A View Askew
(Or: Did the Dinosaurs See the Comet?)
Oct 2014 Issue
18
First Anniversary Issue!
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| A surprised Dear Leader and a fellow rehab client (“resting” after recent golf outing) |
No, we can’t believe it
either - it’s already been a year of View Askews?!
Yes indeedy,
folks, I have been inflicting my thoughts, opinions and nonsense on you for a
year. I know that I have driven a few folks away (they made sure I knew) but
then again a bunch more have joined our happy (?) band. According to my page
count I’ve had over 2000 visitors enhance their knowledge of the world around
them (or not) over the past twelve months – bravo! That may not be an earth
shaking number compared to some but it’s very gratifying to me.
Hope you
hang in there (and feel free to give me some guff with a comment occasionally!)
Even
though I haven’t received as much feedback to validate or challenge my thoughts
as I might like, this has been a terrific experience for me and I thank you for
bearing with me. There’s just something to writing stuff down that forces you
really think about what you think; seeing it in writing helps you to get some
idea if your thought makes any sense - or is just nonsense. As the former
librarian of Congress, Daniel Boorstin, said, “I write to discover what
I think . . . After all, the bars aren’t open that early.” Amen to that!
I’m not sure
how much longer this will go on but for now let’s proceed – a new year and new
blog format but same great same informative same interesting
same odd thoughts as ever.
Speaking of the golf outing - Let’s play
Where’s Dear Leader?!
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| Wine gets better with age. Apparently not so with golfers. |
Mini Thoughts on the World
There are so
many things to comment on that I have to just squeeze my knees together in
excitement! Let’s begin with this.
Blue Jean Blues
I read
recently that blue jeans are going down in popularity especially among women.
It seems that the ladies are more comfy in in sporting clothes and yoga pants (a trend that I
personally, strongly support; you could say that I’m a real athletic supporter)
so they are buying jeans a lot less. Guys aren’t buying jeans as much either
although for reasons that seem, fortunately, unrelated to having a very well
defined tush.
This is a
welcome development as far as I’m concerned – and not because I’m an old lech
who enjoys the girl watching benefits of said yoga pants. No, sir, I think it’s
a great idea because I have long felt that no men over 25 and very few women
should wear jeans (assuming you're not a farmer or do other real work.) I know, I know, they are allegedly really comfy - I've never thought so - but I can’t
ever get past the notion that they look so crappy on most people. Ugh. There
are so many comfortable clothes that people can wear today that surely we can
do without a stupid product that was designed for gold miners 150 years ago.
Now I grant
you that I do NOT want to see every woman in yoga pants either (and certainly NO
men, thank you,
it’s bad enough to see them in their stupid bike pants!)
However,
this is a great step forward for Americans and our famously poor sense of
style.
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| Okay, I wasn’t going to but I couldn’t resist! |
On the other
hand, since people are now wearing pajamas and sweat pants out in public it’s
probably a very small victory.
Next, let’s get grown men to stop wearing sneakers -
unless they are jogging or sitting at home.
Yes, I’m now a fashion maven!
On
a Related but Separate Note . . .
Yet
More Confirmation – We All Have Too Much Time on Our Hands
Again from the local fish wrap, we find that one of
the most popular “stylish living” blogs is run by a certain Kate Arends Peters.
She has been called the new “social media Martha Stewart.” The article started
by describing a recent post where she created a particularly “pretty”
breakfast, took pictures of it and then posted them to Pinterest or Instagram
or some other social media with which I am not really familiar. She immediately
had hundreds or thousands of visits and comments. Really.
I am not impugning her good intentions to show
people how to live a graceful life and certainly not her sense of style.
(Especially if she can get them to stop wearing jeans and sneakers.) I am
simply pointing out that the fact that a person can take a picture of their
breakfast and post it somewhere and IMMEDIATELY have thousands of people paying
attention tells me that far too many people are peering at their phones far too
much and appear to have way too much time on their hands.
On the other hand, in her defense, unlike
so many other lightweight celebrities today who are famous for simply being
famous - certain Kardashians come to mind - Ms Peters is almost a social media
Rembrandt or Einstein.
Okay, old coot’s comments now
complete. (And yes, I’m jealous at her number of followers – what does she
have that I don’t? I mean besides a sense of style and good taste.)
