The Reality of Reality
by James HudnallIt’s always fascinated me how people can believe something that’s not true, and then get angry if you challenge them on it. After all, we’re all deluded. Each and every one of us. Don’t believe me? OK, check this out. You are more than likely sitting down right now. On a chair, stool, couch, whatever. It’s resting on a floor. The floor is part of a building. The building is on the ground which is part of your city. None of those things, except you, are moving, correct?
Wrong.
The city is in a country, which is on a land mass which is moving. The land mass is on a planet which is spinning. At the equator the spin is 1,038 miles per hour. At the poles it’s barely spinning at all. And the planet on which we rest is circling the sun at 67,000 miles per hour (30 kilometers a second). Our solar system is moving in our galaxy at 490,000 miles per hour or 220 kilometers per second. So what we perceive as stillness isn’t anything of the kind. If you think you are sitting still, you are deluded.
Many people are aware our planet is spinning and is moving through space, but we ignore it because we don’t see it happening. So we block it out of our minds. And then we kind of forget it.
We focus on our immediate environment. And to us, that makes up our reality. We try not to think about all the other things going around us.
How can wars half way around the world be real if we can’t see it with our own eyes? Well, we do get to see them on TV and in movies. But someone decides which footage and sound bites we get. And that can easily affect what we perceive as the “real” story of the war. The truth is often manipulated for us by the media and Hollywood. And that has colored many people’s world views.
Some reporter tells us “the news” from a safe hotel where all the NGO peeps like to hang out at the bar. They all sit around and rationalize what the story on the ground is, even though none of them really get out much. Let’s face it, a lot of people are lazy and a lot of people are cowards. And they’re the ones telling us what the “truth” is.
And look at the science reporting we get. We’re told that the earth is heating up and soon the oceans will drown the coasts when the glaciers and polar ice caps melt. Except they ignored massive amounts of ice still there. All the species are dying off. Except we keep discovering hundreds of new species all the time. But let’s face it, nature has a habit of killing off plenty of life on its own. It did that long before mankind was born.
Every decade they find some disaster that will kill us and never does. So they invent a new one. In the 50s it was nuclear war. The 60s, DDT and overpopulation. The 70s, global cooling, air pollution and we’ve run out of oil. The 80s, the ozone hole. The 90s, Y2K! Now it’s global warming.
We like to believe we understand our world, or at least that part of it that concerns us. But the truth is, we know so little. What we see is limited. What we hear is limited. What we smell is limited. Animals can smell and hear better than us. We know that, but we choose not to think about it. We focus on what we think effects us.
We choose to block out that which we don’t want to know about. We choose to ignore what doesn’t jibe with our version of the truth. We choose to see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear. It makes us feel safer, more in control. Because if we really knew all that was going on around us it might drive us mad. We’re crazy enough already.
And there are those who take advantage of this. They’ve developed a science in directing us. Manipulating us. They use it to make us march to their tune. To make us get angry on cue. Fearful on cue. They make us think their lies are our ideas. They make us think that they’re the reasonable ones, and the other guys are evil fools. Then they laugh because there really isn’t a lot that separates their party from the other party. Just some window dressing.
Look at the last 10-20 years. Do you really believe Republicans act like conservatives or Democrats act like liberals? Ok, forget the word act. Because that’s the operative word here. Did they perform the way they are “supposed to”? If you’re a Republican, I’ll bet your party upset you more than once. And if you’re a Democrat, I’ll bet the same thing.
Is that really a coincidence?
In these times, it’s really important not to run on autopilot anymore. The politicians have steered us and lead our nation to a cliff’s edge. Neither party could have done it without some consent of the other.
In spite of all their tricks and games, they really don’t know what they’re doing. Like the rest of us, they don’t see the big picture. They chose to ignore the real danger signs. They choose to shut their ears to the angry screams of the pubic. They chose to tell us what we want to hear instead. And try to bribe us with our own money in the form of “stimulus” and “benefits”. Funny, but when someone steals my wallet, I don’t consider it a benefit if they hand me a dollar back.
