The man of straw

I know a man who’s perpetually ‘ticked off.’ He finds enemies everywhere.

He’s rigid in his beliefs. He creates these straw-men and then feels like he did something ‘important’ when he tears them down; a life of empty victories.  

I often wonder about such ideologues who can never take time off from their ‘self righteous cause’ long enough to see the humanity of others; much less their own humanity.

It seems to me, people who hold on rigidly to their religious or political dogmas, become cold, legalistic moralizers who make declarations on how others should live.

They have this incredible insight into the lives of others but blind to their own depravity.

Then one day death comes knocking.  

And what contribution have they made in life? Not much.

In a hundred years, no one will be around to recall their empty and vapid life. A life made of straw; much like the 'straw-men' they waste their lives on.   

I wonder if their tombstone would read:” Here lies so and so he died for nothing.”

He died for nothing because he lived for nothing; such is the life of a 'man of straw.'