Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Darwin...

It's interesting that people like Sarah Palin favor the teaching of creationism in schools alongside or instead of evolution. There's an irony in it.

Once upon a time, people who were honorable and talented and ethical rose to positions of authority. Once upon a time, people that couldn't add 2 and 2 found themselves out of power and out of influence. If you couldn't balance your family budget, you ended up hungry. If you couldn't work hard and effectively at your job, you ended up out of a job. If you lied to people, or wronged them, you were no longer trusted and no longer listened to.

Nowadays, with runaway consumer credit and deflated prices for goods (as a result of cheap labor and cheap oil), and with the rampant government borrowing, it is possible for people to have luxuries without working that hard. It is possible for people to disregard realities like 2+2=4, and to be lauded and promoted for saying things like 2+2=5, and you never have to give up the extra one. And the people who cry that 2+2 still equals 4 are shouted down by these arrogant, shortsighted dorks. These ASD's are rewarded for their stupid behavior by the real holders of power, because the loud, obnoxious, overconfident ASD's help to keep the 2+2=4 crowd from amassing power.

This is getting very conceptual. But in the fields of journalism and politics, the ASD's are in control now, and lesser ASD's like to vote for them. They're all scared of 2+2=4.

But in a real, non-warped world, these ASD's would be muttering drunks in a bar - they'd be homeless people begging for change - they'd be the ne'er do well uncle that you keep having to bail out of jail. They'd be the ones who would never procreate - they'd be the runts of the litter.

I think the captains of industry - the real, super-rich power brokers - are still smart people, even though they may be completely ruthless, insane, and self-centered. But the people below them - the middle managers of this world - the CEO's, the big news pundits, the governors, the small town mayors, et cetera et cetera (a list that now includes the President of the United States)- the majority of these people are now ASD's. They are very useful, to the big powers, as long as most decent people continue to believe that these ASD's actually deserve to be in authority.

In other words, you have to believe that somehow, Sarah Palin deserves to be Governor of Alaska over everyone else in the state. You have to believe that Maureen Dowd or some other columnist has a better grasp of what is going on in this world than some blogger. I have a cousin who lives in Alaska. He's a decent guy - he works hard and he takes care of his family. You know, I think he'd make a better Governor, but he's probably more concerned about making sure his kids are OK. And I think I'm more qualified than Maureen Dowd or most of these people writing for the mainstream media.

But there will always be one of these middle manager ASD's out there that will make some statement, and back it up with some 'proof', that 2+2=5. And since the mainstream media is now full of 2+2=5ers, they won't tell you it's wrong. Even if they want to, they probably won't know how. Because the people who do have the strength and power to do that are out of power in the mainstream media. They're blogging, like Bob Somersby, or maybe they're flipping burgers, or working some other low-level job where truth-telling and integrity is not counter-productive to success.

So how do you know? In the end, there will be someone saying '2+2=5' and someone else saying '2+2=4'. We also have a few people out there (Hi, Olbermann) who are saying '2+2=3'. Without an authoritative arbiter, how are you to know who is right?

It just comes down to your gut, I guess. It just comes down to who you believe. As the house of cards built up by 2+2=5 falls down (the banks fail and the scheme is unraveled), we are increasingly going to have to balance our checkbooks. When we do so, we will see that, yes, 2+2 does equal 4. And this will make the choice in the elections come into focus for us.

For McCain and Palin, they are hoping they can keep the illusion propped up for another few weeks. I'm not sure they will be able to do that.

We will all become poorer. We will all become smarter. We will recognize and respect the smart and the honorable among us. We will feel pain, but when we feel joy again, it will be real joy, not the empty joy of the cocaine high.

I'm not surprised that people like Palin don't recognize the truth of evolution. They have risen against natural selection. The irony is that these folks have arisen out of the Republican Party, who used to be the 'Social Darwinism' crowd.

1 Comments:

Blogger Andy said...

You are an optimist. I personally am afraid that no one will learn how to balance their checkbooks, will continue in their enthusiasm for people like Palin, enough to make the elections close enough to steal, and then they will pay AT&T too much for their phones, because they can't add, and because they can't say no to contracts, and they will fall into financial ruin for that reason and others, and will never understand how it happened.

2:35 PM  

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