Something you
might have already guessed. . . Modern Life Making
us Dumber. (You will see more of this in one
of the Big Things I think I think.) The article has a lot of interesting (and some not so
much) reasons why we may be getting dumber. I agree with the general premise but
as if you didn’t know, I have my own ideas.
In my opinion, part of it is
the rise of our “tools.” It started with good, old calculators. No more flash cards
and actually learning math, you just push some buttons and voil'a - the answer! And computers are
wonderful but they have removed a lot of the cognitive skills required to do
research or study and learn. It can be seen in the fact that everybody now can
get whatever facts they want to support their point of view at the click of
mouse – no thinking required. And at this point I don’t think I need to comment
on smartphones as a brain sucking instrument. Let’s just say we have a LOT more
information and very little more knowledge - and almost no more wisdom.
The other
part is the fact that as life has become more complex – thanks in part to the
capability of our tools – we have
decided that the best use of our time is not to pause and think about stuff but
to either: 1) work or, 2) piss it away on nonsense as in the commentary above.
It’s as if we need to fill our time with everything BUT reflection.
I have no
idea if I’m right but since I retired I have reflected on this and found I have
gained at least 10 points on the IQ scale (all the way up to 90 now!)
I’ve Got Your Equinox Right Here
Sept. 23st
- First day of fall my ass! It's really Sept 26th when the days officially became shorter than the night and that is the day that begins the long, slow
slide into the depth of that December night when we, like our ancient brethren,
beg the sun to not disappear forever. I’ll be there for you then to be sure it
doesn’t!
Finally (And in case you started
to feel important)
|
I know what you're thinking: that's it? That's all I have for thoughts about all that's going on in the world? Ebola, Crimea, ISIS and I talk about blue jeans and smartphones? Well, yes because I simply don't know what to say about those things. Do you?
I knows this though, no matter what we do it will end up biting us on the ass. And as long as the world remains full of the idiots and bad people (and John McCain is still in the Senate) the world will turn to the youth of good old Uncle Sam to solve THEIR problems. Here's to muddling through.
Big Things That I Think About
Good
Bye to Science, Truth and the American Way?
“Greetings from Idiot America” Charles
P. Pierce
(Bolding by Dear Leader)
The rise of Idiot America is
essentially a war on expertise. It’s not so much antimodernism or the distrust
of intellectual elites that Richard Hofstadter deftly teased out of the
national DNA forty years ago. Both of those things are part of it. However, the
rise of Idiot America today represents — for
profit mainly, but also, and more cynically, for political advantage and in the
pursuit of power — the breakdown of a consensus that the pursuit of
knowledge is a good.
It also represents the ascendancy of the notion
that the people whom we should trust the least are the people who best know
what they’re talking about. In the new media age, everybody is a historian, or
a preacher, or a scientist, or a sage. And
if everyone is an expert, then nobody is, and the worst thing you can be in a
society where everybody is an expert is, well, an actual expert.
This is how Idiot America engages
the great issues of the day. It decides, en masse, with a thousand keystrokes
and clicks of the remote control, that
because there are two sides to every question, they both must be right, or at
least not wrong. And the poor learned biologist’s words carry no more
weight than the thunderations of some turkey-neck preacher out of the Church of
Christ’s Own Parking Facility in DeLand, Florida. Less weight, in fact, because
our scientist is an “expert” and, therefore, an “elitist.”
That’s
a pretty scathing indictment don’t you think? Now what would make a guy say
that? Well, in fact, there’s a lot of evidence that as a society we seem to be
drifting away from rationalism and science.
There
is the little controversy about global warming or climate change or whatever
you want to call it. In fact, you can call it anything BUT a controversy. To
the rest of the world – and most businesses and insurance companies – it’s a
fact. You can disagree or say that the global scientists are wrong – all 97%
who agree on this – or that they’re all in a conspiracy (like the esteemed congressman from Indiana in the Jon Steward clip below) or even that it's not really science. What you can NOT
say is that there is any question within this group of scientists about the issue.
There isn't. It would be like saying that the 20% of Americans today who think the sun rotates around the earth (unfortunately, I'm not kidding) are right and the other 80% are wrong. Who knows,
maybe the 3% will be proven right one day but it will take science not opinion
to prove it.
Statistically
Correct Climate Change Debate (Language rated R)
Or
for Jon Stewart Fans . . .
