Sometimes, usually in the most unlikely situations, I have an overwhelming sense that things are exactly as they should be.
Editor’s Note: Previously published on Morf’s Substack on January 15, 2026.
I am writing this in January of 2026 – a time when, by any objective standard, the world, the economy, the culture at large, and perhaps most pointedly, the once proudly “united” United States of America, are all coming apart at the seams.
As expected, all sorts of dire warnings, blaming, desperate measures and end-times proclamations fill airwaves, screens and conversations.
But somehow, within the swirl of it all, I for a moment or two, have the sense that, not only is the entire scene not as terrible as it seems (though the evidence is continually, irrefutably convincing) but that, in some sense, it is necessary, and somehow getting us where we, consciously or not, deliberately or not, seem destined to go.
And yes, sometimes this thought strikes me as the ultimate delusion.
But it might be an essential delusion; sort of like catching my breath, in a moment of repose during a frantic and frenzied day.
The reasons to feel demoralized and disheartened lately are too many to count; the assaults on decency and basic social behavior – and of course the non-stop depredations, deceptions and evasions of business and political leaders seems to be constant.
Stupidity, hubris, corruption and incompetence seem to rule every decision, policy and public statement.
The excuses, blame and justifications for such a state are as vacuous as they are insulting.
Who needs excuses when sheer obliviousness is the ultimate universal response?
Some statements and proposed policies are so absurd and self-contradictory that they seem intended to create and amplify chaos and upheaval. Who, after all needs stupidity, when sheer venality and ignorance are so effective?
There is nowhere to even begin with media – or gut – grabbing headlines.
Consider just a few of these stories; Three Oglala Lakota men, taken by ICE, are being held at Fort Snelling, a former detention camp used to hold Native Americans during the late 19th Century Dakota Wars.
ICE has duties limited to immigration. To clarify the blindingly obvious, ICE has no jurisdiction over Native Americans.
They were not breaking any laws. There’s nowhere to deport them to. Their home, their only home, is here. They, and their people were here long before any of those who now claim authority and control over, not only the land, but the original inhabitants of it.
And, in yet another all too typical American story, Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert, comic strip died recently.
He held a particularly American view of faith, destiny, death and eternity; nothing matters, except one’s words.
Here is how he put it- “I’m not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks attractive,” Adams wrote, before calling Jesus Christ “my lord and savior,” the God with whom “I look forward to spending an eternity.”
Yes, in his, and for the most part, the American view of theology, is that any one of us can be as cruel, vile, abusive or violent as we want to, but, in the last moments of our life, if we make the correct “risk-reward calculation” and say just the right words, we can spend our “eternity” in paradise.
Is that outright heresy? Or just another expression of the self-serving, transactional, emptiness of American Christianity?
Some argue that this an example of God’s grace – others describe it as the ultimate act of final opportunism.
Maybe both of these situations are examples of situations that are so preposterous that they almost make sense; so foolish and delusional that they approach some definition of wisdom and insight.
Who, after all, in a confused and paranoid state, would not find Native Americans threatening? Who would not find them threatening to their identity and everything they value and believe?
If “America first” means getting rid of the original “Americans” what does that phrase mean?
And, of course, abducting them and taking them to a historic site of confinement only completes the circle of absurdity.
If one is re-enacting laws based on racial identity, following a historical script is just another part of the program.
The last words of Scott Adams are not so different; if the “risk-reward calculation” is your defining framework for life, why not apply it to one’s final thoughts?
As one approaches death, where the concept of “risk” recedes, or even evaporates, why not “claim” any “reward” that one can?
If there is no “risk” left, what is the point of such a “calculation”?
Yes, it is cynical, if not blasphemous, but if your philosophical framework can be reduced to a “risk-reward calculation” and you have no other faith or belief to lean on, why not?
Apparently this is my bias, but if any decision, no matter how trivial – or consequential – involves absolutely no risk, how meaningful or monumental could it be?
If I were an all-powerful deity with eternal destiny in my hands, and someone said, at their last moments ‘I’m not willing to risk anything, but I want the maximum rewards” I would respond accordingly – “you get the eternity you deserve”.
My sense is that, if utter cluelessness about life and eternity is a requirement for the next stage, at least some sense of consistency has been maintained.
In the unrelenting turmoil across the world, where no nation, no neighborhood and, often, no conversation is safe, and masked and anonymous enforcers of “retribution” seem to be everywhere, we seem to find ourselves in a not-quite-tangible sense of synchronicity, of things coming together even as they seem to be coming apart.
As I write this, the president of the USA is threatening a day of “retribution” – which of course, is an ancient concept of justice and restoration.
No matter what we think, imagine or proclaim, and no matter what “risk-reward calculation” we have in place, some kind of “retribution” is inevitable, if not imminent.
It probably won’t look the way some of us imagined, but there is, no matter what we believe, a larger equation, a bigger picture coming into some kind of focus.
Martin Luther King, jr emphasized that the arc of history moved toward justice.
I’ve had my doubts, but I am convinced that some kind of equilibrium is at work, and the current chaos, noise and sheer industrial level cruel and clueless stupidity must be leading us somewhere.
Those calling for retribution, or even for God’s forgiveness (for themselves) and unrelenting wrath (for others) would be wise to look at Amos, chapter five, for these words of warning;
Woe to you who long
for the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
That day will be darkness, not light.
19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
your assemblies are a stench to me.
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.
23 Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
