Over half the children born now in the United States are fatherless connards. So very many of their parents are so addicted to opiates, cocaine, or methamphetamines that we wind up with hundreds of thousands of feral children wandering through the streets and schools and what little they have of homes that they are essentially raising themselves in a feral state. Home school has become a euphemism for “didn’t go”, and indeed our public school institutions have become “zero tolerance” on misbehavior so that it is now accepted that schools can simply put children out on the street, truancy laws notwithstanding.
We have a worldwide religion that has declared the United States to be the handmaiden of Satan and who anxiously await an Armageddon where they will defeat our military in a huge upset on the plains of Syria. The belief system is so profound that they appear to have an endless supply of adherents willing to blow themselves up for Allah in an attempt to lure us into this confrontation.
As a nation, we are facing a $21 TRILLION dollar national debt, default on our Social Security and Medicare promise that tens of millions of Americans, having paid into these programs for 40 or 50 years, are absolutely dependent on to survive their final years. The federal government has waged war on employers so long and so successfully that it is simply now out of fashion to employ people. Work is either outsourced overseas or huge investments in robotics and automation have become no-brainers when compared to the unknown and unpredictable costs of employing humanoids, who routinely steal billions from their employer benefactors.
Higher education has become a game where government and finance join forces to screw children for money – graduating them with huge debt and no possibility of employment of any attractive sort. Our society is breaking down into the haves and the have nots but our leaders have no clue as to what it is or why it is. It is actually a very clear class battle between the technocracy (the haves) against the luddites (the have nots) but our political leaders are blissfully unaware it is even going on.
Our infrastructure has reached the point where our airports, roads, sidewalks, et al across the land is reaching such a state of deterioration that we resemble more a third world country rather than the richest country on earth. At the same time, we have a decimated military that still posts tens of thousands of troops to South Korea, Germany, and across the globe in 720 different overseas military locations. We pay the MAJORITY of the costs of NATO a defense leagues established to protect Europe.
And our communal campfire – the established television media, have been totally taken over by young homosexual communists bent not on reporting the news, but in manipulating the balance of power in Washington DC and ensuring the outcome most favorable to their bizarre belief systems.
Washington D.C. is now a firmly entrenched political class, pampered and feted to a marvelous lifestyle by huge corporations who in turn received guaranteed monopolies and pricing power to extort money from the 330 million strong populace at large.
And to quote George Carlin, if you take the average intelligence of the average American, understand that half the people you meet today won’t be that smart.
Sounds pretty gloomy. Actually we have survived this level of distress before and in pretty good style. The sturdiness of the main body of Americans, working every day for a better life, a better community, a better nation, and a better world, has generally been able to carry all this in pretty good style. But they’re a little surley at the moment.
It is no secret that I supported Ben Carson for President of the United States. He cites the grandeur of the original design of a government by and for the people and called for his own version of Jihad – a national spiritual renewal as the solution to these problems. I agree with him. The original plan was a great one. And piecemealing these problems avoids the central issue. By the time today’s feral children are 30 years old, we pretty much have to reap what we’ve sown and suck it up. It is my belief that only a ferocious wave of spiritual renewal sweeping the land NOW is the REAL solution to all of this. I had deeply hoped the time was at hand. But it apparently is not to be. Many of us threw in with him, but it did not reach a critical mass and so Dr. Carson has now bowed out of the race. He actually bowed out at a conservative convention a month ago to a standing ovation. If you ever hear this guy speak at length, it is a profound experience. If you ever seen him on television, it is generally an embarassing disappointment. But we live in a video age.
Starting with 17 Republican wannabees and a half dozen democratic hopefuls, we are at this moment down to three Republican and two Democratic survivors. And there IS a bit of a movement afoot – led by the two LEAST likely candidates. Donald John Trump and Bernard “Bernie” Sanders.
These two have each tapped into some serious voter discontent resulting in relatively huge rallies somewhat made up of people who do not normally vote at all. Bernie tends to attract youngish idealists and Trump older middle class heartland types.
You would think these two guys would be politically totally at opposite extremes. Not precisely. They have two endearing features in this political season.
1. The central message of both is that we have a pampered political class in Washington, funded by large corporate entities: insurance companies, big pharma, oil, and finance who then legislate to the advantage of these companies and to the detriment of the American public.
2. Both men speak rather directly and with the ring of truth in their delivery. That is not to say that either have a monopoly on truth. But they are persuasive that they BELIEVE the things they are saying are true at the time they say them.
ALL the other candidates cynically say whatever they think will give them the best result on the road to the presidency, managed hour by hour, minute by minute, question by question. The replies are so cynically parsed, that it is glaringly obvious to even the dullest observer that the quick way to tell if they are lying outright and deliberately is to look to see if their lips are moving.
