When was the last time you listened to a phonograph record, a nice clean one without pops and scrapes? I hadn’t in years but the other day I dusted off my old turntable and put on my now antique Moody Blues, “Days of Future Passed” album. Some of you may recall it was one of the first that blended psychedelic rock with backing from a classical orchestra.
As the opening score of “Dawn is a Feeling” diffused through the room, I suddenly remembered why God gave us ears! The sound of the analog recording, with its rich textures, melodic undertones and overtones, its depth and the haunting strings punctuated by the brass… honest to goodness made me misty. “Cold hearted orb, that rules the night…”
The clarity, the smoothness, the absence of that over-produced tininess that accompanies all the stuff coming off Pandora, was jarring.
I thought to myself, “We’ve become so accustomed to the digital and systems-driven world we’ve forgotten how superior the analog one is!” The shortcomings of the digital world are manifest everywhere. Think of how good it is to actually reach a human being once you’ve gotten through voice-mail jail? Or how good a hamburger on the grill tastes compared with what you get from the drive-up window.
The Wall Street Journal had an op-ed the other day with the title “Why Are There Still Not Enough Paper Towels?” The crux of the answer is that systems and digital, just-in-time manufacturing results in the slimmest inventories of everything from paper towels to automobile parts. When there is a surge in demand, such as with the pandemic, manufacturing simply cannot keep up.
Alas, therein is the consequence of moving from an analog to digital society. Hyper efficiency and the quest to maximize profit results in bare shelves when a virus explodes demand for hand sanitizer and toilet paper.
Can or should we move back to a kindler, gentler world, one where we don’t try to extract maximum utility from every minute of every day using apps and robotic shelf stocking?
Regrettably, it ain’t gonna happen. Gen Z doesn’t know what an LP sounds like, and frankly, wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the original analog recording of “Nights in White Satin” and the compressed, 44k sampled digital version emanating from their ear buds.
From spraying artificial flowers with fake flower scent, which means you can make a philodendron smell like jasmine…to almond milk which tastes kind of like real milk, the virtual world is becoming the REAL WORLD.
“So what”, you say?
Well, find yourself a stereo turntable hooked up to a McIntosh tube amplifier and a pair of quality, vintage speakers, put on a pristine 33 1/3 LP of “Days of Future Passed”, sit back, close your eyes and listen.
Who but limousine liberals unaffected by government policy either through exemption (e.g. Leftist politicians) or due to inoculating wealth (e.g. Hollywood celebrities or tech tycoons)… the intellectually indolent, the perpetual victims, the “low information voters” as Rush Limbaugh calls them (a euphemism for illiterate or cerebrally lazy people easily swayed by demagoguery), the race-baiters or the grievance acolytes… could possibly support the Democrats in 2020?
Really, no-one who has any self-respect – who cares about principles such as meritocracy, excellence, achievement, probity, self-reliance, self-determination, traditional sexual identification, traditional education, traditional family structure, that life (or at least the potential of life) begins at conception, that there is a God (or at a minimum a set of eternal rules of right and wrong that are immutable and transcend all generations)…could support the Democrats in 2020!
I had a conversation the other day with my Board-certified internist during my annual physical exam who, when asked for his opinion on the Wuhan Virus pandemic, started to recite the scripts of WHO, CDC, AMA, Johns Hopkins, and other canned platitudes. Little did he know at first that I spent several years running an early intervention healthcare company based on epidemiological research. When I began to confront him, gently mind you as he was about to check my prostate, with the emerging evidence that the Wuhan plague/pandemic is no worse than a bad flu and cited evidence of how faulty is so much of the data on which decisions are being made and regulations being promulgated, did he start to back off and admit that “we just don’t know.”
I was going to let him off the hook until he said, “I’m concerned, however, about the Second Wave.” At that, I asked him the question, “What is the metric that will allow kids to go back to school normally, that will allow us to stop wearing face diapers, that will signal an end to the crisis?” I was gratified that he conceded that should the Democrats prevail in the coming election, everything will all be over beginning November 4th, not because he’ll vote Republican, but because it was an admission that most of what underpins the rhetoric and discourse is political. I then ran down the list of disastrous economic and societal consequences the government response at all levels has wrought and then, fortunately, found common ground with him as we delved into a cost-benefit discussion and both agreed that rational decision making and critical thinking was sorely needed.
