Surfacing

Well, I shut down writing for a while due to a massive upheaval in my domestic life. That was five months ago. Very soon I will have a divorce finalized and hopefully be back to my self (or some aproximation of it) shortly. I'm a single dad now, taking my AREs (Architectural licensing exams), maintaining a house, employing a nanny, and busting my ass inbetween at work... so don't expect a torrent of posts. I might put one together , but don't expect it. I'll try to get back to a once a week schedule for now. Maybe try some new tricks while I'm at it...

Down Time

I haven't been blogging for a while... and I may not start again for a while... so if anyone's wondering if I'm dead... I'm not. Just quiet.

For your own good...?

I recently... (or maybe it's been longer than I think it has...) had a conversation with someone about politics. If I remember correctly, the issue was that I seem like a pretty liberal person but my political ideas didn't seem to match up... That is, I wasn't planning on voting Democrat this year... Or anytime in the foreseeable future. In any case, as this conversation went on, I said that I thought that, in general, people are smart enough to be able to make their own decisions about life. This was met with a very emphatic, "I don't!"

And I realized something... I read somewhere that 95% of Americans think they are "better than average drivers." Now, we ALL know that isn't true... and we all think that we are the better driver. So, what's wrong here? Well, what's wrong is that no one ever thinks that their opinion is wrong. If you did, then there would be no point in having that opinion. What's more, people think that whatever they think is right, is right for everyone else. This person felt that everyone should live the way they thought was the right way to live. The problem with that thinking is that even if you start from a passionately liberal point of view, you destroy all your idealism when you decide that other people need to be forced to do the same. You end up in a fascist/totalitarian mindset. Every passionate liberal I know makes the same logical error. They complain about the crazy, Christian, right-wing, Republican nuts telling them how they ought to live... and then turn around and start making their own crazy, atheistic, left-wing, Democrat demands. And just like their adversaries on the opposite end of the spectrum they claim a moral high-ground because of their intentions. Personally, I don't care if your trying to save my soul, or the planet... don't try to tell me how to live my life.

In my experience, people are all about the same intelligence. One person might do better in math or history or art or welding or sales... but average it all out and everyone's more evenly stacked than they like to think. People are certainly capable of being stupid in any given situation without notice. I have committed more atrocities in the war against stupidity than I care to remember... and so has everyone else. Your emotions get in the way, a bad night's sleep, a bad experience. Almost anything can blind you from the truth without warning.

OK, before I give you the wrong impression, I'm not saying that everyone's opinion is right and there are no "wrong answers." There are definitely wrong answers. I'm not trying to pull relativity or moral relativity on you. Einstein's Relativity does not say that anyway, no matter what you read on a Starbucks cup. What I'm saying is that something might seem like the right answer given your circumstances. Relativity makes things seem to be true. You have to constantly reevaluate the data you're receiving. Is it false? Is it partial? Is it misleading? Hypothesize, test, evaluate, repeat. The scientific method.

Remember the old saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions?" Well, it's true. More pain, suffering, terror and loss have been inflicted on the world under the guise of saving it than has been by actual evil. Think for yourself is only half the answer... the rest is to let others think for themselves as well.

Stop Global Warming

I can't believe I voted for Al Gore! He's in Washington today demanding that congress STOP global warming. I heard that on the radio this morning and I laughed out loud. STOP global warming... STOP 11,000 years of post-ice-age thaw? STOP a global freeze thaw cycle that has been going on for eons? Al Gore is doing the environmentalists a huge diservice with this kind of nonsense. (Furthermore, he wants CO2emissions to be stopped... does this mean congress is going to keep me from breathing?)

Look, there's plenty of valid environmental causes to support: Recycling, Reduction of Heat Islands, Pollution, Energy Conservation, Renewable Resources... Why weaken a respectable mind-set with a bunch of hogwash that we can't control and have no provable impact on. Global Warming is the social mind-control issue of the new millenium... much the way that impending nuclear holocost was in the 70s and 80s. It's been hyped beyond believable limits on very shoddy "scientific" evidence which is largely inconclusive examined outside the cultural pressures of Environmentalism. STOP global warming, my ass. Stop the tides, solar flares or the slowing rotation of the Earth's core why don't we? Please.

I get into this idiotic discussion all the time. If I don't believe in man-made global warming, then I'm obviously one of those people who doesn't care about the environment... You know - like - if you say that the U.S. Civil War wasn't about ending industrialized slavery, then you're a racist. I'm not. It wasn't. The tactic is always to generalize instead of think. Don't fall for it. It's politicians who want to throw evrey baby out with the bath water. Ideas need to run through the wash and be subjected to critical analysis... some dirt is going to come off every concept in the wash... that doesn't mean it's a bad concept. The Global Warming people seem to be bent on claiming it's the critics who are dirty and not the ideas themselves (fearing that the idea will be tossed all together.)

When we start analyzing issues the way politicians do, we need to take a serious look at out critical thinking strategies.

An Elephant's Memory

Elephant's Memory - Touching Story

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air.

The elephant seemed distressed so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot, and found a large thorn deeply embedded in it.

As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the thorn out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him. For several tense moments Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away.

Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day. Twenty years lat! er he was walking through a zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe and lifted its front foot off the ground then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of the man's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him. Probably wasn't the same elephant.