They want us to go with the flow. Keep our heads down. Trust in their wisdom. They want us to believe they are hope personified. That change is a good thing.
They can keep the change.
Reality is all that matters. All your opinions and theories are dust in the face of reality. Reality really doesn’t care if you think raising taxes and increasing government power is going to stimulate the economy. History says otherwise. History has shown the folly of such ways. Socialist countries only succeeded when they chucked socialism, not embraced it. China and India didn’t become economic powerhouses when they embraced Marxist principles. They succeeded when they abandoned them. America didn’t become more successful when they expanded the size of government and increased spending beyond our means. We went into decline.
Reality is a harsh teacher. Ask anyone over the age of 40. Because reality has kicked them. It starts slapping you around and pushing you like a schoolyard bully the older you get.
But politicians like to insulate themselves from reality. They like to use our money to fly in private jets while lecturing us on “carbon footprints,” to eat in fancy restaurants while lecturing us on our diets, to hire staffers so they can ignore our emails and calls. They want to tell us what reality is, but most of them are more deluded than we are. Most of us have to deal with reality, even though we’re often afraid to look it in the eye.
Frankly, we’re tired of being told what reality looks like by people who have no idea. People, like those reporters who sit in the green zone and tell us what Iraq’s “really like.” People like the screenwriters and filmmakers who preach to us their “reality” through their one-sided films and shows. People like the journalists whose political leanings have blinded their ability to see the truth.
It’s up to us to tell them. It’s up to us to remind them who pays their bills. We buy their products. We watch their shows. We got them elected.
They work for us. And we’re tired of their patronizing drivel. We’re the boss, not they.
And if they don’t get hip to reality fast, they’re going to find out what it really looks like up close and personal.
From what I hear, the view isn’t pretty.
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96 Comments
Read "The Creature from Jekyll Island" – you will understand who the real "they" is of whom you speak. This was all set in motion around 1913.
Ah…Y2K. That brings back memories.
I think there was even a TV movie or two about the subject with the cliched "the power grid is going offline!" shot.
And your opening paragraphs reminded me of Eric Idle's "Galaxy Song."
The answer to your original question is, "On what scale and in relation to what?" We are too often only concerned with how our surroundings benefit us, viz., the comfortability of our chairs we sit in and our immediate surroundings. Of course it's not moving in relation to our surroundings, if that's all we care about. But as soon as we look past our selfish desires we see indeed that the chair is moving, whether we look at it on a microscopic level (molecules running into each other and atoms swirling about) or on a macrocosmic level as you mentioned. In order to have a proper perspective (or at least understand others' perspectives), selfishness must be abandoned.
I believe that liberals and conservatives alike are guilty of this. Each accepts their dogma as "stationary," to continue the metaphor, without any regard to the scale on which they base their philosophies, or the relationships their doctrine has with others.
Oh… And you forgot about "Acid Rain" in the '80s, too.
Speaking of Y2K…
I bought a car from a guy who was convinced the world was going to end because of the whole Y2K thing, He was a pretty wealthy guy, but obviously paranoid. He sold his house, his cars and most of his belongings. Bought a double-wide and put it on a piece of property in the middle of nowhere. Stocked up on ammo, water and canned food to wait out the apocalypse. I always wonder what January 1st, 2000 was like for him.
The opening paragraphs reminded me of sitting in my dorm room passing a doobie.
What to do about these politicians? They keep getting reelected, so they must be pleasing their constituencies. Everyone rails against those *expletives* in Congress, but swear that their representative is a great guy/gal. People need to look beyond their own self interests and not be blinded by the bacon that their representative brings home, otherwise they're perpetuating the problem. Unfortunately, standards are at an all-time low for politicians, and the field doesn't attract a very high caliber of person.