And so both have basically launched frontal attacks on the party establishments particular – Trump to the Republicans and Sanders to the Democrats. And predictably enough, both parties have reacted badly with alternating waves of panic to stop them, or panic to co-opt them.
Trump has proven masterful in getting media coverage from a media who detests him. This is bizarre on so many levels it’s hard to parse. But the net result is that he has spent $35 million in over a year, mostly on renting venues from his very large “rallies” where his faithful cheer him on. But he basically occupies five TV channels 24×7 who simply chant Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump almost without stopping for breath. He plays the press like a Steinway, and any time another candidate breaks into the news with any substantive, Trump simply steps to the microphone, blurts out something bizarre and outrageous, and instantly refocuses the attention on Trump.
In an absolutely bizarre turn on Joe Scarborough’s morning show on MSNBC, a young female reporter noted that you never got anything substantive from Trump – “All we get is sound bites.” The others on the show picked up on this like crows on a telephone line chanting to each other “sound bites sound bites”. Duh. The only thing this media is designed by the very nature of their format is for sound bites. Trump has mastered feeding them exactly what they are designed to eat.
Result is a very low cost campaign, almost entirely paid for by Trump or very small donors, and no big buck backers who he would have to cater too.
Bernie Sanders has brought this to a new art form. He has raised over $40 million per month with an average donation size of $27 for MONTHS out raising all of Hilleraries efforts at landing large donors and with a virtual lock on all traditional sources of funds to the democratic party.
And his television commercials! While most political adds look like a cross between the Blair Witch Project and a rural small town auto dealer commercial, Bernard Sanders videos verge on a new art form. They are astonishingly BEAUTIFUL both the sound and the video and are enormously powerful.
Hillerary enjoys an insurmountable delegate lead in the Democratic contest, yet Bernie scored 83% in Alaska and 73% in Washington state. They have basically set off a race war within the Democratic party with Hillerary enjoying huge leads among older black supporters and Bernie virtually wiping her out with young white voters.
Technically Hillerary cannot ever be president for a couple of brutally simple reasons. First, she reminds too many men of their ex-wives. Second, she reminds too many women of their husbands ex-wives. And finally, she’s pathologically dishonest. The Clintons left the white house broke and currently sport over $130 million in personal wealth. They did not get that from careful savings of her salary as Senator or Secretary of State. She received $845,000 from pharmaceutical companies for example and is a strong supporter of Obamacare. Obamacare costs employers, employees, and even the newly insured BILLIONS of dollars more than what we had. It ALSO costs the government billions more (us collectively). But it virtually ASSURES both insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies UNLIMITED PRICING POWER with the entire nation REQUIRED BY LAW TO PURCHASE and NO controls on what they can charge WHATSOEVER. It is the grandest wholesale
sellout of the electorate ever designed.
There is no way, that the democratic party is going to let Bernard Sanders get the democratic nomination. He can get ALL the votes from here on in. They will not allow it.
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And the Republican party? Same game. Trump clearly won Lousianna in the popular vote, but somehow, Ted Cruz has gone into Louisianna and come out with 10 delegates MORE than Trump AFTER the election. I actually like most of his positions. But the man is a pathological liar of Hillerarian dimensions and worse, has this sneaky nasty propensity to game the system behind close doors to declare himself the winner of elections he has absolutely lost. After EVERY loss the entire year, he has come out in front of the microphones to explain how it was actually a huge win. Bizarre.
The truth is, NOBODY cares what Trumps position is on anything. I do not share a SINGLE sentiment he has expressed. I WOULD note that he has a strange way of uttering nonsense, and once the fact checking and heroic efforts to discredit him get underway, we find a whole world of information that would tend to support his "instinctive" knee-jerk reaction. He has a kind of animal cunning feel for these things that has actually been enlightening in a lot of areas.
But make no mistake, if he can come out of Louisianna 10 delegates behind Cruz after beating him soundly in the election, the Republican establishment just IS NOT GOING TO DECLARE HIM THE CANDIDATE in Cleveland. Again, he can get ALL the votes from here on in. It isn't going to happen.
This could actually lead to the total destruction of BOTH PARTIES. They at least will never be the same again. The millions who back Trump are not going to go quietly into the night when they literally steal the candidacy from him in prime time national television debacle in Cleveland. A bunch of babel about rules and regulations and so forth.
And while the Democratic convention could be a bit tamer, we are talking about fractions here. Worse, we could very well see Hillerary escorted in handcuffs to the speakers podium to give her acceptance speech before reporting to her trial date.
Understand that I don’t quite believe either man should actually be president of the United States. Trump has a long and successful career in a viciously competitive real estate market. But it has been continously litigious with dozens of lawsuits along with charges brought by the government over racial discrimination in housing, and other really pretty sleazy events. His personal vanity simply has not bounds. And he is a schoolyard brawler who goes into attack mode over any slight.