Pushing
a Million Pounds of Idiot Uphill (Skip ahead to about the 3 min mark for
max hilarity)
Don’t like that
example? How about immunization? Measles are at a twenty year high in the US
and is almost totally due to people not believing in or wishing to immunize
their kids or their selves. And it’s not just measles, it’s immunizations
in general. It’s one thing to base your decision on sound evidence but
people aren't, they are basing it on fear induced by people who don’t
know what they are talking about. (Who can forget our resident moron Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann scaring people by saying that a certain immunization
can cause mental retardation all based on some person personal opinion and nothing
to do with scientific fact.)
How about
creationism Vs Evolution? I do not wish to offend any religious folks but I
think pretty much every logical and educated person – even those with devout
religious beliefs - agree with Evolution which has withstood 150 years of
constant scrutiny and remains a scientific fact – at least until PROVEN otherwise. All forms of creationism are perfectly fine as
beliefs – just like believing in Santa Claus is fine – but it’s not
science. Yet,
thousands of PUBLIC schools across the country (see map) have - or are trying
to – introduce creationism into the curricula as if it were a real science.
It’s not. What are they thinking?! Oh that’s right, they don’t have to think,
they just need to believe. (It is probably a coincidence that most of
the states that are trying this are so called "red states." Hmmmm.)
Okay,
that’s all I can stand for now but there’s a larger issue here that is really
frightening. I think of it as the latest victim of our times; the truth.
Truth (trooth): that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.
noun: the truth
Example: "tell me the truth"
“That
which is in accordance with fact and reality.” So what happens if everyone
thinks that what they believe is true (without any real facts to support them)
and that the other guy is totally wrong? Do we get to substitute beliefs for
facts? I dunno.
I do know that this has some very real implications
for our country. In politics there are countless examples. Now I realize that
politics has almost never been about facts and truth; it’s about perception and
spinning the truth. (Exemplified by when certain Republican Senator, who
shall remain anonymous but whose initials are McConnell, states that his sole
job is to see that the president only has one term. Funny, I thought those guys
were supposed to be managing the country.) By the way, there are just as many
nit wits on the left but at least they are cagey enough to keep most of their
dumbest statements away from the public. So if both sides cannot agree on the truth
about the nature of our country or our problems or role of our government then
I suppose we are doomed to self destruct like every other society
has in history. Hmmm, it might be worth researching if those vanished societies
decided to create their own truths too. In fact, they probably did!
Is common sense no longer a function of facts but
of what we desire it to be? Has truth always been malleable and does that mean
there really isn’t “A” truth? Or does it mean that truth actually does change
with the times, sort of like situational ethics? And if that’s true, what the
hell do we anchor to?!
Well, just one dumb guy’s opinion but if there is
no such thing as the truth then I suspect that might be worse than if there is
no God. Or maybe the same thing.
New Songs for Old Farts
A REALLY great song! I'm thinking this should be my theme song - ha ha ha!
Other Things That I Think I Think
Ecclesiastes 3:1
It’s
fall in Minnesota. You know how I feel about winter but I have to say that I
really do love September and October. I think of it as that time of the
year that kind of eases you out of your shorts and flip flops and gently guides
you toward big boy pants and sweaters. It also comes too fast. Then again everything
seems to be coming faster: birthdays, the seasons. . . obituaries. All I can do
is thank God that the winter solstice is only three months away and things will
be getting better again – the cycle of life still seems to be working if at a
somewhat accelerated pace!
I
bring this up because I was just rereading a book called The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe. (If you have never read it –
and you have any interest in such things – I highly recommend it.)
The authors have developed a theory that
basically says that history unfolds in four general stages – or which they conveniently
call “seasons” - over a period of roughly 80 years and these occur over and over in every society. They use some pretty
impressive examples of these seasons through history that fall into these
categories: High, Awakening, Unraveling and Crisis. They go back hundreds of
years and find events within these eighty year cycles that match up with
each of these twenty year seasons. I know, I know it’s easy to cherry pick data
to support just about any conclusion (look no further than my previous Thought!)
Nonetheless, most of us tend to think that life runs in some kind of cycle and they
just manage to put some evidence to the theory.
For
example, the most recent – and American - example of the High was the period
from 1946 to 1964 (Of course I think 1948 was perhaps the high-water mark for obvious
reasons!) Anyway, this was a period of tremendous growth and prosperity (the
previous High was 1866-1886, another period of huge growth and prosperity.) The
most recent Awakening was 1964-1984: hippies, feminism, general goofiness. The Unraveling was 1984-2005. The first Wall Street blow up, 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, growing violence and instability.
