Straighten Up and Fly Right is the title of a tune by the great Nat King Cole. Written in 1943, it was based on an old folk tale of a buzzard who offers rides to various animals. When the buzzard gets hungry he throws them off and eats them. But when the monkey gets on the buzzard’s back he wraps his tail around the buzzard’s neck and tells him to “straighten up and fly right.”

(Source: Belinda Cole, “The Meaning Behind The Song: Straighten Up and Fly Right by Nat King Cole,” January 3, 2024, https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-straighten-up-and-fly-right-by-nat-king-cole-2/)

Why would something from an old song written in 1943 have any applicability today, in these crazy End Times, when social mores and norms are breaking down?

Because there are time-honored human values, based on natural laws of survival, that humans have practiced for millennia. If these natural, behavioral laws are broken, chaos and misery result. “Straighten Up and Fly Right” (SUFR) is both advice and an admonition. It covers both the Light and Dark aspects of life.

Implied in SUFR is a warning that being devious and untrustworthy will eventually result in a big fail. A con man, for instance, bases his life on lies. He may experience success for a while, but will eventually fail on a personal level. The same thing will happen to a government or a society.

SUFR is also positive advice to practicing integrity in life. Integrity means “wholeness” and leads to discernment. Discernment means seeing clearly, seeing something (a person or a situation) for exactly what it is. This can only come from having and maintaining a clean personal space.

American society is in a SUFR crisis right now. Our government agencies lie to us routinely, from the mantra that the gene altering mRNA medical countermeasures were “safe and effective,” to the quite obvious propaganda about the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, the jobs reports, the immigration figures, and even about guys burning themselves in public across the street from one of the Trump trials in New York.

What happens when personal and institutional integrity breaks down? Well, it’s hard to even trust what appears to be a straightforward news report about the economy, and you get lots of conspiracy theories.

What goes around comes around

American society is breaking down into two loose camps: Those who follow SUFR (as hard as that may be at times) and those who don’t.

We have seen our federal government act against the wishes and best interests of the people for far too long. Resentment is building underneath the surface for many people. The open corruption in government, in corporations, and in the media is undeniable. These are all signs of the End Times. Some commentators wail that “society is falling apart.” But that is too general. Institutions and people who do not SUFR are falling apart. They are imploding and creating gigantic messes.

But these messes will be seen by everyone, and people will start asking questions, and complaining.

In Chicago, Mayor Johnson has budgeted $50 million more for illegal migrants, and the citizens are getting more and more angry. “Why isn’t that money for us citizens?” a citizen asked at a City Council meeting the other day, and pointed out the need for services to the communities in Chicago. When you deal honestly with people you don’t piss them off. When you have a hidden agenda and lie to people, they get angry.

The federal government in DC knows it is rapidly losing support among the citizens. So why not bring in 10-15 million “newcomers” who will be very grateful to be housed in 4-star hotels and given monthly stipends for food and basic necessities? That’s going to generate a lot of gummint support. And a lot of votes.

Global Consciousness

There is nothing complicated about what is happening in American society. We are being attacked from within and without, because our own government has been attacking and overthrowing foreign governments (and killing their people) since Allen Dulles and his CIA overthrew the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran in 1953.

Imagine doing that for over 70 years all around the world. Quite a lot of karma has developed over that period. What goes around, comes around.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of room for optimism.

The Founders built the best political system that is possible within the current level of human consciousness. When asked what kind of a government had been designed after the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin replied, "A Republic. If you can keep it."

"Low consciousness" and sociopathy have destroyed every civilization and culture that has ever existed for the past 6,000 years, and we are in the throes of that now in the West. But that is changing I think, as the human race now has a global consciousness. People are able to see the sociopathy at the top of our global institutions and are looking for something better. Give us a few more years and I think the human race will be ready to dispose of the "me first" sociopathy that has plagued us for so long. It's already happening.

In the meantime, we have to vote for people with personal integrity at the local, state, and federal level. That's more important I think than which political party they belong to. Straighten up and fly right!

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Ken is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Since childhood, Ken has been thinking about the Big Picture and how to increase spiritual understanding in the world. 

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