Bernard Sanders has a 25 year career as a communist politician who has never accomplished anything in any legislative session that you could discover without test instruments. His concept of an economy makes Lennin look like a serial entrepreneur. NOTHING he talks about could ever gain sufficient votes to pass and if they did, none of it works at even the mechanistic level.
But lacking a feverish national movement of spiritual renewal, we kind of have to Bern what we have to the ground in order to rebuild it. And Trump and Sanders have thermonuclear destructive potential of maximum megatonnage.
So I think THEY should game the system. I think Donald John Trump should schedule a meeting PRIOR to the Republican convention to humbly ask Bernard Sanders to join him as his vice presidential running mate. They should announce their candidacy and partnership PRIOR to the Republican convention. And the Republican Party will then have the very simple option to select Donald as their Presidential candidate, or select someone else to run AGAINST Trump/Sanders in a third party/write in campaign. They could still get on the ballot in some states and I think for once in a row a write-in might actually work.
In any event, it would absolutely assure the Republican loss not only of the Presidency, but probably both the Congress and the Senate if they nominate someone else. Or they can all Make America Great Again while Feeling the Bern. I happen to know how that comes out.
We suffer/enjoy a quick four years of total chaos while the pampered class in Washington realizes the grand ball is over, and while the American electorate comes to terms that they CAN actually have a bloodless revolution on prime time television.
From the ashes, perhaps…….a new day…. But both parties kind of have to start over, and they would be best served with candidates that speak directly and honestly to the American electorate. I actually look for a Green Party, a Libertarian Party, an American Conservative Party, a Minority Coalition Party, and probably An American Progressive Party to show up to the next election.
Repulicans and Democrats will join the Whigs, the Federalists, and the Proletarians as a historical footnote.
TRUMP/SANDERS IN 2016
Gary Johnson is currently a 3rd party Libertarian candidate who will be on the polls of all 50 states.
Check out what he has to say…
Not EV related but I had a great time reading it. You should write for Playboy now that they have gone non-nude. This would be the only reason to buy one now. Good content as per usual Jack!
When it’s all over enjoy your new president, just keep the hell out of Canada.
Ooops, not you Jack you can fly up here any time.
“Politics makes strange bedfellows.” Yes but a serial entrepreneur and a communist? I loved your article till you came in with that one.
I just can’t see that happening but then again, I can’t envision anything good happening this time around.
It has been said that in the end times people will be desperately & anxiously waiting and wanting the Lord to return. I think I need to go buy some oil for my lamp tomorrow morning.
A fascinating post indeed. I agree that a spiritual awakening is in the long run far more significant than politics. It may of course be coincidence (causation is impossible to prove), but in my country the Methodist revival and the industrial revolution kicked off at much the same time (mid 1700s) and by the 1780s the antislavery movement had started to roll. Another example: Wikipedia talks about “explosive growth” in the Welsh economy in the early 1900s – around the time of the Welsh revival of 1904/5.
…and on a Tesla related topic, I put down my deposit today. It took over 3 hours in line behind over 500 other like minded folks to get them to take my deposit. I had a great time in line chatting with all the other crazy people who are willing to give Tesla $1000 for the idea of a car. I can’t wait to see what I put a deposit on during the Tesla event tonight.
You know, I put a few quid down on something myself this afternoon. June $330 options on Teslas stock. I think they were 68 cents apiece. This time I’m not selling them when they hit $9. I’,m going to hold on for $35.
Why don’t you take another $1000 and put it on some long 6 month options on Teslas stock price and way out of the money, like $350.
Stop and think about what you have just told me and remember that decimal is the number system in all the world of greatest sincerity. You stood in line with 500 OTHER PEOPLE to put down a $1000 deposit on a car that cannot possibly be produced and delivered until 2018 and on which you have NO specifications of any kind and you have NEVER SEEN even a photograph of.
Indeed reports are flooding in that even longer lines about AROUND THE WORLD as people are literally camping overnight to get their deposit in. And DO understand, it DOESN’T matter your place in line. Tesla will fill all the high value add slammed up models like their signature model first. They ship California first. And then somewhere down the line, they sort em out by order number. So even being in line today doesn’t move you much closer to the front than ordering online this evening.
I’ll get on tonight and sign up for a signature or fully optioned version and go further upfront.
If this continues, I would expect Tesla to report by the end of April orders WELL OVER 100,000 units., or about $3.5 billion in sales, on a car that the BEST they are saying now is END OF 2017 and historically they have NEVER met a date even once in a row so far.
I would predict it will be a fabulous car, 200 mile range, fully able to take advantage of the supercharge network. It will likely be smaller than the Model S, may not have a HUGE screen but will no doubt have a touch screen. I would expect it to be powered by the 170 kW front motor alone. Which will be MORE than adequate performance. It might not do 0-60 in 4.2, but if it did it in eight seconds I think most people would find that MORE than adequate.
