Ignorance and Hate - Time to Stop Tolerating It

We live in strange times. Never before in all of history has access to knowledge been so easy, so attainable, to so many – and yet ignorance abounds. Never before has the world been so small and nations so completely interdependent on each other – and yet xenophobia, bigotry, racism, hate of ‘others’, and blind patriotism still the way of so many. Never before have our actions held such potential for global catastrophe and our mutual destruction, be it from nuclear holocaust or global warming, and yet denial, isolationism, fear, hate, and the utter hypocrisy of a fatalistic outlook even amongst the deniers – the way of so many.

Denying global warming in the face of overwhelming evidence is selfish, cowardly and just plain stupid. The people who do so are fearful fools – akin to the flat earthers, and geocentric universe believers of days past. The difference, however, is denying a round earth or that the earth rotates around the sun, results only in the persecution of a few - denying global warming ushers in the wholesale destruction of our planet.

I have a colleague who has enjoyed an education few in the history of this planet have ever known. And yet he is the poster child of those that will usher in the destruction of our planet and our species through ignorance. The man denies global warming while he drives his gas guzzling, oversized, over powered, survivalist mobile. He drapes himself in the flag – purposefully covering his head to blind himself to the complexities of the modern world, to its interdependency – oblivious to the simple fact that he will not find safety behind walls – be they on national borders or constructed of bigotry, hate and fear. Head buried deeply in the sand, he and the millions of others like him, refuse the only thing that will save them, save of us all – acceptance of scientific fact, of other cultures, a worldview and a spirit of international cooperation.

Question for Donald Trump

Timothy McVeigh, the terrorist who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people and injuring 600 more, was a Christian. Are we going to ban Christians from coming into the country too?

We are not at war with the 2 billion Muslims in the world. We are at war with radical jihadists. To lump the two is an act of biogotry and religious persecution – exactly what the Quakers and Puritans who established this countries first colonies were trying to escape from. It is also cowardly and un-American.

My Angst and Me

I have thought for years that I needed my intense inner dialogue - constant worry, low grade depression, anxiety - to maintain my creative edge. Or to paraphase Woody Allen - my angst is all Ive got, take that away and where would I be?And so Ive avoided doing much about it - convinced I could control, hide, my inner landscape from what I let the world see.

Im beginning to suspect it may instead be a tremendous waste of energy and something I can safely change and still keep my edge.  Pulled and pushed by emotional reaction, lead around by my nose nearly my entire life by constant intense inner chatter that begins immediately upon awakening and may extend into my dreams - perhaps, just perhaps there is another way. So much energy spent attending to my inner construct and how to present it to the world - taking away from my time and energy for my family, friends. Worse - making me a cranky ass at times.

Im never going to be mellow but contrary to popular belief that is not necessarily in and of itself a fault - it's just who I am. But the overwhelming nature of such intensity can leave one self consumed, and exhausted and quite susceptible to acting the ass, or more precisely - reacting the ass.

Perhaps, just perhaps, there is another way. 

The Robots Are Coming

Say hello to Drones
Say goodbye to the local News helicopter

Trump Trumping Trump - The Sphere of Hate Gets Even Larger

Pundits theorize that Donald Trump's 'staying power' is due to the fact that voters simply are fed up with the status quo. These same pundits thought Donald just a flash in the pan literally just a few months ago.

After Trump’s latest proposal to ban all Muslims perhaps we should consider another possibility for the Donald phenomena. He retains 25% of the republican vote because 25% of the republican voters are racist, bigoted, fear mongers just like the Donald.

Cowards All

Despite the fact that most survivalists deny global warming in order to go about their daily lives over consuming, over polluting, and mocking the scientists that present the evidence for it, secretly they think the world is going to hell one way or another, global warming, if true, just another threat, another zombie apocalypse, that they can prepare for in order to insure their own survival while watching the rest of the world get 'cleansed'.

Bombarded by the 24/7 news cycle and an ever shrinking, ever complicated, ever more confusing and frightening world, these cowards have given up on the future and their own children – replaced it instead with a 5^th grade level fantasy of comfortable survival for themselves in their fortified bunkers complete with a never ending supply of Budweiser, while they watch their neighbors and the rest of the world die horrible deaths – by the billions. Nice fantasy. In the meantime, who gives a dam if global warming is real or not.

It takes courage to take on the problems of modern times in order to provide for a brighter future for our children. These ‘survivalists’ have given up, would prefer to crawl into their holes while watching their children’s futures dissolve into nightmare rather than try do something to avoid future disaster now – cowards all.

A Mockery of a Mockery

At first I was appalled. Donald Trump's entry into the presidential race - truly a mockery.  But isn't mainstream politics and the entire process that grinds, drives and spits out our presidential candidates already a mockery?

Oh watch the republican "leadership" squirm. The political pundits stammer and stomp. Trump's entry and early success truly a mockery of a mockery - and they know it. 

Hurray for citizens united. Hurray for the big buck business of electing our "leaders".  Hurray for the endless banter of pundits and the 24/7 news cycle making a buck while turning it all into a stage for the inane, insane, and the extreme. Hurray for Donald Trump for showing us just how ridiculous it has all become. 

Hats off Mr Trump. I have, thanks to you, now finally arrived at the point of saying to our entire modern day electoral mess of a process - you're fired.