My half hour session went an hour. A nurse had to bang on the door of the exam room to remind my Doc he had another patient waiting.
As I left the office I got to wondering about how it is that a highly-educated, highly-skilled physician could be persuaded to lazily rely on and spout institutional pablum. I concluded that the damage caused to all our institutions: medical, educational, social, religious, economic, even family structures has created so much chaos that even the smartest among us are overwhelmed by the tsunami of, frankly, BS that has invaded every facet of our lives. Out of sheer enervation even the strongest of us have had to pause from the fight to catch our breath. Meanwhile, the ability of the Left to sew chaos through outright deceit, lies, projection (especially projection) and carpet-bombing with idiocy has continued unabated. The megaphone in the hands of the Leftist media, regrettably, doesn’t take much electrical power.
This is precisely what the Left wants to do. Create so much chaos that only THEY can fix things. Only THEY will be able to unravel the mess…so long as they are granted unlimited power to do so. For that is their goal…POWER! I didn’t used to believe it. I thought there were Democrats who were classic liberals, who believed in the American way of life but wanted to ensure that we looked after those who truly were less fortunate, were REAL victims… No more. Now the Democrats just lust for power as they arrogantly, absurdly believe that if they control everything and everyone they’ll move us all toward their utopian fantasy. That fantasy is the stuff of socialism/communism and while they know it’s a fantasy, it isn’t about actually creating a utopia. It’s about POWER, the thing Leftist politicians must have much as water or oxygen.
We must shake off our weariness and continue to fight to expose the Left’s dysfunctional, delusional, adolescent enchantment with and pipe-dream of utopia and their deplorable thirst for power.
In a small way, having that extended conversation with my doctor made me feel like I was able to get off a few rounds in that fight.
It took just a minute to turn the switch off. But in the Northeast Blackout of August 2003, it wasn’t a matter of flipping the switch back on…the electrical grid had to be brought back on gradually lest some nasty power spikes set the whole system on fire! The COVID-19 mess is similar.
The parallels end with how relatively straightforward restoring power was as compared with restarting an entire economy. The complications: pragmatic, sociological, psychological, political, even spiritual, are mind-boggling. It amounts perhaps to the most intricate optimization problem society has ever faced. Compounding the problem is a lack of good will…the Swamp is the battleground.
One could argue that were the government at all levels to just step out of the way, the ship would right itself. Commerce, ingenuity, inherent good judgment and common sense could very well generate answers to the myriad problems.
On the other hand, so reliant, even dependent have our citizens become on the government to tell us what to do, leaving the re-entry to the good will of society and the workings of the marketplace, especially now that the government like the Blob has inextricably inserted itself into the equation, could result in an s-show of monumental proportions!
What to do?
Think for ourselves. Play strategic “what if” games. Start with the worst possible set of circumstances – there’s a renewed outbreak, the hospitals are overwhelmed, the therapeutic drugs don’t work and there is civil unrest, i.e. roving gangs of looters and killers. What, if anything, could you do about such a scenario?
Then, think of the more realistic dire but potential circumstances: you lose your job, your savings will last only so long, you’re healthy but it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any kind of meaningful recovery for you and your family in the near future and you know anything the government gives you is peanuts compared to what you were making before and your obligations. What do you do then?
Or let’s imagine the other extreme. The crisis was overblown and with a face mask on you return to work by, say, mid May. The kids go back to school with an extension of the school year into late June or July. How will you handle THAT?
To one degree or another any or all of the above scenarios are possible right now! Hard to believe since Netflix and the Internet are still operating, and even though the news shows look like the beginning of the Brady Bunch, with each co-host in his or her own square and your closet is stuffed with toilet paper and paper towels, life while different and crazy, goes on for most of us.
In short, assume the government is not the solution but the problem. How do we inoculate ourselves from a cure that is, indeed potentially worse than the disease?
Unfortunately, the time for preparation is gone. We’re in it now and have to make do with what we have and the circumstances we face. Certainly I cannot tell you what to do. Neither can some bureaucrat. Nor can some talking head on TV. Assume there will be no black and white decisions. All future forks in the road will be shrouded in fog, and ambiguity will reign over every decision we face.