I guess given Elon’s history, you won’t get it for $35,000. Or even $35,000 after rebates. But I can see something in the $45-60k range. And the lines would seem to imply that Tesla has won the E-car wars and the brand. It just so happens there are a lot of people out there that do not see spending $85-135K on a car. I guess I would agree it is a ridiculous value proposition – even while I’m driving mine.
But $45-60k is just expensive. A lot of people will simply buy one, finance it and pay it off over time. As the maintenance is much lower, and they aren’ t buying gasoline, I think that will work out for them rather better than they think.
Then too, hopefully it has some tires on it. I just changed ALL FOUR at the Tesla Service Center with right at 10,000 miles on them. $1625 with the installation. Low profile very soft and grippy. They just shred like pencil eraser. When you talk about tire shredding power, Tesla means it literally.
So I too am very enthusiastic about the Gen 3. I think public reaction to it will KILL the short stock sellers AGAIN. And the Tesla stock will take off on a TEAR like you’ve never seen. I can see $500 per share before the first one is shipped.
Also in the news. Tesla has already installed machinery in the Gigafactory and are actually producing batteries in it while they continue to build out this 1.9 million square foot facility. They’re a year AHEAD of schedule.
It its my belief that Elon could roll out a dead ringer clone of the 1957 VW beetle tonight (electric of course() and it would all still work.
I should have known, but failed to see, even after dozens of you told me, that the Model S is simply beyond reach. And an affordable Tesla was what you were waiting for. Ok. I get it. Don’t have to hit ME in the head with a hammer. Or at least not very hard….
The Gen 3 rollout is a VERY big deal as it turns out. Lines in Hong Kong. Lines in Australia. Lines all over the world…
Jack Rickard
OOOPS.. Did I say end of April. I…I…I….must have mispoke. I MEANT to say by the END OF THE DAY…..
Jack
Elon just tweeted, 276k model 3 reservations by end of day Saturday!
This morning Tesla announced they were up to 276,000 reservations of the Model 3. Average price is expected to be $42,000. That’s 11.5 billion in automotive sales in 3 days.
Total E-car shipments in 2015 are around 116,000.
If that puts it in perspective.
This is an historic turning point in the transformation to battery electric magnetic drive for personal transportation.
Note cheapest model S is 50k and the cheapest Model 3 will be 35k. It may be 15K cheaper but I see it. Then after three years, will it be that “value proposition” after three years and the other makers have now seen a new benchmark?
Awesome and erudite as always Jack.
Please buy one of these and convert it.
It will be the quietest least polluting snow coach ever.
Vintage Yellowstone snowcoaches up for auction
http://www.kbzk.com/story/31611570/vintage-yellowstone-snowcoaches-up-for-auction
The glove has been thrown down. My build must be commuting before Elon’s model 3 is prowling about.
Thank you for your commentary.
Jack you must know Elon really well cause you have him pegged in that he has not met a date, I was watching the unveil here in Phoenix since we are not daylight time we are the same as PST. And by 8:32 PM the live stream had not started, I went away and came back by 8:36 PM and the stream was running but no Elon. Was it 5 minutes later that he came out and got started? Steve
PS Jack after watching the show I got to thinking since I did not put down my money I may have been watching a tape delay of the unveil. But I still think Elon did not start on time! Steve
Killary is a psychopath who is about to (hopefully) face the law over her private email server.
Cruz is a Canuk by birthright. Yes, he cannot even lie straight in bed. He’s so twisted his willy must be like a piggy. We should ask the call girl agency he used, for private info about that.
Lots of “feel the Bern” supporters find craiglist adverts which pays $16/hour to be buss’ed in to disrupt Trumps speeches.
Trump supporters.. hmmm. Dr. Carson supports him.
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They all scare me with their speeches to torture, bomb and nuke nations they decide to hate.
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Sadly the rest of the world looks in and wonder whats served in the US waterworks to reduce the collective iq to such low levels.
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Them Model S traction units are too damned wide for UK roads 🙁
Addendum.
Model “3”. Its got a boot. Its not a hatchback. All the roof glass bothers me. Too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. An issue brought up too many times with many owners. What the hell were they thinking about. 🙁
Maybe there will be an option you can pay extra for to replace the glass with an aluminum roof. Elon did say the average price for the model 3 would be around $42,000 so he might be aware of all the people you said are complaining about it and has figured out a way to cash in!
That glass roof is Tesla being too clever by half.
It’s a very clever loophole- interior metal structure (pillars, roof, for example) needs a mandated amount of padding against it to meet interior head-impact standards. Glass obviously doesn’t, ergo a glass roof allows greater headroom for the passengers. Just a shame it’s totally impractical in sun and cold. I guess if a sunroof or solid roof is available as an option, then it’s the buyer’s choice to sacrifice headroom for liveability. And Tesla can charge extra.
