Election Strategy; Promise to Make it Worse:
Good Morning
There seem to be vast diffe
Both sides wage an endless verbal war against the other, promising more growth if elected. Once elected, the party temporarily in charge leads
Let’s take fuel as a cur
Now say that you graduated with honors from like the third grade and held a firm understanding that fuel was limited. How would you approach economic growth when armed with the concrete knowledge that greater economic growth requires a greater use of fuel?
I’m quite sure that no third grader would suggest expanding the population and economic output as a fix for curbing the use of diminishing natural resources. Only Congress people are that dumb…with the possible exception of the majority of Americans who believe the Congress people.
Population growth has another great disadvantage, in that it distances us from our leaders. Most of us have never met our leaders and really don’t know a thing about them. They remain remote from us hidden away in the masses in some foreign place known only as D.C. or
When they stand on the back of that pickup, Democrat or Republican, they promise growth. They talk about cutting back on oil consumption, they talk about being addicted to oil, they talk about our dependency on foreign nations, they talk about water and air quality issues, and then they promise the one thing that not only got us to this point, but the one thing that will absolutely, positively without question, make it worse; they promise more growth.
We live in a flawed economic situation that is playing out due to excessive growth and yet, we elect the person who promises to accelerate the journey to the end for
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I will say it again. Our population is dumber right now than it has ever been in the history of our country.
To put this in perspective; have you ever played the shell game with a two year old? You know; put a pea under one of three cups and shuffle them around and have them choose which cup the pea is under. By comparison, that child has about a 100% better chance of being right than we do of choosing the correct path to prosperity (or maybe just survival here shortly).
We have no ambition to study anything of substance these days; even very important, potentially life altering things. We choose the path of extreme gullibility (much more gullible than a two year old child) over education in our everyday decision making process. We then point fingers at everyone, especially our elected officials with anger, astonishment and disappointment when our general welfare is flushed further down the drain. Only to repeat the process of avoiding the truth at all cost and bettering our lives; our very existence is based on sound bites and media spin. Is there a better definition of insanity than that?
I know what the answer is, but I do not think the American people are up to exerting that much effort; at ALL COSTS!!! -bb
Hi Mike,
Your post makes me wonder what would happen to a candidate if he or she came out and said, “Folks, we are in deep trouble. We’re running out of the stuff that’s fueled our lifestyle for years, and we’re going to have to change the way we live and think.”
I wonder how long that candidate would survive. On one hand, I think that things have gotten bad enough that people might be able to accept that message. On the other hand, I might have to agree with Billyb, and anticipate that people would simply not accept that message.
I’ve recently had some email exchanges with a neighbor who sends me stuff that seems to be informed by Faux News. Stuff like “we have tons of oil, it’s just the Democrats who won’t let us drill for it.” I’ve countered with some stuff that I perceive as more factual, and told him that I refuse to get into blaming one party or politician or another. His reaction is typical - he ignores the factual information. Based on previous debates with this neighbor, his first response is ignoring information because he simply cannot accept it. Eventually, though, he starts to come around, especially when we get a good whole neighborhood debate going (i.e., the men in the neighborhood agree with my point. As you know, women, even highly educated women, have their place, and it is not in positions of knowledge and authority).
Accepting a new way of viewing things is extremely difficult. It entails giving up cherished beliefs and literally bending one’s brain (i.e., establishing new neural pathways) to accommodate to new mental frameworks. The American people are certainly dumb as shown by their re-election of the current administration, but they also are victims of the mythology and belief frameworks that are advanced by the media and other institutions.
Kathy,
Accepting ones new fate (should that fate seem a downgrade from the previous condition) is never readily received.
While perhaps a poor example, the attitude of a scorned lover, husband or wife, is rarely that of acceptance at the onset.
Thousands of conceptual reasons as to why it could not possibly be happening, rage in the mind of the scorned. This is followed by a period of terrible pain and eventually that pain gives way to acceptance of the new condition after which life goes on.
This same path is followed by those who cling to the possibility of our continuing to practice unchecked consumption as we have known it. “Surely it must be some sort of mistake or a conspiracy,” they think. “How could I possibly live differently than with a four car garage, two SUVs and the cabin cruiser?”
This behavior and blameless thought process is reinforced by politicians who suggest that current leadership is to blame and promise change that will represent near Utopian conditions. Which will be true for the person who is elected.
Ron Paul came as close as anyone in my memory who was a stand-up realist and truth teller. As we saw, he was not able to gain broad based support for his platform.
I am a science, right brain sort of guy. I tend to be like the old slogan from Missouri, “Show me.”
(don’t just tell me).
Warren Buffet is a remarkable man to say the least. In my opinion he truly deserves the title, “The Oracle of Omaha.” Mr. Buffet said just this week that oil is not a conspiracy, the problem is supply and demand. Accepting that this premise may be true is horrifying and like the scorned lover, only after the pain will we accept the reality.
