wilful ignorance

I call it willful ignorance, and it's much like what happens to the frog in hot water, but you can't blame an animal with an IQ of under 7. You can, however, blame humans, most of which have an IQ well over 7.

The frog in question will, if dropped in boiling water, immediately leap out. The same frog placed in cool water that is gradually warmed to boiling, will simply sit there, unaware of its impending doom.

As the various problems in our society become crises, the public just sits in that national tub of warming water, ignoring the signs around them. Crises, what crises?  A short list would include foreign policy, domestic politics, the economy, education, outmoded religious notions, the environment and public discourse. And that was the very short list.

Anyone who has been forced to confront even a smattering of history can see that a society that follows unsustainable social policies ends up on the trash heap of history. Quite likely, as in our society, most people were totally taken by surprise when everything suddenly came down around their ears.

People believe, without thinking about it, that we can continue to pollute our water and still have water to drink, that we can starve education and still have a creative, dynamic work force, that we can neglect our infrastructure and still have active trade, that we can cling to antiquated religious notions and still not descend into barbarism, that we can continue to trust one or the other major political parties to fix things, when neither have had a workable solution in years, that we can continue to make war when there is no money to pay for it or that we can continue to spend without going broke.

Unfortunately, most people don't want to hear this. When someone tries to break through the insulation of willful ignorance, they put their fingers in their ears and shout, "Lalalalala." 

This attitude probably wouldn't bother me as much if I were not in the same leaky boat with these folks.

Discovery, end of a era

The space shuttle Discovery is about to wrap up its final flight, and soon the whole program will be history. I know that we can debate the scientific benefits of the program vs the costs, but I think there's a bigger issue, something symbolic.

Our manned space program was a symbol of a time of pride, a time when we all looked up to the stars and dreamed big dreams about big changes. Now, we are reduced to looking down at the ground and dreaming of finding small change.

Some things don't necessarily go together

We tend to love to lump things together and treat them as all the same stuff. It's so much easier than taking each thing on our list and thinking about it separately. It's human nature, I guess.

One case in point emerged in the conflict in Wisconsin, over public workers rights to collective bargaining and other union issues. Seems all the public employees are protesting, the teachers among them. Some teachers were talking about an attack on collective bargaining and tenure, as if these were like items, fit to reside in the same bag. They are not.

Collective bargaining is an organized way for employees to negotiate wages, working conditions and benefits. Management and labor can sit down and engage in give and take until they work out an arrangement that both sides can live with. Neither side has absolute power, so neither side gets totally screwed.

Tenure is a different animal, and not every job has something like it. Someone who starts his or her third year as a contracted teacher suddenly has a job essentially for life, whether he or she continues doing it properly or not. That's a right no one should have, teacher or janitor.

Naturally, firing anyone should involve due process, where perhaps a panel drawn from workers and management can hear the case and decide the merits. In the case of teachers, a school board member and perhaps a parent should be involved. In any case, a good teacher should be retained, a bad one fired. And that has nothing to do with the pay or benefit package, which apply to those who are worth to receive them, not to anyone who managed to hang in there until the magic day.

Last word on fallen actor, Sheen

I inadvertently started a debate when I commented on all the hype about the activities of a TV actor, Charlie Sheen, whose program, I would guess, was probably mediocre. I was told yesterday that he'd been fired by whoever way paying him, station, sponsor, whatever. That should be the end of it, but I'm afraid it's only the beginning.

At some point he will likely go into some rehab program for whatever addiction issues prompted his firing. After that, he'll have someone ghost write a book about his experiences, which will be picked up and discussed endlessly by celebrity voyeurs, which will serve to distract them from the serious issues of the day. This attention will reanimate his career, make him a big star and prove, at least in America, that vacuous still rules.

Can't stop the guns?

New article: US can't stop the flow of guns to Mexico. Weak-kneed reporter. Our government can but won't stop the flow. Remember people can walk in and buy many crates of automatic weapons, pretty much as easily as you buy a case of beer. And they need these guns because... going hunting?  Need to protect against burglars?  No, between the corruption in Mexico and our unwillingness to regulate sales of assault weapons, let the carnage begin.

Sociial Retard needs help

Since I'm a social retard, I seem to be concerned about the economy, education, the environment when I hear I'm supposed to care passionately about the carrying on of that marginal actor, Charlie Sheen. Someone help me adopt the proper level of concern.

American kids living in poverty.

On 60 mins tonight, 25 percent of American kids living in poverty. At the same time the weasels who conned us into sending them to Washington, rather than put the crooks who caused our economic problems in jail, have given them billions to reward them for their corruption. But what happened to the rest of the money that could restore the economy? Oh, yeah, the weasels sent it to Iraq and Afghanistan.