Lets go back on subject. Here is a low mileage, handmade electric car dating back to the 70’s. Its stood around for a bit, needs new tyres. Buyer collects
http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/download/moondrive.jpg
Interesting structural issues in a rollover with a glass roof of that extent
I’m driving a Smart ED which has an all-glass roof and I disagree with the too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter comment. Glass is a better insulator than the piece of sheet steel most cars have up there and it’s tinted to keep the sun bearable. The frame all around the roof is the structural bit. Many cars have very large sun/moon roofs these days so I just don’t see the problem.
I too have a 2014 Smart ED with a glass roof, but I live in Phoenix AZ so during the spring, summer, fall time I keep the blind closed otherwise the interior gets to hot and I boil. Steve
Not to knit-pick but I also have a smart car. It’s a polycarbonite plastic roof, not glass.
I’ll have to take your work on that. It feels like glass to me. And, to be fair, we don’t know what the Model 3 roof will be made of yet.
I originally thought that the glass over the back seat area was a negative, but the more I analyze the design the more it makes sense.
Structurally, it doesn’t matter because the pillars are the real structural element, not the thin sheet metal (model 3 glass).
As a taller person, I often cannot see a stop light when stopped at one because I have to crouch down because the windshield doesn’t go up high enough.
If you look at the side view of the model 3 you see how aerodynamic the roof line is.
If you had a front windshield, moon roof,and back windshield, that’s 3 pieces of glass with three seperate weather seals to leak, versus just 1 on the model 3…
I’ve driven a few rental cars with sun roofs, and can tell you that the addition of a sun roof takes up several inches if headroom. The same model car I can fit in comfortable, but the same model with a sun roof my head touches the ceiling. So the model 3 with all glass would allow for more headroom with a lower vehicle profile.
My final comment is on the lack of instrument cluster. At a minimum I want a speedometer in front of me, the GPS can be on the touchscreen. There seems to be plenty of real estate in front of the driver to add a simple speedo, but I’d guess it’s a necessary cost savings to omit it. The latest charged article on the model 3 had a similar opinion, and a user by the name of Elon Musk in response to the instrument cluster commented ” It will make sense after part 2 of the Model 3 unveil”. If I might guess here, maybe there will be an optional heads up display…
The display/cluster being in the middle of the model three dash is a great thing when the manufacturer must produce for different countries that all drive on the wrong side of the road. I bought the Toyota Yaris in 2008. It’s instruments are in the middle of the dash for the same reason. It took a bit of getting use to.
I read an article that stated that Elon tweeted that there is going to be a heads up display, the steering wheel is not the final design nor is the front nose of the car. He also confirmed the rear trunk is going to be a traditional sedan design but the opening is big enough to fit a bicycle through it. Plus he cleared up quite a few other things: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/with_replies
I’ve wanted a good HUD for so long… I’d buy the car just for that if it were well-executed.
I wore out my fourth welding hood recently. I bought a new auto-darkening one that far surpasses the two before it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Elon offers the option of an auto darkening roof glass on the M-3.
Screencap from an hour ago! Looks like some action. Thanks for all your hard work.
http://www.techvelocity.com/misc/crackteam.gif
All the best,
Aaron Lephart
Jack, the world owes you a debt of gratitude for your contributions to the sciences. But I find your politics baffling.
While faith is one of the more beautiful constructs of humanity, religion often brings out the worst in people. What we DON’T need is another prescribed religion. Going “back to the intentions of our forefathers” might entail a lesson about being free of religious persecution. That is, being free to practice (or not) the religion (or not) of our choosing.
Interestingly enough, I saw a recent article that claimed, despite our modern heathenistic ways, it would be virtually impossible to elect an atheist president. That seems like odd criteria, particularly for a representative that would have to interface with the leaders of many other non-Christian nations. Further claim: that something like half the population feels that atheists are untrustworthy. Equally unsettling, although I suppose we have a long history of distrusting those of any religion other than our own.
My personal opinion isn’t that we lack religion, it’s that we have gotten too preoccupied to notice that no one is watching the shop. Washington’s biggest problem is that our representatives have been free to run wild in the streets “with no adult supervision”, as you might say. We’re spending all our attention blaming Muslims for the modern day crusades, or debating whether people in love should be allowed to marry based on their genitalia. Meanwhile, politicians dutifully espouse their loyalty to God and fellow patriotic citizens, while lying, stealing, murdering, and otherwise trading the social / economic / environmental well-being of our people and country for ill-gotten gains. Some priorities we’ve got there.