Hi Mike
Glad you had a nice trip and that your now back to work. Look forward to your articles. In all fairness to the millions who say,” Our government is not perfect, but its the best there is”, I think you should show us a few of “the best there is”, articles. Without going back to ” the way it WAS”, would probably be tough road to hoe, but you could give it a shot. Even the BEST is getting real close. On a 5 to 4 vote the Court said we can keep our guns. That could be one vote before a revolution. Along the lines of increasing production Etc., someone should look into is it good , that about twice a year the Gulf of Mexico has about 500 Sq. miles where no fish can live, because the pesticides coming down the rivers are depleating the oxygen until a hurricane or big storm mixes the water again. Chesapeake bay is the same way. They might also spend some time at what we pay them for and see why the honey bee’s are dying by the millions . A problem in 37 states this year and in 7 states last year. NO Bees BIG PROBLEM. We have a few months to do some thing. Like the ex governor of Minn. Ventura said ” Don’t start the revolution without me”.
Hi Frank,
Thanks and it’s good to be back. I had a friend the other day tell me that until someone comes up with a better system, unbridled capitalism is still the best the world has to offer.
Once more, considering an alternative to what we have practiced (many would say successfully, I say not) for a 100 years, is a painful process and best left to someone else.
Therefore, the statement, “Until ‘they’ come up with something better”… is most often heard as a plausible excuse for pursuing an impossible model.
T. Boone Pickens, referring to the oil situation, recently said, “My daddy used to tell me, son, the time has come to do something different, even if it’s wrong.”
One of my friends just asked me a good question this morning, “Where do people get good information when there are so many different opinions?”
My friend is a field engineer on heating and cooling for large institutions. My answer to him was, “If I had a question on heating and cooling, would I believe you, or the guys down at the coffee shop?”
The answer for most American’s would be, “Which ever one gave me the answer that I wanted to hear.”
Our government is not the best there is by a long shot today. Granted, it is not the worst, but darned sure far from the best and rapidly drifting towards the bad end of the tank.
As you indicated Mike, once the pain is severe enough, people will drop their comforting embrace of denial. That will allow us to begin to act intelligently again and hopefully rebuild in a positive direction with our newly educated focus on a proven sustainable government.
If we maintain our uneducated and gullible attitudes toward our political process, and this process persists too long, circumstances may not allow for this rebuilding effort. But that is a long story I hope will not have to be told. -bb
Billyb,
Embracing denial is exactly what is being done. This is summer and the building and farming season should be in full swing, and yet, we see continuing unemployment. That just can’t be and at the same time continue to hold the empire together.
I read today that German based Siemens AG is cutting 17,500 jobs world wide. Most of the job cuts are white collar and administrative positions.
I made the prediction nearly a year ago that for the first time in modern history, many of the future job losses would affect the educated sector. When a company begins to bleed badly enough, they tend to jettison the heaviest baggage first…and the least productive from a profit aspect.
Mike..
Our leaders are not responsible to the people, or the country.. Their single goal is to get re-elected, and they respond to those that will enable them to reach that goal.. With few exceptions, they are all the same.. The result, is the best government money can buy..
I believe if we had a better way to select our leaders (a lottery would be better), we could do the right thing.. Everyday, people choose to sacrifice.. Unions have been doing it for years..
The problem isn’t the people, it’s the leaders, and those who control the information media.. That is what makes us believe what isn’t true..
We hear it every day, and in every way.. Lies..
Wma…
I will definitely buy into what you have said here; “That is what makes us believe what isn’t true.. We hear it every day, and in every way.. Lies..”.
With that in mind, however. And seeing all the wreckage around us associated with those lies everyday. Does it not make just a small amount of sense, that the American people are too lazy to discover the truths on their own?
To simplify; if I were to tell you that laying your hand on a steel work bench and hitting it with a large brass hammer would not only, not hurt you, but would make you wealthier and better looking. Would you believe me? Would you believe me twice; or would you maybe do some simple research to locate a smaller hammer, one possibly made of cotton? And after that, when it was discovered that you did not have more money and you sure did not get better looking, would you not decide that I was a liar. And maybe do a little study on your own to see what else, if anything, you might do that could alter your current situation for the better?
I agree, that the many (maybe most) of the politicians and the political system is corrrupt and illegal. But let’s not sugar coat ( I think they call it being politically correct these days) the issue here. Dumb is what dumb does. It is that simple.
Nearly every day I talk to someone who tells me a new story about oil. Some say that ambiotic oil has refilled all of the old U.S. oil fields and it is being kept a secret from the public, others say that there are massive amounts of oil right here at home and pumping it would drop the price of gas back to $2.00.
These people have heard and read the above statements somewhere. The internet is full of lies and half lies. This does make it a confusing mess.
One of my friends made a comment while we were watching two high level analysts debate an issue. He said, “How would you like to make that kind of money for being wrong; because one of those guys is.”
Which one do we believe? The one whose story we like the best.