There's also the laziness factor, in which the incumbent relies on the laziness of the voters to keep them from learning about the challenger's record, positions, principles and plans.
"It’s always fascinated me how people can believe something that’s not true, and then get angry if you challenge them on it."
That's not true! Man, you're making me angry.
Yes, and this one is also very relevant: http://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Hope-History-World-...
I remember global warming as far back as '92.
Actually, they started it sooner than that. But it became the flavor of the decade in the 2000s
Nice. Although I expected Eric Idle to hop out of the refrigerator there at the beginning.
Some interesting points, but for completeness' sake, you forgot the part where the entire galaxy is moving away from the universal core at about 75m/sec
I was doing unrelated research about 4 years ago and came across an article in an old newspaper (from late 1890's-early 1900's) where they were talking about how frightening it was that some channel in Europe wasn't clogged by icebergs like it usually was, and steamers were operating through it like normal. Apparently this phenomena had been going on for a few years, and they were fearing a complete meltdown of the arctic icecaps. Wish I'd kept the copy I had made from the microfilm.
Cyclical history get.
Never underestimate the power of ignorance in mass quantity, or plain bad luck. I don't think I've ever voted for a candidate that won. I'm tempted to try voting for the candidate that I don't want to win, but I'm scared to.
Geek!
*operating through it like normal far later in the year than usual
Guilty as charged, just not about astronomy. I mainly remember that from astronomy class because I got to thinking about the same general perceptional concepts you talk about in the main post while the instructor droned on about how to aim the Hubble or some such.
BTW, took astronomy because I needed a science course for gen ed requirements, and astronomy was the only one that involved sleeping in the big comfy chairs they had at the planetarium.
They need crisis to induce panic. They need panic to get the masses to agree to hare-brained "solutions" that conveniently concentrate power and wealth in the hands of the panic-mongers.
I wonder how many people realize that at the height of the last Ice Age, Canada was under a sheet of ice two miles thick, or that sea levels were 300 feet lower than today? And that this was within the last 20,000 years (the last Ice Age having ended only about 12,000 years ago, when human beings were well-established in North America)? How is it that the natural processes that heated up the globe from that point were benign, but any slight change from today's climate is a cause for universal panic?
Not ranting at you — ranting at the ignorance of the masses.
The upside of that strategy is that you win either way: either the guy you voted for wins, or the guy you want to win does. You just have to be willing to stomach the guy you vote for.
Well, let me burst that bubble.
My representative is not great. I have not voted for her yet. When I hear speak, I just shake my head.
And this whole thing is why I'm still an Independent. Blind loyalty to party is as much a part of it as anything. Parties change and leave you behind if they were ever on your side in the first place. The best you can do is keep track of your individual reps and hold their feet to the fire as much as you can. Vote against them if they turn on what they promised to earn your vote.
Almost all humans are incapable of distinguishing between what they "know" and what they choose to believe, indeed it would seem there is a growing segment who are unwilling to accept that such a distinction exists. In virtually every area of scientific inquiry the most widely accepted theories only constitute our best guesses of the moment, liable and likely to be superceded or contradicted at some point in the future, but this doesn't stop scientists from couching their discussions in terms of what they know, when all they can really justify saying is that we have some evidence that leads us to believe. Lately a significant number of atheists have come forward to deride the irrational beliefs of religion while in reality their belief in the nonexistence of God is no more logically defensible than the contrary view, and probably less so, given that the more Gnostic form of religion at least offer a path to "knowing" God, a knowing that could never be matched by any act of logic and reason. Unfortunately, in a world where every institution from education, to entertainment, to information and even to many religions, is dominated by leftist ideology, what "everyone knows" is now more a matter of which lie is repeated most forcefully and most often.
The world would be a better and more peaceful place if every time some cluck comes forward to announce a newly impending catastrophe for the planet, the country, the children or ourselves, we'd all rise up and shout out a resounding "We don't know that".
