In our attempts to make the world more and more idiot resistant we have come up against an unintended consequence. I do believe there are ways to recover from this life out of balance, but it will require some sacrifice and diligence on our part. We have innovated our way into a sophisticated system in which capital is thoroughly divorced from things that matter most, the means of production has sucked up into too few hands and with which we can placate the masses with nothing more than streams of electrons and products that can be produced for pennies and sold for dollars. The cheaters are still in charge of the system and they assure themselves that they will always have the upper hand. Their ace in the hole is that they think that we all need them to fake their way to the top and siphon out the lion's share of the wealth that is created from the sweat of the forgotten man's brow.
I started to realize just how much trouble we were in over thirty years ago. I was tired of the two or three guys who sat behind me cheating (copying from my answers) during tests, so I purposely answered the most ridiculous way I could think of. The teacher, noticing all of our tests were identical, called me aside and asked why I had cheated. I knew her and thought she knew me, so I told her of my ruse. I asked her if I could re-take the test in private and she agreed. When I aced the test, she gave the other boys a passing grade, but let my original test score stand. She told me that had I done my best, those cheaters would have found a way to get the best grade possible, instead, I helped them to fail and that was what was wrong. We are in the same position today. Those who have not paid attention to history or economics, mathematics or science are cheating, just like they did in grade school. The problem is that we let them and the bigger lies they tell, the more insane their logic, the more responsibility we trust them with. The recent addition to the slate of "presidential candidates", from Texas, is an excellent case in point. Never mind the economic and environmental facts, just forge ahead spouting outright lies and the news will cover you as if you are their darling. Now, because their weak minds have been titillated by the digital manifestation of his lies, they will parrot back the falsehoods and claim them to be true.
There are not scientists converting daily to the belief that climate changer is a myth. There is actually no better way to reduce pollution and climate destabilization and raising much needed money than from a carbon tax. It is customary to tax things we do not want more of. Perhaps what is needed is a raving lunatic tax or a bold faced lie tax. The slate of candidates would clean itself up if the tax was high enough.
Hardly a word is said in the public sphere that relates to the fact that a large portion of Northern Japan and the ocean around it will be inhospitable for humans for centuries thanks to splitting atoms for power. Even less is said about the fact that the green light that was originally given to nuclear energy was because of the need for weapons grade material that can only be made in nuclear reactors. The facts about nuclear energy are as chilling now as they have always been, but the cheaters never wanted us to know about the truth. Similarly, those who claim that US reserves of fuel will last for centuries are just dead wrong. To "harvest" the oil shale and tar sands that are touted as our energy salvation will require billions of kiloquads of energy being wasted in the fracking and extraction processes. Making energy this way is akin to carrying water from a well miles away in a bucket with a hole in it.
The banks cheated their way into such a deep hole that we all had to bail them out. Now we can see how willing they are to help us. Car companies as well fought tooth and nail to be allowed to continue doing the wrong thing, yet my car, a 1999 model gets fifty miles to the gallon. My intuition tells me that whenever we determine a necessary path to make the future better that we find no shortage of idiots who make themselves cheerleaders for doing nothing, or worse, continuing down the wrong path at full tilt. The very word "conservative" has been twisted and eviscerated by the religious right, their tea party offspring and the gun-totin' nationalists who claim that our paternalistic government will one day limit their freedoms to bear arms. The well-organized militia part of the constitution may as well not even be there. The cheats, liars and true terrorists only pay attention to things that make their quirky claims seem real.
I have seen little good come of commissions, committees and inquiries, focus groups, advisory councils and working groups so I am usually loathe to recommend them, but in this age of stupid people wresting the tiller of public opinion from their factual underpinnings of truth, justice and The American Way, perhaps it is time to have a sort of truth commission that allows public discourse to stay on topic, reflect the best information available and to prevent the public sphere from being contaminated with hearsay and innuendo. We can make some things up as we go along but the truth is not one of them.
I started to realize just how much trouble we were in over thirty years ago. I was tired of the two or three guys who sat behind me cheating (copying from my answers) during tests, so I purposely answered the most ridiculous way I could think of. The teacher, noticing all of our tests were identical, called me aside and asked why I had cheated. I knew her and thought she knew me, so I told her of my ruse. I asked her if I could re-take the test in private and she agreed. When I aced the test, she gave the other boys a passing grade, but let my original test score stand. She told me that had I done my best, those cheaters would have found a way to get the best grade possible, instead, I helped them to fail and that was what was wrong. We are in the same position today. Those who have not paid attention to history or economics, mathematics or science are cheating, just like they did in grade school. The problem is that we let them and the bigger lies they tell, the more insane their logic, the more responsibility we trust them with. The recent addition to the slate of "presidential candidates", from Texas, is an excellent case in point. Never mind the economic and environmental facts, just forge ahead spouting outright lies and the news will cover you as if you are their darling. Now, because their weak minds have been titillated by the digital manifestation of his lies, they will parrot back the falsehoods and claim them to be true.
There are not scientists converting daily to the belief that climate changer is a myth. There is actually no better way to reduce pollution and climate destabilization and raising much needed money than from a carbon tax. It is customary to tax things we do not want more of. Perhaps what is needed is a raving lunatic tax or a bold faced lie tax. The slate of candidates would clean itself up if the tax was high enough.
Hardly a word is said in the public sphere that relates to the fact that a large portion of Northern Japan and the ocean around it will be inhospitable for humans for centuries thanks to splitting atoms for power. Even less is said about the fact that the green light that was originally given to nuclear energy was because of the need for weapons grade material that can only be made in nuclear reactors. The facts about nuclear energy are as chilling now as they have always been, but the cheaters never wanted us to know about the truth. Similarly, those who claim that US reserves of fuel will last for centuries are just dead wrong. To "harvest" the oil shale and tar sands that are touted as our energy salvation will require billions of kiloquads of energy being wasted in the fracking and extraction processes. Making energy this way is akin to carrying water from a well miles away in a bucket with a hole in it.
The banks cheated their way into such a deep hole that we all had to bail them out. Now we can see how willing they are to help us. Car companies as well fought tooth and nail to be allowed to continue doing the wrong thing, yet my car, a 1999 model gets fifty miles to the gallon. My intuition tells me that whenever we determine a necessary path to make the future better that we find no shortage of idiots who make themselves cheerleaders for doing nothing, or worse, continuing down the wrong path at full tilt. The very word "conservative" has been twisted and eviscerated by the religious right, their tea party offspring and the gun-totin' nationalists who claim that our paternalistic government will one day limit their freedoms to bear arms. The well-organized militia part of the constitution may as well not even be there. The cheats, liars and true terrorists only pay attention to things that make their quirky claims seem real.
I have seen little good come of commissions, committees and inquiries, focus groups, advisory councils and working groups so I am usually loathe to recommend them, but in this age of stupid people wresting the tiller of public opinion from their factual underpinnings of truth, justice and The American Way, perhaps it is time to have a sort of truth commission that allows public discourse to stay on topic, reflect the best information available and to prevent the public sphere from being contaminated with hearsay and innuendo. We can make some things up as we go along but the truth is not one of them.
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