The Wanderer

Where is the Horse and the Rider?

"Where is the horse gone? Where the rider?

Where are the seats at the feast? Where are the revels in the hall?

Alas for the bright cup! Alas for the mailed warrior! Alas for the splendour of the prince!

How that time has passed away, dark under the cover of night, as if it had never been…"

The words of Old English poem The Wanderer seem increasingly meaningful as the days go on.

"Where is the horse gone? Where the Rider?"

Where have they gone indeed…

Everything we hold dear and beautiful seems threatened, the future of all that is good seems to balance on the edge of a knife. Our world is ruled by a class of elites that are evil almost beyond belief.

We speak of happier days of only decades ago as if they are ancient legends. We speak of decades like the 50’s, that were really not all that great, as if it was the Garden of Eden itself. How could things have come to this, that a simply "normal" society could seem so out of reach, so totally mythic.

How have we fallen so far?

I could rant here about those who have brought these evils that we see today about. But what good would that do?

I have found that the culture of our sphere of the internet is always pontificating, always theorizing, but very little is ever done or even proposed.

Much blame is always placed and very little responsibility is ever taken. Because there really are endless people and groups and ideologies that can be blamed. But how much do they matter in the end?

There’s an obsession in our circles with “elite theory”, with the idea that the “great man” of history will appear to save us, or if not save us, at least lead us for a short while.

I find these philosophies ineffectiveness at best and cowardly at worst.

In the end, a great man or class of elites don’t matter. Or at least, they shouldn’t matter for you, even if they do eventually appear. Regardless of what way history will turn, the responsibility to fix this world is always yours alone. Responsibility is always personal. We are born to face the evils of our times.

Evil has always been evil. Good has always been good. You really do not need to spend so much time pontificating over philosophy and politics to say this, or to act. The Truth has always been the Truth.

Everyone, no matter how small or insignificant, holds this same responsibility in their own way. Their own duty to hold watch as the night closes in. Their own duty to their family, to their friends.

What this means will be different for everyone. But we will all have choices to make, responsibilities to carry. Not everyone can be the “great man”. But I can say this, no “great man” ever wasted time wondering whether or not he was one.

So at some point we must put aside all pontification. For each man there can only be one answer to the Wanderer's question.

"Where is the horse gone? Where the Rider?"

"I am here, send me.”