Hubris. Liberals think they control everything, up to and including global weather patterns. Since the world revolves around them, they must be causing this catastrophe. And since they are without fault, someone else (read: us) must be causing it.
Amen
We had the cloudiest year on record the year I took astronomy. Only one of our lab days had few enough clouds to use a telescope. I love astronomy, but the weather sure made it frustrating.
Am I delusional? I voted for Ron Paul.
Therein lies the problem. I feel bad enough that I voted for Gore in '04 (before I came to my senses). What if he had one? I'd be partially responsible for an abomination. I don't think I could live with that.
Don't beat yourself up so much, Nathan. Think of all the people who voted to re-elect Clinton when they pretty much knew who and what he was. I recall almost all of them being able to rationalize after the fact why their vote was justified, even in the face of his undeniable lies and indefensible acts against the women around him.
Great great post, James.
Thanks
That's true. For people who claim that the anthropocentric view of the Bible (that the Earth was created for man, and that man has the duty of stewardship over it even as he has the right to use its resources) is evil and wrong, they have an anthropomorphic view of ecology that says that humankind can affect things that in reality are determined by cosmic forces that overwhelm man's contribution. Human beings are not more powerful than the Sun, the Moon, the tides, plate tectonics, atmospheric chemistry, ocean currents, the rest of the biosphere….
Nice article James, well reasoned, well said. Unfortunately, no matter what we do (left, right or center), the majority of people will always choose to just go along to get along. That's why history is driven by the few, not the masses.
I' running for office and I tell the people that they shoud have a free home, free health care, free food, and a job that pays them alot and more. I tell them that the money comes from the evil rich, the evil companies, and a very little, if any from them, then the MSM supports me and they explain that evil rich and companies should pay all the bills.
Giving away other peoples money make me popular. Yes I'm a Democartic
If he still has his isolated retreat and his ammo, canned food and water, he must have spent the last few weeks patting himself on the back for his foresight.
I'm going to have to track down that song. Haven't heard it.
Yep. Once upon a time, preachers got donations talking about Judgment Day,. Then, when atheists on the left got in positions of power. they made junk science the new religion. And they invented the eco-scare. From the 1960s on, it's been one bogus theory after another.
And isn't it funny that they all look like fools later, except the lefties still embrace Paul Elrich long after his Population Bomb predictions….bombed.
Fun reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon-Ehrlich_wager
Well, since they believe the earth revolves around them, then it must be true!
Interesting thought experiment: we could build a band of photovoltaic cells around the equator of the Moon (so that half of it would always be in direct sunlight) and then beam the electric power back to Earth in microwave form. You could power all of mankind's needs in this way.
What would the environmentalists' objection be to that scheme? Because you know they'd have to object.
They can't even acknowledge the diametric contradiction between worshiping Earth as 'Gaia.' the all-powerful goddess, and believing that human beings are all-powerful over Earth's fate.
The way politicians work now, they tell what people what they want to hear, get elected, then do whatever they really wanted to do. Actually, that's not new.
Carbon footprint on the moon? Not enough research as to whether there is life on the moon and so we must not disturb the moon just in case? The moon is the home planet of the moonbats, afterall. The photovoltaic cells around the moon could decrease the amount of sunlight reaching earth and thereby bring on further global warming by cooling it off? I could think of more but I have to fix dinner. Don't worry wild caught Alaskan salmon!
EXACTLY! Ignorant idiots. I'm thinking of all of the absolutely stupid tripe Hollywood has put out. I'm thinking 10.5 where the west coast suffers a series of devastating earthquakes and the only solution was spot weld the San Andreas fault using nuclear warheads ( Like in Armageddon and Deep Impact.) Arrogance to think one can control something as dynamic as the earth.
Now that it is no longer happening all warming data is back from the 90s. They sent out probes last year and when they came back showing no warming they started asking "did warming take a break" or "are they misreading the data"
You're reminding me of the Disney Channel movie Zenon: Z3, where the intrepid teen heroine of the space age has to engineer the removal of a moon base from the moon in order to propitiate the Moon Goddess Selena.