The campaign issues we are so captivated with are nothing but smoke and mirrors. The Two Parties are not that different, it’s the amplification of those differences being used as a distraction, and driving a wedge between those who would otherwise have a civilized discussion re: their alternate perspective. That’s why we’ve been talking about the same hot-button issues for as long as I have been aware, and will continue to mock-address those issues ad infinitum. They won’t be solved this election or the next, because they’re too valuable as bait.
I have had enlightening conversations with people whose world view is diametrically opposed with my own, and taken something away that shifted my view on some topic in a substantial way. Funny how listening to the other side for a moment can be so educational when you’re not going in feeling like you have to win a debate. It might even then be possible to discuss politics in polite company. Real politics, not fear-mongering over whether we’ll be allowed to own a gun in two years.
And if that happens, we might even find that we don’t need God to fix things for us. We can sweep out a spot and usher in some of that change ourselves. (With divine intervention if you so prefer. Or not.)
My piddling about in the shop hardly constitutes a contribution to science. And similarly my call for a national spiritual reawakening is unlikely to shake the trunions of either the Vatican or Washington D.C.
But you might be surprised how many respond positively to me occasionally posting outside of our obvious topic – electric vehicles.
I had a profound distrust for what was “taught” by loving and intelligent parents and grandparents from an unusually early age. This is an usual situation in that life is much easier if we “inherit” a standard set of belief systems that may be acquired and then as they say in Congress, revised and extended by exception later on. To start out in reject mode that by observation I can rule out what is actually lovingly presented to me, leaves things a little adrift. And so you have to develop your own set starting from bare dirt.
Learning to read is a bit of a task when you are uncertain whether the symbol “A” really stands for A or whether the authorities presenting the information might have some ulterior motive or “A” conspiracy going to persuade us that a Z is actually an A does slow the process. But I have to tell you that once you work through it, there are a LOT of things you know about the alphabet that the other kids are just not ever going to know.
Extending that to sixty years of everything is actually precisely what you find attractive and I could write about beer, beans or Beelzebub and you will likely notice that it really doesn’t matter. It’s unlikely you ever thought of beans in quite that way before. And I guess that is attractive as it has given me a marvelous ride the last 30 years or so.
So do allow me to just pass on trying to correct, debate, or fix you. I can choose to share. But it is not required that I be open source. It IS a sharing and it is by choice and it is limited license. In rejecting the inherited body of wisdom of our entire species, I’m also a little bit absolved of trying to correct it.
But let me suggest something that is just horribly out of vogue today. There is a stone cold hard baked in absolute set of realities in the Universe. You don’t get to vote on them. Your opinion spares not a hair from a head. Your point of view doesn’t matter. How you got there doesn’t matter. It just is. The hubris of our age is that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, their own reality, and we should be open and diversely welcoming to all opinions and all talking heads expressing them even if we can get a round dozen squeezed into a single video screen.
What can I use as analogy. Pre-Google, we used to have horrendous arguments about the dinner table over trivial items such as who was in what movie and when that came out. Post google, if the topic comes up and the argument begins, someone inevitably suggests — well just Google it. And within seconds the definitive answer is retrieved – end of argument. Google is actually taming and dampening dinner conversations. You see it doesn’t matter what you THINK about Tom Hanks in Forest Gump. He WAS in it and it was released in 1994.
On the occasion of your own mortality you will arrive in a place where you can know anything just by focusing on it. You don’t even need Google. And you can know it absolutely with all of its implications. And so can everyone else. Kind of dampens down the dinner conversation and arguments.
Here, on planetoid Earth, it is more like being in a huge warehouse with no lights, and we are each armed with a tiny pocket flashlight. You can illuminate parts of things depending on where you aim your light. And so your “opinion” is formed by what you aimed at and observed.
But it is worse than that. Because our opinions form our actions and our actions rearrange the warehouse – actually alter it and we are all interconnected to each other and to everything in the warehouse. We each have absolute free choice and cummulatively we can convert the warehouse to a stunningly beautiful 980 hole golf course, or we can burn it to the ground and leave a smoldering radioactive poisonous hole in the ground.
Now go read the obituary page in your newspaper. I don’t mean thought exercise it, actually go read it and read every word in it for every person that died that week. You will come away impressed by two things. There is an absolute march of LOTS of people straight into the jaws of their own mortality here on Earth. And most of them did very little with the enormous opportunity they had to live a life here.
Out of an uncountable unfathomable trillions of beings, and at an ENORMOUS expense in the energy of the Universe, to the envy of trillions of beings, YOU won the lottery and were selected to squeeze through the loins of your mother into a world of pain, want, and agony, gasping and choking for your very first breath. Beginning a very brief 75 years to act as co-creator and representative of God in the most majestically beautiful garden in all of creation. At the end of this you will surrender your comically limited body, ashes to ashes and dust to dust, and return home with the tale of your life for ALL to enjoy in its every hidden secret moment and every breath – in minute detail, 80,000 pixel HD with SURROUND SOUND MAXIMUS MAGNUS. And they will revel and marvel in your daring deeds in a wonderful life, or perhaps shuffle away in embarrassment at the miserable waste you made of a life on earth.