Each and every one of us must think for ourselves, critically, pragmatically and do what is right to the best of our abilities. And each of us will have to be sole arbiters of “what is right”.
Take heart! As bad as things are, they will get better, and better, and better. We can do this! Think of what the Apollo 13 astronauts faced. Think of what the battered bastards of Bastogne faced at the Bulge in December 1944. Remember Winston Churchill’s words, “When you’re going through Hell, keep going!” And think of what we went through on 9-11.
We can beat this thing. Those of us who have survived will be stronger. Those who have perished will be taken care of in a Better Place. Those who have lost loved ones will be comforted, in time. Those of us who have been knocked down will get up and fight again, for our families, for our friends, for our neighbors, for our communities, for our country. We will rebuild. We will rejuvenate, and we will once again re-assert our position as the greatest nation the world has ever known.
The stock market has crashed. Unemployment is skyrocketing.
The number of confirmed Wuhan Virus (that’s what I call it) cases is
growing exponentially. Grocery store shelves are bare. Gun sales are going
through the roof. Office buildings in Manhattan are empty. People are walking
around with masks. Schools are cancelled. The internet is bogging down because
so many people are home its vaunted capacity (bandwidth) is proving to be
inadequate for the demand. California is “locked down”. Hell has
broken loose.
However… “The wonderful thing about Tiggers is,
tiggers is wonderful things. Their tops are made of rubber, and their tails are
made of springs. They’re bouncy, flouncy, trouncy, pouncy, full of fun, fun fun.
The wonderful thing about Tiggers is, I’m the only one.” Substitute Americans
for tiggers and you’ll have a hint as to why despite the misery and impending
doom I’m optimistic for the future.
My thoughts…
1. As bad as
the pandemic is, it’s not as bad as you think. Simple arithmetic coupled
with basic critical thinking points to the conclusion that greater than 99% of
everyone who contracts the disease will recover, and we don’t know of course how
many people WILL or WILL NOT contract it. Thousands get sick and many die each
day from heart disease, cancer, jaywalking, ‘regular’ flu and chronic lung
disease from smoking, etc. As of this morning, ~a quarter of a million people WORLDWIDE
have been confirmed to have the virus, ~10,000 people WORLDWIDE have died from
the virus, and ~86,000 have recovered. These numbers are DWARFED by regular flu.
In the U.S., ~15,000 people have
confirmed cases and ~100 people have died. This flu season alone (roughly
from October 2019 to the present) 31MM people IN THE UNITED STATES (!) have had
the flu. Somewhere around 275,000 give or take have had to be hospitalized, and
as many as 30,000 (vs. 100) have died from run-of-the-mill flu! (See https://www.health.com/condition/cold-flu-sinus/how-many-people-die-of-the-flu-every-year
for a plain language discussion.) Translation – this isn’t anywhere near as
bad as the media and politicians would have you believe.
2. Despite
what you hear or see, the government is doing the right things. They may not in
all cases being doing things right, but the medical, logistical, economic and
societal response is “gettin’ ‘er done”. I expect the response is
even overdone if you look at the statistics in the previous paragraph. So,
for example, NOT EVERYONE NEEDS A TEST! If you get sick, sure, go get a test.
But it’s self-centered, selfish and “looking out for number one” just
to confirm you’re NOT sick, and may deprive someone who really needs to be
tested from getting the help they need. Testing is NOT a cure, and satisfying
statistical number crunching is nowhere near as important as preventing and
treating the actual disease. Mobilization and coordination among all the health
care agencies, departments and the private sector is exactly what is needed,
and again, no matter what you hear, there are very competent people who care
about others and this country hard at work on the problems. Have some faith in
them!
The backstopping of employers in various ways and the anticipated
support given to individuals and families is being matched by lenders,
landlords, tax collectors… you name it. Everyone’s in this and making
accommodations following the lead of the federal, state and local governments.
Just remember that “the government” is made up of
people who have the same hopes, dreams, fears, constraints, problems as
everyone else in the country. The vast majority are working their asses off to
help and do what’s right within their on organizations and spheres of influence.
I had to go to the department of motor vehicles the other day. Everyone there
had taken a large dose of patience pills and I was both shocked and thrilled to
see how both the people behind the counter and in front of it were behaving.
