Complacency: The Sudden Killer
complacency: (Noun) 1. a feeling of contented self-satisfaction,
especially when unaware of impending trouble
It's a beautiful autumn day, the leaves cascading as they are
gently blown from their perches high in the branches of towering
oaks that have been rooted firmly in the ground for decades.
Nothing has threatened nor touched them in their entire
lifespan, and as their genetics dictate, they go dormant in a
splash of brilliant color. However, on the horizon, storm clouds
are gathering to bring a blight of cold upon the land,
disrupting the quiet beauty of the autumn with the cold,
unforgiving grip of winter. You sit there on your porch, sipping
your beverage as the sun fades into the horizon, taking in the
tranquility of the world around you, all cares leaving your
mind, and you are unaware of the storm that is coming for you,
that is about to shatter your life and change your world
forever. Just as the trees, we too are dictated to go dormant
just as our winter is about to come upon us, allowing our
wealth, peace, and prosperity to sedate our minds. They often
call it the 'calm before the storm', that moment of stillness
and relief that heralds the terrible winds and flashing
lighting, the hail raining down destruction upon the land. These
winds are winds of change, ones that can turn even the smallest
of trifles into deadly projectiles.
One the single greatest weaknesses that mankind as a whole is
susceptible to is complacency. We believe only what we can see
with our own two eyes. It is engrained into our nature.
Therefore, if no threats are seen or realized, we allow
ourselves to be trapped in the faulty perception that all is
right and fine, a reality that quenches urgency and blinds
foresight. We are all subject to it as individuals and as
groups...as nations. As a people, we tend to either forget the
past and refuse to learn from it, or turn our backs on the
possibilities and ignore what the future may hold. However,
change is the only constant, or so they say. History is ripe
with examples of how complacency can kill, how the winds of
change can turn into tempests, bending the fabric of history.
Example 1: It's a normal gorgeous morning on the beaches of
Hawaii. The sun is slowly rising in the East, the sky is turning
a spectrum of different colors and a slight breeze blows over
the palms as the tide predictably washed in and out. It has been
like this for its entire existence. To be stationed there is a
bit of good fortune, as it is a place of peace and tranquility
where one can avoid having a care in the world. Walking through
the sand, looking up at the purple and orange sky, a slight
sound can be heard in the distance. From within the rising
blinding orb that is the dawning sun, several black specks
appear, a slight, high-pitched rumbling of multiple engines can
be heard. They pass right overhead and head straight for the
harbor's ships and facilities. Then the bombs begin to drop.
Complacency: foolishness.
Example 2: The economy is through the roof, and people are
happy. If we can just get through this presidential election
mess, life will be grand again. We are the greatest country in
the world and none can hurt us. We are invincible, infallible.
Do you hear a rumble? Did another bomb go off? It does not
matter, for that was way over seas, not here, and therefore, we
don't care. There is no threat to us, and we will ignore the
possibilities, even as alarming data begins to pour into our
intelligence networks. Then another bomb goes off, and then
another, and another. Then we wake up one September morning and
find that two of our towers, four of our planes, and three
thousand plus of our people are gone forever. Complacency.
blindness.
Example 3: It's coming straight for us, a Category 5 hurricane.
This the worst-case scenario, and we have known of the
possibility for decades. But as we sit here still safe in our
homes, we see no immediate threat that would require action. The
levees should hold and feds will come and clean up our mess. The
meteorologists are saying that the eye split in two. No need for
a full, forced evacuation. We don't even need our buses, so
we'll let them sit there. Then, as our bowl-shaped city fills
with the waters of a stormsurge, we do all that we can: wait for
the feds as our city is turned inside out by rampant chaos. But
then we discover that the feds are just as complacent as we
were, caught unprepared for one of the worst disasters to hit
this nation. Complacency: deadly.
Example 4: Millions of people from other nearby countries are
flooding into our borders. We let them in the name of political
correctness and an illusion of benevolence, and the argument
that their being here helps us. It does not matter that they are
hear illegally. We need the people to do jobs that we won't. Let
them come in by the hundreds of thousands of millions and not
assimilate, deluding our cultures and turning our own people
from being the head of the beast to the tail as they are
outnumbered in what can only be described as a full-scale
invasion. And to prove just how well we can ignore this threat,
we'll even be afraid to bring it up or do anything proactive
about it as our country, our homeland, is taken from us by
outsiders.
And these are but a few more recent examples from US history out
of hundreds to thousands that could be chosen from in the annals
of human history.