NOTE: the book was written in 1998
so they didn’t know this stuff would happen, they just said this was the type
of stuff that SHOULD happen – and it did. Finally, we are now in the Crisis
season which should last until around 2025 (oh
goody!) Let me just say that the last Crisis season was 1925-1945 and we know
how swell that was and we seem to following the same script again so if these guys are right the worst may still be ahead.
But
as the guy who sells Ginsu knives on TV says, “Wait, there’s more!” They don’t just identify
the seasons of life but also four groups or generations of us poor, sad humans that
populate these seasons – and they are as predictable as the seasons. They are
the Hero, Artist, Prophet and the Nomad (you'll have to read the book to see why they gave them these names.) As with the seasons, they provide a general description of the traits of these types that occur over each 80 period that is unique to them.
So can you guess which was the most recent Hero generation, right? Of course - we call them the Greatest Generation! They were born 1901-1924 and little else need be said about these folks. The Artist generation, born 1925-1942, are sort of the silent generation; as the authors say, too young to be war heroes but too old to be goofs like us babyboomers. Who are, I might add, the Prophets born 1943-1960: Protesters, yuppies, self absorbed. Yes to all. Finally there are the Nomads, which would be today’s Gen X, born 1961-1981: latchkey kids, generally pragmatic and have a hard edge to them. Again the description of each of these are in today's terms but repeat over and over through the years.
So can you guess which was the most recent Hero generation, right? Of course - we call them the Greatest Generation! They were born 1901-1924 and little else need be said about these folks. The Artist generation, born 1925-1942, are sort of the silent generation; as the authors say, too young to be war heroes but too old to be goofs like us babyboomers. Who are, I might add, the Prophets born 1943-1960: Protesters, yuppies, self absorbed. Yes to all. Finally there are the Nomads, which would be today’s Gen X, born 1961-1981: latchkey kids, generally pragmatic and have a hard edge to them. Again the description of each of these are in today's terms but repeat over and over through the years.
There’s
a lot more to the book because they explain how each generation moves though
each season and great examples of other times and cultures – and it’s always
the same. Get the book.
"So
what?" you may ask about all this. Well, I don’t know. I’m not sure if it’s
comforting to think that life is a never ending circle that will always bring
us back to a positive place - or depressing that we can’t seem to stop making
the same mistakes that take us to the bottom of the cycle. I suppose it depends
on glass half full or half empty kind of person. (Note I will not make any
stupid comment about an alcoholic beverage.)
I
will leave you with a positive thought – huh, how about that?! If you were keeping score about the
generations above you will note that the next generation in America should again be the
Hero generation. And if you have been paying attention at all you know the next
generation here are the so called Millennials born from 1982 to early 2000's. Soooo, even though we are due for
a very difficult ten years or so (and I believe we are) the Heroes WILL arrive
and they WILL help bring back the good times. More importantly, these are OUR
kids (or grandkids for some of my young grandparent readers) who will be the Heroes and
that is not a bad legacy for us to leave. (Well, better than most of the other stuff we're leaving them!)
Bring
on the seasons, I’m ready!
Dougie’s
Doggerel for All!
Pushing
the Gods Too Far
(Cuthpart P. Smythe, 1996)
How many times can you turn down
the
offering of the gods
before
you are set free to wander alone?
How many chances are we given,
to
find that one great love-
before
they leave you on your own?
It seems strangely unfair
that
so many pass our way
with
whom we could easily find peace.
Yet it is our sad truth -
or
so we always say -
this
love will not work . . the next one is for me.
I suspect that time is running
short,
the options in decline.
Not
because of others but on me this fact lies;
I fear I’ve taken more than I gave
and must live with the truth -
alone
came I, alone I lived
and
alone, say the gods, I will die.
Eagles "Desperado" (Possibly the greatest Eagle's song)
Aye Matey, that be it - Welcome to
a new year of fun and frivolity, thanks for spending another 20 min's of your valuable time with the View Askew! And remember . . .
“Be a good citizen
of your world . . .”
. . . and don’t be
a dope.
Quote Du Jour
“His mother
should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” – Mae West
A View Askew is the sole property of D Roger Pederson, Mpls MN. You may forward without special permission but if you want to use anything here for your own purposes please send me a request at dpeders2002@gmail.com.
A View Askew
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