The marvel of my maturity has been the fatuity of humanity. It dazzles me how stupid we can be. Not all – not all of the time – or on all points: a genius financier can be a fool about human relations; there have been times (too many!) when the wrongness of my choices dumbfounded me. But I was convinced, deep down, that most of us mostly would mosey in the direction of sense during our spans – and that the consensus of the community, while sometimes misguided, would be self-protective, not suicidal.

The god-awful Trump-Biden “debate” – I enclose debate in quotes because it was more extermination than examination – left me gobsmacked. “What did you expect?” many rolled their eyes. Yes, I expected each to fight as he did – one with facts, the other with fists – though not the extent of Biden’s frailty. Deeper down, in the dark subsoil of consciousness, I was aghast. That so many million fellow humans, seemingly sane, could take in Trump’s nonstop garbage of verbiage, boast after preposterous boast and lie after lie, and say, yeah, that’s the guy I want to lead the free world? Every syllable Trump uttered was wrong – not just factually, but morally. If humans followed his example – lying, swaggering, bullying – our species would be toast in no time. Biden may be too old for the job, but Trump is too bad. Obvious, right? – to you, I’m sure. But to many, perhaps a majority of Americans? It's as if my darling daughter started dating King Kong.

How to square my horror with my outlook? How to make sense of this absurdity?

I was not born a moralist. I chafed at my parents’ prescriptions. In mind if not manners, I belonged to the permissive Woodstock generation.

I stumbled into morality because I was lost and needed guidance. Pondering was my soul’s GPS. Morality is not a matter of opinion but a mental discipline, like mathematics or science, which attempts to tame the chaos of ignorance with rational rules. If A is true, then B is, and C, and so forth. Its rules are not absolute, because the conditions of any moment vary: “thou shalt not kill,” for example, may make sense in peace, but not war; cannibalism made sense for the Donner party but not a dinner party. Once you settle your axioms, though, you can reason your way to your own Ten Commandments.

I came to conclude (surprise!):

·      Truth is essential to human coordination

·      Love is preferable to hate

·      Beauty is an absolute good, worth straining toward

·      Humility makes sense

·      Likewise, kindness and courtesy

·      Opportunities abound – just look around

In sum, the glory of the world is up to us; sadness is not our fate but our fault.

Apply these precepts and they dictate choices – of action, conduct, politics, or (in my case) subject matter. We’ll head in a right – and more satisfying – direction by using our heads.

The America I perceive is going crazy. We’re barreling toward an apocalypse, laughing all the way, led by misleaders who should make our skin crawl. “Use your heads!” I feel like screeching from the rooftops; “Wake up!” But everyone’s got earbuds in their ears, grooving to their own tunes, cocooned in their own comfort zones, not thinking. Ensconced in our private concerns, we’ve lost sight of what our community requires, gusting by whim to wham.

Maybe it’s I who’s nuts, I wonder, so out of step. I retrace my thinking and, no, it’s not I but my tribe that’s going mad.

Will humans survive our fatuity? I’m skeptical – the evidence is ominous – but we can’t give up.