As a good example of how this translates into our own everyday
lives, I'll use myself as an example. Things are going very well
for me right now on all fronts. However, such things are not
meant to last. I bring it up because I plan on practicing what I
preach. I'm not going to let up. Things are peaceful and good,
but this is not a time to relax. Times of peace are a time to
move forward even farther, opportunities to for greater
progress, to push higher. Certainly, they also mean a breath of
fresh air and a decrease in stress. But they must not be treated
as holidays, for the slightest thing could send me into a death
spiral. Now that I have my goals backed into the corner, it' is
time to push even harder, stronger. The doors have all been
opened. I just need to run through them at full speed, screaming
a battle cry as I do, because though things are going well now,
it is not meant to last. But by attacking at full strength, I
can make it last just a little bit longer, and ensure that when
the tempest does hit, the damage will be lessened, perhaps
severely.
However, I came to a startling realization the other day. For
all of my efforts, for all of my work, for all of the battles
fought both won and lost, I am getting no closer to ultimate
victory. For the last couple years, I have wondered why,
wondered how it could be getting even harder as I go along,
instead of easier. I had always been under the illusion that
hard work paid off in ways of peace and victory. But I have come
to the realization, and I'm not sure how, that this war that I'm
fighting will never end. The reason things haven't been getting
better or easier, despite my best efforts, has nothing to do
with how skilled or smart I am, it has nothing to do with my
work being inferior in any way. The reason why I fail is because
I am fighting a battle that is already lost. How can it already
be lost? Well, the truth of the matter is, the war never ends.
No matter how many mountains I conquer, there always the trip
back down. And following that, there is always something else
that comes along, another obstacle, another fight. There is no
peace, there is no ultimate victory. The opponent is eternal,
everlasting, and it cannot be beaten. That's why it is a battle
already lost, because there is no way that I can win. I can
fight forever and never ultimately come out on top. Who is the
opponent? What is it that I'm fighting for, and by extension,
fighting against? What are we all fighting against, fighting
for? The answer is TIME. We fight against time and we fight for
time. We work so that we can have money to spend time doing what
we wish, and in the process fight against time to get things
done quickly, for time never seems to be on our side. The
illusion measured as time is a constant tide of change, one that
we cannot ever forget about or ignore, lest such a tide bring a
tsunami down upon our heads.
Complacency is a symptom of our forgetfulness. Once something
horrific and un-foreseen has occurred, we tend to forget about
it and move on. That's not to say that we don't remember what
happened. What we forget was how it felt, and why it happened in
the first place. The United States seems to have this trait in
mass abundance, where there are even movements pushing people to
forget about what had come upon them from out of the clear blue
sky. Media outlets join them in this effort as all images and
mentions are completely erased from the public square. How
dangerous is that? We all knew that it happened, in the back of
our minds. But do we really still REMEMBER any more as why it
happened and what it meant? Why else are our current efforts
being derided or ignored? People have moved on in an unhealthy
and unwise way, and this nation, unfortunately, seems to be
moving towards complacency once again, ignoring the threats that
still face us, seeing them as a mere triviality. There is no
such thing as total security, as some things are completely out
of our control. However, keeping a watchful vigil can keep us
prepared to the best our ability to face the worst. We need to
look beyond our own realities and awaken from our dreams to
realize the truth. We must stop looking only at what is
currently before us, and begin to consider what could be coming
upon us if we do not act accordingly, what illusion the of
safety could be hiding. We must not allow ourselves to sleep as
war is made upon us.
There is a fine line between being vigilant and paranoid, and
there is another extreme in this struggle, one of
over-aggression and oppression in the name of peace and order
and quelling potential threats. This is an extreme of paranoia
and total control in the name of the 'greater good'. There are
those that fear this, and rightly so. However, there are groups
sending a harmful message of complacency and forgetfullness,
encouraging us to move on from the tragedies without learning
from them and realizing what must be done to prevent history
from repeating itself. While we cannot prevent every bad thing
from happening, as much of it is a product of our very beings,
to keep that watchful vigil on the horizon and look beyond what
is presented before us, we must find that balance between
complacency and aggression, and never let our guards down.
'The War' never ends, for the struggle is eternal. No matter
what challenges face us, total victory is unattainable, as in
most cases, we are fighting the products of a world, a system
that we have built for ourselves, and this is part of the reason
of how we can get too comfortable with our current reality. The
truth is, this is an imperfect world made up of imperfect
people, and nothing will ever go right for long under those
circumstances. It's a flight of fancy to believe otherwise, and
we must not allow ourselves to fall into that trap, lest
complacency kill us in our sleep once again.