Change

Change is hard ...

And if you carry too much, it bulges out in your pocket, and makes a jingly noise as you walk. 

Confused Bigot

So if a hate-filled bigot breaks into a house of worship and murders a bunch of innocent people, because they superficially resemble a different group of innocent people, what is the appropriate response? 

I mean, should you explain the mistaken identity to him.  Seriously, it’s just going to make him feel stupid.    And what’s he supposed to do, drop back by the church and say, “Hey, sorry guys; my bad”.   

I suppose that on whatever imaginary battlefield this guy thinks he’s fighting, this was some kind of acceptable ‘collateral damage’. 

Shades of Gray

Curious that so many of the same people who insist on absolute black-and-white alignment with their particular views when it comes to inherently subjective areas like societal mores and religion, suddenly advocate pseudo-openmindedness, and insist on respect for a wide range of perspectives—including total denial—when the subject is solid, well-established science?  

The Pain of the Plutocrats

Mitt Romney on his populist appeal:
"I don’t follow the NFL as closely as ardent fans, but Ihave some friends who own teams.”
“I don’t follow the war closely, but I have some friends who run military industrial companies.”
“I don’t know any uninsured people, but I have some friends who own insurance and pharmaceutical companies.”

“I am really out of touch with the unwashed hoi polloi, butI feel the pain of the plutocracy.”

The Soul

Of all the attributes to which we point as distinctions between ourselves and other animals (use of tools, self-awareness, abstract reasoning, etc.), the claim that having souls is an unique human attribute may be the most difficult to prove.    

We who believe we are imbued with a soul must make it our business to manifest it.  And we may find excellent role models among all creatures.  

Facts and Meaning

In the wake of the death of Kim Jong Il in North Korea—and faced with the real anguish being experienced by many of the people who have been subject to his weird, arbitrary rule—I heard a quote:
'Facts don't come with their meaning attached to them.'

North Koreans are surrounded by a distortion machine that interpretes everything for them, so their responses are idiosyncratic by outside standards.  The death of Kim Jong Il can only be interpreted within that reference frame. 

I wonder who, in our society, is also enmeshed within a cocoon of misinformation – impervious to realistic interpretations of national and world events and policies. 

Developing World Transition

One thing which will not be spoken of by politicians of either party during the coming elections is this:
The most frightening and disruptive changes to the Western economies—including the US—are inevitable, irrespective of which parties govern.  The migration of jobs to the developing countries of the Third World will continue, and cannot be reversed. 

No politicians dare acknowlege this publicly for fear of the talking-point it would provide to the opposition, but those who drive policy have known it for years. 

It’s not just low wages that draw the jobs; over time, these countries have have built the physical, technological, and educational infrastructure—much of it with help from advanced economies— to compete at advantage against the west for the foreseeable future. 

Competing political parties in advanced industrial world will spin this trend so as to blame their opposition – and to promise to stem the tide if their party is returned to power (or kept in power, as the case may be).  But, while an individual nation’s policy may cause a temporary inflection in the trendline, the general trajectory cannot be changed.  It is the future, and it should be faced with knowledge that it exists. 

The central question on the table in the US is whether those who continue to thrive during and after this epochal transition—including those who have driven and guided the transition for their own gain—have any obligation to those who are left behind. 

Watching the terms of debate in the US, it seems that the answer here is an emphatic ‘No’.  Those who either deny the inevitability of this transition, or who simply don’t care about those left behind seem to control the outcome.  This will result in a great deal of suffering.