what I read in the paper, hear on the radio, view on the web....and I must say, its quite a jangled mess. This is hardly an original observation, but gosh -- what the heck is going on? We've got whales dying mysteriously, people who've trained for years to get to the Olympics literally missing the bus, minor hunting accidents turned into significant political flaps due to personal intransigence, groups of people rioting over cartoons, the results of a major women's health study being interpreted in two conflicting ways (as was the result of a review of economic data relating to housing prices, and also to economic productivity). What the heck is going on?
My off the cuff guess? We're deep in the trough of interpreting all that we read, hear, view through our own filters. There are no -- or very few -- unambiguous events any more. All them (just about) are susceptible to spin, and we're willing (not eager, but willing) to hear what the spinmeisters have to say. And it affects us -- even when we're willing to bet that we aren't hearing the real story, it affects us. So every event has an evil agenda, a hidden purpose, a Them behind it. Even when we can't believe that, we do believe that the Formally Constituted Authorities are no such thing-- like the minor gods of Olympus, they spend their time battling each other, and occasionally toying with us for their own amusement; they care only in passing for our health, safety, and lives. We can't rely on them. We can't believe them.
So....who do we believe?
1 comment:
Its unquestionably true that knowing too much can drive you crazy, because the vast majority of things can't be affected by you, and some of them don't affect you, they just feel like they do. Like this Cheney thing: it irritates me, but my life is no better or worse because of it. I think that long ago I adopted the attitude that an informed person keeps up with 'events'; its only as I've gotten older that I've begun to wonder why.
Cracklin' Oat, hey? I like Honey-Oh's, myself. Alas for me, so does my daughter, so I've learned to like Honey Nut Cheerios, too -- which (the original) I just learned today was originally named Cheeri-Oats, and renamed in 1945.
Later.....
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