the Catholic Church, evincing inquisitions, pogroms, and autocratic control of the population, especially refererable to the lower classes, in which barbaric inquisitions, torture, and ubiquitous misery were inflicted upon those charged with “heresy” (often over petty matters) in an unchanging system of orthodox autocracy. The Church was “infallible” in its doctrines so that any variation in doctrinal belief, often, conclusively determined by the mere choice of words, meant cruel and barbaric retribution.

In the 16th Century, responsive to the above-described tyranny, the “Period of Protestant Reformation developed, offering changes and reforms deemed repugnant to orthodox Catholicism, leading to conflict and brutal religious warfare. As a notable example, the bloody “Thirty Years’ War” in Central Europe (1618 to 1648), in which history reports, casualties numbered between 4.5 to 8 million, from battle, famine, and disease.

Change, for the persona of Man, has eternally been slow and painful; most notably, and empirically, changes in religious orthodoxy, belief, and practice. It is this time-honored observation that makes the life of the late Pope Francis singularly significant and memorable, even to secular empiricists.

The incomparable significance of “humanism,” not consistently an observable feature in the recorded history of the Catholic Church, was, notably, the defining quality of the late Pope Francis, an aspirational quality to which all men, religious or secular, should appropriately aspire. Unlike the previous “Princes of the Church,” Francis injected into the historic institution the salubrious features of modesty and humanism, so exemplary in the case of an ordained Catholic Pope. Such notable grace provided the motivation for this confirmed secularist to praise his life by this written memorial.

In a religion in which official doctrine eternally praises simple faith and poverty, yet evinces gold leaf roofs, iconic treasures, enormous wealth, and pomp and ceremony, Pope Francis demonstrated the appropriate realization of its eternal representations concerning pius simplicity and loving regard for humanity so overlooked in its many centuries of past history; revolutionary change without official reformation or bloody conflict.

Among the notable reforms of Pope Francis are his modernizing of the traditional Mass, allowing access to influential meetings of Bishops to Lay people, allowing Priests to bless same-sex couples and baptism of children of transgender parents, and refusal to deny communion to people who support abortion. Reportedly, when asked about a Priest who was purported to be gay, he replied, “Who am I to judge? [N.B.: a modest response from the canonical “Infallible Pope,”], residence in a nearby guesthouse instead of the ornate Papal Residence, driving around town in a modest Ford, and democratically advocating for a greater role for women in the Church.

We, who steadfastly adhere to a Lockean, secular, and empirical philosophy of life, nevertheless, admire the refreshing humanism of the late Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of an institution regarding which that venerable quality has not always been a steadfast, reliable concomitant.

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