I do not claim to be a competent let alone good writer. I am, however, a citizen very concerned about the ultimate fate of this country. Closer to home, I suffer from incredible, mind-numbing pain that never completely goes away, ever. I'm terribly concerned about my health and how it adversely impacts the incredible relationship I have with my wife and if it will leave permanent psychic scars on my children.
In between, I'm very curious about the world, the people in it, and what motivates them to do the often ineffable things they do. While there may not be anything "new" under the Sun; every person is unique and has their own perspective of the world and its events; however, few formal structures in our current culture encourage critical thinking or even foster the curiosity needed for self-enlightenment.
In an ironic, damnable twist, at a time when nearly every U.S. citizen has unfettered access to more information than can be digested in 100, 500, or even 10,000 productive lifetimes, our society as a whole has retracted from inculcating the basic skills needed to turn data into usable knowledge.
Some of the Luddite-like aversion stems from the pendulum swing of public angst, whipped to a frenzy by imams and elected political officials alike, as it shifted from fear of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War to the fear of cultural annihilation from religious extremism under the guise of fundamentalism. This shift occurred in Muslim as well as Christian communities. Teeth-gnashing and knuckle dragging and voluble threats from the Right Wing of the American spectrum, Capitalism is, after all, as Godless a force as Communism. Of course, the concomitant emergence (and unblinking threat) of a combined Pan-Islamism and anti-Americanism coalesced on September 11, 2001.
It was no accident that the primary targets on that fateful day were financial and military institutions; it is also no accident that they were the largest symbols of Capitalism and American power: the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The political landscape, which had started to shift following the Reagan Era, became less and less about the message and increasingly more about the messenger. Inevitably, "ordinary" Americans began to judge the intellect or patriotism of fellow citizens by the messengers and the media became a bloody, no-holds-barred battlefield of recrimination, doubt, and obvious patronage. Sad, really. And stupid.
My goal, if I have to identify one as my Raison d'être, is to espouse my views with the clear understanding that I know very little about some subjects and something about a few others; however, I try to keep my mind open to new information or unconventional approaches. Without a doubt, some of you will read that to mean I have no firm convictions or I am a moral relativist, neither of which is true. What it DOES mean, though, is that I hope I have the humility to recognize when a critical mass of critical evidence has been reached and my former position no longer holds the water I thought it did. That's not "changing" my mind, it's owning up to the facts at hand and removing my ego from the equation since it never belonged there in the first place.
In other words, I'm anti-dogmatic and as non-partisan as possible depending on the issue. In some cases, like the detention of foreign nationals without formal charges and the use of torture despite its universal illegality and extremely poor record of supplying timely, useful intelligence, the amount of contradictory evidence--as opposed to wishful thinking, TV dramas, and the bloodlust of more than half of the good Christians in our country--required to sway my position is enormous. Our country was founded on the principles of equality before the law though it took a Civil War and over 130 years of politicking before it became The Law of the Land for all its citizens. The beauty of our Constitution is the purposeful design to account for shifts in public morality over time. Slavery is one example, women's suffrage is another.
So, without further ado, away we go! Help me stop our country from falling into the abyss because we're politically and financially short-sighted, because we're more interested in being identified with a political tribe instead of doing what we know is right, because we're so passive in our thinking that we lose sight of our own motivations and relegate them to another shelf because we're afraid of what our friends/fellow political tribesmen may think. Think before you decide, do your homework by culling from various sources before you develop an opinion, and always, always always know the difference between repeating someone else's opinion from repeating something based on the evidence and your analysis of it.
It's mind-boggling how many Americans assume that repeating something that is untrue makes it true because it fits their own pre-conceived notions of what "It Should Be," i.e., they allow "their" news host to establish the Truth of a matter because it is the host's or pundit's mere "opinion" on the matter. Sorry kids, but that is bass-ackwards.
Peace--Ernst
In between, I'm very curious about the world, the people in it, and what motivates them to do the often ineffable things they do. While there may not be anything "new" under the Sun; every person is unique and has their own perspective of the world and its events; however, few formal structures in our current culture encourage critical thinking or even foster the curiosity needed for self-enlightenment.