You ARE armed with some unique gifts, different from all who came before you, and different from all who will come after you. And of all who came before you, and all who came after, there was not a single “mistake” made. Each here for a reason and a special mission.
And so simplifying to the garden analogy, just what did you do with your life? Did you hoe the soil earnestly despite the heat and the wind and the biting ice? Did you show others how to hoe, and help them hoe with you? Did you improve the efficiency of the hoe itself? Did you assist and nurture those who arrived after you?
Or did you devise ways and cunning strategies to take others hoes from them, so you could amass the largest number of hoes every piled into a single pile? Not usefully hoeing but just piled up so you would always have a hoe on hand in case you did bother to hoe. Ironically, once you leave the garden of course, hoes are useless.
And of the older hoers who were weakening and wearing out – did you do what you could to ease their pain and help them to do what hoeing they could. Did you thank them for leading the way and hoeing before you? For making it easier for you to hoe with improved hoes and improved hoeing techniques?
And did you welcome and celebrate the arrival of the small ones who came behind you – to nurture them to full strength and train them to hoe with you? Or was it really more important to ensure that anyone who “chose” could murder the little bastards in the womb of their mothers, so that no interruption or inconvenience to either the hoeing or the mindless amassing of many hoes be incurred? These are important questions and your opinion matters a great deal.
You see Google doesn’t know or give a Goddamn, and neither of us are dead yet Nick. You are an aetheist baffled by what you so quaintly and endearingly damn and dismiss as “my beliefs”. What am I supposed to do with that shit? As in how much time should I devote to explaining the Republican delegate system to a house cat. In the end, neither the delegate system or the house cat cares very much.
Actually I know what I’m SUPPOSED to do but you make it hard. I’m supposed to love you, and I’m supposed to help you in any way I can. Because we are very much all interconnected – our very breaths intertwined in an immense tapestry of indescribable complexity and beauty.
“You see George, you really have had a wonderful life.”
What did you do with it?
I’d love to be known as a great hoer. And perhaps a leader of hoers.
Jack Rickard
Jack,
In order to make a difference in this world and to peoples lives, you don’t lead.
I am not going to follow, but I am going to walk beside you.
Rob
Rob:
Well if you don’t lead, and I don’t lead, where the hell are we going?
Jack Rickard
Excellent question Jack,we walk a chosen path in this world for a reason, whether it be straight and clear or perhaps our path is littered with rocks and trees through a dark forest…. Whether it be the one with the flashlight or the one with the sharpest hoe, we all are meant to go to the end.
Rob
Well, this is kind of what I mean. You say I’m making it hard for you to love me, in that I am a stranger with a contrary point of view, and one you perhaps find ignorant and distasteful. On that note, I didn’t really bother to say, and I think you may have misinterpreted my stance. For what it’s worth, I am not an atheist. If I had to pick a label, I would say that I am spiritual but not particularly religious.
Basically, I don’t know what’s out there, and I don’t really care. I live with a set of morals that I acquired separate from the gospel, and if I were tilling fields beside you and noticed you had no hoe, I would loan you mine. If I noticed you were unable to hoe, I would work to ensure we both had enough. I care about you, as a person, not because the Good Book says I have to, but because we share this large field.. or warehouse.. or whatever it is.. and it would certainly be more pleasant if we could love and trust each other.
I recently had a conversation with a family member, who is a Christian, and believes there’s no morality outside the word of God. OK then, my spouse and I ask, if you found out with irrefutable certainty that there is no God, would you take someone’s life? Yes, she said. Probably. Why not?
This bothers me on a fundamental level. That our willingness to accept each other is tied to something as fragile as a belief system. I’ve seen many people lose faith, or choose to convert religions; for the role of God to ebb and flow in their lives. Is my place on this Earth only permitted so long as they show up to church on Sunday?
So, while it may be exasperating that other people have opinions and would prefer you allow them room to have those opinions, I think it’s probably my own personal #1 commandment. As I said, I find your politics baffling, and I disagree that a religious revival is the cure to what ails us. But, I still read your blog (when it ventures outside of EVs) because I know you have profound thoughts, and I might just get something out of it. I don’t necessarily have to agree.
Likewise, I chose to comment because maybe you’ll get something out of it. Maybe I’ll just make you red-faced and compelled to persuade my cats to vote against me. Still, can’t hurt to listen. (And frankly I think the cats would take great pleasure at my expense given the slightest chance. Anyway…) What else do we have to do? When we leave this life, it won’t really matter if I got my chores done, but I would consider exchanging thoughts with you as a good use of my time. But then, I’m not saddled with some great sense of purpose. I don’t feel we’re unique or special. I just think that if I can be satisfied with how I’ve lived, and hopefully that I’ve made a positive impact on those I’ve met, that I can return to ashes in peace.