Well said James. I'm printing this one out.
Yeah well I'm an actress and I write science fiction so I'm halfway there!!
And I thought that Diana was the goddess of the Moon? Hmmmm…mom lied to me!
It'd make one hell of a weapon! B'bye Iran!
Brilliant! Liberals don't get irony.
I think it was he who also maintains that the opposite of gravity is levity.
I took it winter semester. In Saskatchewan. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Great work…thanks! We were given dire warnings of a coming ice age, complete with scientific analyses from the world's top scientists, articles in Time, Newsweek, and plenty of TV coverage. They had charts, and graphs, and statistics. It was being trumpeted from the rooftops, and was far from being a crank footnote. It was a major news item and one of the defining "crises" of the 1970s. My Gen Y niece, who now knows everything, didn't know a thing about it and claimed that even though we were "wrong" back then, we have "better science" now so global warming is a fact. Please, anyone who does not know of this "ice age cometh" thing, search it up on the web and you'll see just how big a deal it was, along with ZPG, Y2K, and so on.
Selene (also known as Luna or Phoebe) is one of the forms of the Moon goddess. Roman Diana (Artemis, or sometimes Cynthia, in Greek) is another. Hecate is the third form. Three different goddesses with different personalities and powers, all of whom are incarnations of the Moon at different phases.
So your Mom's honor is intact.
Here it is, replete with all the ominous and terrifying language…at least keep an open mind, folks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttLBqB0qDko
Let's see:
Tax dollars are wasted on space. They could be better spent on welfare entitlements
We should not be polluting the moon with any more of our technology. We should keep it "pristine"
Microwaves are giving people brain cancer (see cell phones) and making men impotent.
Energy only encourage capitalists to build more factories. BAD!
I could go on, but stupid thinking gives me a headache
[...] Nice reality check from Big Hollywood [...]
"They can keep the change"
Brilliant! And a double-joke at that!
Thanks. I posted this on my blog at http://jameshudnall.com/blog.php
Nice post, James. Well-reasoned, well seasoned…and an excellent agrument for term limits. With Career Politicians, a true sense of reality is the first thing to go. I like the farmer/Congressman concept; like something out of a Gary Cooper movie. Figure it out with common sense…and when the inevitble corruption starts to seep in — boom, end of term and NEXT! "Oh," the lefties would say, "But then Congress couldn't really get anything done!" To which i say…"Yeah, and wouldn't that be a beautiful thing for all of us."
Wait a minute, are you saying global warming is a hoax or that we're about to have global freezing as well? Oh man, a warm global ice age. How the heck do I prepare for that?!
Gary, I would give real money to see you up there giving an Oscar speech! It would be a thing of beauty.
You're right. By '92 "Earth in the Balance" was already on the clearance shelves at the bookstores. But Gore had found his groove, and by relentlessly repeating his mantra, he got people to swallow the pseudo-science by the turn of the century.
Said the Canadian! Man, you guys are insidious…
Guys, I know you're being tongue in cheek, BUT, I saw an article the other day that argued against manned space flight on the basis that we dirty human creatures carry germs and we might contaminate these other pristine planets. I kid you not!!
I believe it was Will Rogers who said: "No one is save as long as Congress is in session"
Yes, that's how life spreads around the galaxy. Some theories have it (and I think they make sense because some life is almost indestructible) that microbes came to Earth on Comets and or meteorites.
The bottom line with eco-cranks is they hate humanity and they don't want us to succeed. There's a website that recommends that we all stop breeding to heal the planet. I left a
message: "You first"
Excellent post, James! Thanks for keepin' it real.
Ever notice that all the "glitches" and "mistakes" they make, irt AGW is always in favor of the AGW theory and exaggerates all the "bad" effects the faulty computer models spit out? And still our weatherman is wrong on average 40% OF THE TIME with forecasts 1-5 days in the future.