In an ironic, damnable twist, at a time when nearly every U.S. citizen has unfettered access to more information than can be digested in 100, 500, or even 10,000 productive lifetimes, our society as a whole has retracted from inculcating the basic skills needed to turn data into usable knowledge.
Some of the Luddite-like aversion stems from the pendulum swing of public angst, whipped to a frenzy by imams and elected political officials alike, as it shifted from fear of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War to the fear of cultural annihilation from religious extremism under the guise of fundamentalism. This shift occurred in Muslim as well as Christian communities. Teeth-gnashing and knuckle dragging and voluble threats from the Right Wing of the American spectrum, Capitalism is, after all, as Godless a force as Communism. Of course, the concomitant emergence (and unblinking threat) of a combined Pan-Islamism and anti-Americanism coalesced on September 11, 2001.
It was no accident that the primary targets on that fateful day were financial and military institutions; it is also no accident that they were the largest symbols of Capitalism and American power: the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The political landscape, which had started to shift following the Reagan Era, became less and less about the message and increasingly more about the messenger. Inevitably, "ordinary" Americans began to judge the intellect or patriotism of fellow citizens by the messengers and the media became a bloody, no-holds-barred battlefield of recrimination, doubt, and obvious patronage. Sad, really. And stupid.
My goal, if I have to identify one as my Raison d'être, is to espouse my views with the clear understanding that I know very little about some subjects and something about a few others; however, I try to keep my mind open to new information or unconventional approaches. Without a doubt, some of you will read that to mean I have no firm convictions or I am a moral relativist, neither of which is true. What it DOES mean, though, is that I hope I have the humility to recognize when a critical mass of critical evidence has been reached and my former position no longer holds the water I thought it did. That's not "changing" my mind, it's owning up to the facts at hand and removing my ego from the equation since it never belonged there in the first place.
In other words, I'm anti-dogmatic and as non-partisan as possible depending on the issue. In some cases, like the detention of foreign nationals without formal charges and the use of torture despite its universal illegality and extremely poor record of supplying timely, useful intelligence, the amount of contradictory evidence--as opposed to wishful thinking, TV dramas, and the bloodlust of more than half of the good Christians in our country--required to sway my position is enormous. Our country was founded on the principles of equality before the law though it took a Civil War and over 130 years of politicking before it became The Law of the Land for all its citizens. The beauty of our Constitution is the purposeful design to account for shifts in public morality over time. Slavery is one example, women's suffrage is another.
So, without further ado, away we go! Help me stop our country from falling into the abyss because we're politically and financially short-sighted, because we're more interested in being identified with a political tribe instead of doing what we know is right, because we're so passive in our thinking that we lose sight of our own motivations and relegate them to another shelf because we're afraid of what our friends/fellow political tribesmen may think. Think before you decide, do your homework by culling from various sources before you develop an opinion, and always, always always know the difference between repeating someone else's opinion from repeating something based on the evidence and your analysis of it.
It's mind-boggling how many Americans assume that repeating something that is untrue makes it true because it fits their own pre-conceived notions of what "It Should Be," i.e., they allow "their" news host to establish the Truth of a matter because it is the host's or pundit's mere "opinion" on the matter. Sorry kids, but that is bass-ackwards.
Peace--Ernst
The crux of being a pundit of any sort is the inevitablility of getting opinion confused with fact yourself and slowly become the beast you so diligintly were fighting.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping you continue to tilt at windmills and stay away from that intoxicating feeling of criticism for the sake of criticism. After all, much more fun to say, "I told you so!" than actually put one's self on the line with thoughts and ideas challenging others to critique your work.
Since you quoted the Great One in opening your blog, let me quote you back one of my favorites by him. “Our dreams are firsthand creations, rather than residues of waking life. We have the capacity for infinite creativity; at least while dreaming, we partake of the power of the Spirit, the infinite Godhead that creates the cosmos.”
- Jackie Gleason
Peace Ernst,
- Jung