Nick and Rob et al:
I get it. It’s what I’m talking about. This concept that we are all entitled to our own opinion and that’s all that matters and we should all get along Rodney King fashion IS the politically correct IN thinking. Nobody should have to follow. Everyone should be their own little leader of their own little way. Sinatra. I did it MY way. I get it.
I’m SUPPOSED to agree. It’s kind of FORCED. If you don’t buy into human secularism and the right for everyone to make their own little church in their own little mind and they are all just good one to another IS the deal. If you don’t buy in, you’re an uneducated red-knecked backwoods ignorant savage who just doesn’t understand the englightened age. i.e. me.
Only it isn’t the deal. You can’t vote 4.5 volts out of a 3.3v battery guys. It’s not about perception. Our opinion doesn’t matter. It’s a battery. I know it. And the cat knows it. At the end of the day, you very definitely WILL know it as well.
If I could give it to you, I would. But you don’t want it because you already have it worked out in your own mind your way. It is a done deal. You DO get to do that. It’s an absolute. It’s guaranteed.
But it kinda sucks if you turn out to wish you could have that one back one day. And I don’t want to be the one that told you it was ok. What I told you is it is NOT ok. If someone asks later, remember I did NOT say it was ok and we were all in agreement. We weren’t. I didn’t. And we aren’t.
I agree that the variously organized religions generally don’t do much better at it than anyone else. But you don’t get excuses. There aren’t any escapes or qualifying mitigating factors. Blaming anything on them won’t help. There are no explanations required or adequate.
Again, picture 80,000 pixels and EVERY SECOND of your existence in detail and everybody knows it and ALL ITS IMPLICATIONS in an instant. They don’t have any questions. You don’t get to present it from your point of view. It’s not a court. You’re not even judged. Indeed, you will AGREE COMPLETELY YOURSELF. It is hideous in its starkly unquestionable truth.
We are a SOCIETY entirely in love with the concept that every talking head has its own opinion, is entitled to its own opinion,and every opinion is equally good as any other. That is not a philosophy. It is the END of a civilization. It cannot operate on that basis in THIS world. But right now I would say it is past fashion. You are actually writing assent to it as we converse here. It is so ingrained you assume it is a point of agreement.
I DON”T AGREE!!!!!!!!
Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Cellphone test one, two, three. Can you hear me now?
My bad how we got off on this. Can I have that one back?
Jack with heavy heart my mother passed away yesterday.I did call an leave a message and I would appreciate it if you could call back.
Rob:
I’m very sorry to learn of your loss. No matter the level of faith, it’s hard to be one left behind. Even if you thought you were ready for it.
Send me a phone number at jack@evtv.me and I’ll be happy to call.
Jack Rickard
Pointless pontification. I’d prefer if you stick to what you are expert in Jack.
.
Justin:
Why do you imagine I would care what you prefer?
But thanks for the very positive and well considered advice. I’m sure you know better.
Jack Rickard
I don’t really need your condescension thanks Jack. What I can do is offer you some positive feedback on improving international sales. Please check my email of 3/3/16 to your sales department. Are your staff competent when it comes to transport logistics?
Enjoyable read Jack, but you need to visit Denmark and really see what they have done there. Yeah, yeah, Bernie’s favorite subject. No crime. You can leave your pad on the bus and it doesn’t get picnhed. You can leave a sleeping baby on the sidewalk, without fear. It’s quiet, clean and bicycles and Ev’s, everywhere. They took the best of American society and made it great. We used to have free college, they pay you $10,000@ year to be in college. Healthcare for all, not free and a slight more in tax. We could have all this, if it were not for spending our US Treasury budget on policing the world, having the largest prison population and if we used preventative medicine for our infrastructure. Denmark is a Capitol socialist country that has a strong manufacturing base. Their is not the extreme inequality of wealth, as we Americans are experiencing, now. Heck, if wages kept up with inflation, minimum wage would be around $22.00@hour. If Trans Pacific Partnership Treaty passes, we can kiss our selves off to slavedom. It’s a corporate conspiracy, against what’s left of the middle and lower classes. I wonder if Americans would crucify FDR, as the corporate media does Bernie. FDR made America great. We need that sort of leader, today, not a corporatist prostitute. Hell, even Ike abhorred Pentagon building its military manufacturing complex and at that time collected enough taxes to make our infrastructure sign, like new. Everyone could learn something from his farewell speech. There’s been a big sucking sound, like a giant gorilla, with banana, a perfect image of a banana republic and all its corporate sponsored propaganda. When someone cries “I want my country back” , they should take a swipe at the greedy corporations, that have sucked all the blood out of our political system and the US Treasury…..