And yet, many who believe all the AGW propaganda do so without question. Afterall, that noted sientist, Al Gore says the debate is over and that there's a consensus among scientists. How unscientific (and idiotic) can you get, not to question any of that?
Of course, the real reason for the AGW scare is to control people more, tax people more, and take away more of our liberties.
This is one of the foundations of Michael Crichton's "State of Fear". If you ever needed factual arguments against global warming, this novel provides them. Unfortuneately, the facts would probably fall on deaf ears. However, if you are at all interested in this topic, find a copy of this book.
On a different note, has anyone picked up the torch that he left behind far too soon. There was no one else who would take complex ideas, do the proper research, and write it so you didn't need a scientific degree to understand it. At this period of time I miss his writings more than ever.
Err…I meant "safe" not save.
That's why I have always been an independent also. Never trusted any politicians that much. Only liked a handful. Still didn't trust them. After all, these people have power over our lives and they often abuse it.
An overlooked item on Pres. Obama's advisors is that his key science advisor is John Holden, who worked with Paul Erlich, he of the population bomb and other now defunct science ideas. This idea that the government believes in science again is ludicrious on its face, but frightening when you look at what some of his advisors scientific assumptions. Personally, I find it more believable that some benevolent entity created the world and universe in seven days than some of the doomsday scenarios these people spew out. Rather than based on science, I see it as the beliefs of insecure people that have to believe that they have some great impact on the planet we live on when they are but a flea on the face of the Earth that could be wiped out and not missed.
Geez…. that sounds kinda liberal when I read it… Not my intent, believe me. I don't think people should be wishy-washy in their convictions, but they should at least be able to see their philosophy on an individual, familial, and national scale in order to have a better understanding of it.
hehehehehehe
Retroactive abortion for said proponents?
Hud…….your best column yet!
"You first" — Classic!!
Good stuff James.
Geez. It's "won", not "one'. That's the second time….I think I need to see a doctor.
I saw a website, can't remember the address, that suggested everyone off themselves as it's the only way to heal the Earth Mother. I haven't seen people line up for that one either.
That's dedication.
So the summation of this article might be, "Question Authority"? That's such a liberal concept!
Of course, he adds "Reality is a harsh teacher. Ask anyone over the age of 40." So we shouldn't trust anyone under 40? Gosh, I'm back in the bizarro '60s!
Of course, Mr. Hudnall commits the fallacy that is the theme of his essay–he states his opinions as facts, and many of them are arguable. So it goes.
I agree with him, though, when he says that anyone who gets their news from just one source, or who chooses only to listen to the "news" sources that agree with their opinions (like, say, Big Hollywood") will have a skewed view of the world.
My favorite part of his article, to which I almost fully agree is:
"And there are those who take advantage of this. They’ve developed a science in directing us. Manipulating us. They use it to make us march to their tune. To make us get angry on cue. Fearful on cue. They make us think their lies are our ideas. They make us think that they’re the reasonable ones, and the other guys are evil fools. Then they laugh because there really isn’t a lot that separates their party from the other party. Just some window dressing."
I think he's talking about politicians, but couldn't this also be applied to the talking heads on TV and radio talk shows of both sides? Lotta anger out there, and these people konw how to rake the coals…
As far as trying to argue with the sheeple, I read this earlier on another site:
What a man has not been reasoned into he cannot be reasoned out of. Jonathan Swift
That will help the next time some whacked out mindless liberal gets on here and starts spewing his/her mindless rants. Ignore.
He who argues with a fool…….is a fool. Proverbs
I'm wondering if this was *meant* to be ironic…
While I agree that career politicians tend to lose site of reality, I'm not so sure it doesn't also happen to new politicians as well. Term limits tend to put more power into the hands of unelected bureaucrats and aides, who find it even easier to work the system. Just sayin'
It was *meant* as it says.
Actually, it hasn't occured on this thread today, which surprises me. I have lived through all of the periods mentioned in the article, from the "population bomb" through "global warming" today, and the political history that parallels. There are those who follow the party line mindlessly, without critical thought. They do not look at both sides and really attempt to understand the arguements, then check out the sources. I kinda learned the hard way on this one –
was once a far left hippie until reality smacked me upside the head. Since that time, when an issue arises, I read everything that can be found about it, and the historical philosophy/thought behind it. I do have a bias, and know it.
But the only way to truly be objective is to know one's bias, instead of believing that open-mindedness is really possible. Also, one must believe that truth can be known, or as my favorite philosopher, Francis Scheaffer says,
"true truth."
Ah, perhaps I misread you. Many of the posters on this site would regard "mindless liberal" as a single word that encompasses all liberals. If you're only talking about the flamers who pop in and out of a comment section spewing insults, then your middle paragraph makes more sense. It would be a better world if the flamers on both sides (since there are also conservatives who haunt liberal sites for the same reason) would just keep their rants to themselves.
I agree with you, that as long as you know your bias, you can question whether it is blinding you to the other sides' valid points. To me, it's about understanding your own biases, rather than trying to label everyone else's bias.
I am a classical liberal* as opposed to the modern one which is more of a blind ideologue parroting talking points without knowing what they really believe. Too many people today just follow the herd and haven't developed critical thinking skills.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism
Sounds like we need a revolution. Or at least more people who take the time to educate themselves about what's really happening in the world instead of spending all their time watching reality shows and sit-com drivel.
http://the100mostannoyingthings.blogspot.com/
Interesting. I had never heard the term "Classical Liberalism" used that way before. You learn something new every day. Now I understand a bit more where you're coming from.
..and incindeary.
I think there are two categories of problems. Real and Fake. Brilliant, I know.
AGW is fake. Y2K was real.
With real problems, the danger is frequently overstated because often times people don't get up to work on a problem, and those with money don't open their wallets before the screeching reaches the "We're All Gonna Die!!" level. Which means there is a decided tendency to be required to become an extreme fanatic to get anything done.
This screaming is the body politics immune system waking up to the fact that there is a problem virus invading it, and it needs to start cranking out antibodies to deal with the situation pronto.
So with Y2K, they screamed too much, but also a few hundred thousand COBOL programmers worked for a few years and solved the problem.
Earlier, we faced the problem of Japanese economic supremacy. We freaked, we started changing our ways, and suddenly Japan was left in the dust. Japan was 'all the trains run on time', and we got efficient too, and then we got different. America is a Phoenix. Our societal ways get destroyed, and then reborn in a more functional system. The Japanese were more rigid than us, and could not keep up once we hit the nitro.
OTOH, you have problems that are not real. I suppose by this 'body politic' metaphor that could be considered allergies with the reaction ranging from a rash to anaphylactic shock (or giving the ecofreaks everything they desire to deal with AGW).
Most of these WAGD* theories tend to be bogus. So when something real comes along it's going to be hard to convince people because of the hysterics.
What I detest about these WAGD scenarios is they are mass hysteria created by a few people to cash in. And sometimes they are just plain ignorant and counter productive to solving human problems, like the hysteria over GM foods which could help feed the world. Instead they call them "Franken Foods" and claim it'll kill us and other nonsense.
The AGW scam is bad for our economy. Bad for our costs of living. Bad for job production (except bogus "green" jobs) and will cause serious problems even if we didn't have this financial crisis.That makes it triply bad.
* WAGD: We're All Gonna Die
I like "WAGD" as a shorthand. The entire message of Obama's address to Congress was delivered better by Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: "Come with me if you want to live." (Implicit is the idea that anyone who won't follow Obama blindly into massive carbon taxes, socialized medicine and the rest must be a suicidal nut case.)
Really enjoyed reading this page…Thanks alot
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