The government, of course, is damned if they do and damned
if they don’t, but on balance, its response to this crisis has been overwhelmingly
appropriate and helpful. Its communications, despite the handwringing and
teeth-gnashing of a “if it bleeds it leads” media has been solid,
optimistic, informative and suitably cautionary as to get virtually the whole
nation (except the Florida beach Spring Break party animals) to respond as it
should. This all happened in a matter of days, unlike the responses during the
H1N1, SARS, MERS and other pandemics.
3. Gas
prices and interest rates are falling. The one commodity everyone needs is
fuel, and the stimulating effect of a drop in gas prices to the ~$2.00 – ~$2.50
level is incredibly impactful on regular budgets. This will benefit us all,
except of course for oil producers. But Washington is on to the Russian and
Saudi’s game to try to destroy our energy-independent status and crush our
shale industry, and are NOT going to let them get away with it. Similarly,
we’re not standing idly by while China spews its propaganda and stomps its feet
and blames our military for what they caused or worse, threatens us with
withholding drugs such that we become “awash in a sea of Coronavirus”.
We’ve thrown the bull#%*& flag on that already and will continue to rub
China’s nose in the mess they’ve created and left on the world’s floor. Xenophobic?
No, just highlighting the truth in the face false accusations.
4. One of
the silver linings in this mess is the awakening that has occurred among
government, industry and the American people that we must no longer be held
hostage by foreign manufacturers and suppliers. The Globalist agenda has been
thoroughly trounced by this exposure of its flaws, and bringing our
manufacturing and supply chains home may result in higher priced goods, but
we’ll all benefit in the long run.
5. Kids are
getting educated again. Home schooling is exposing the inadequacies, biases and
absurdities of the current state of our education system. Parents are waking up
to what is being taught, and what is NOT being taught to our children. I predict
that for whatever time period home-schooling prevails, our kids will get a
BETTER education than what they’re getting at school, and teachers will be
astonished when students return at how far they’ve advanced. You heard it from
me first.
6. Neighbors
are helping neighbors. Our little local email chain is lit up with offers of
help and assistance. People are getting outside and checking on each other from
afar (i.e. more than six feet). Kids are teaching parents and grandparents about
Facetime, Skype and Zoom. And Animal Planet is running shows about carefree kittens
and puppies. Come on…how much better is it to watch than the gloom and doom
on broadcast tv?
7. People
are learning who their leaders are. Not the ones with the titles, but the ones
who are true leaders as opposed to managers and demagogues. True leaders step
up in times of crisis and go to the front of the crowd, carry a light and turn
back to shout encouragement and instill confidence in others. People who may
have labored in the shadows or punched well below their weight are now emerging
as the shepherds of our society. This separating of the leaders from the
followers can only be a positive development.
8. The Silent
Majority is silent no more. Having to adapt to the situation, conservatives and
the Right who normally are head down working and caring for themselves and their
families are speaking up and speaking out. They are not just throwing the BS
flag on politically correct nonsense, they are ignoring social engineering and
all its related evils and practicing true philanthropy and real, beneficial community
activism.
9. Complacency
is evaporating. It’s amazing what being forced to rely on fundamentals and
things that matter will do to a spoiled and coddled population. In the face of
what’s going on, do people really care what the Kardashians think?
10. Faith is
making a comeback. It’s sad but true that there are no atheists in foxholes.
We’re rediscovering our faith despite not being able to attend Church. And
whether it’s one religion or another, it’s the common principles of right and
wrong, goodness versus evil and a belief in a set of universal truths that are
moving back into the public consciousness. This is a good thing.
11. Families
are getting to know one another again. Yes, we’re cooped up and hunkered down.
And things get testy at times as we bumble around in each other’s way. But for
many of us, we’re forced to seek virtue: patience, understanding, caring for
one another, and learning anew about each other. It doesn’t take a village, it
takes a family, and families are binding together out of necessity and love.
And finally, THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON I’M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT
THE FUTURE is that America has the most natural and other resources of any
nation on earth. We can produce enough of EVERYTHING to take care of
ourselves and help the rest of the world to boot. We have the smartest people.
We have a spirit of “can do” that is unparalleled on the planet. Many
nations think we’re brash, loud, obnoxious, overly proud and nationalistic and
hate us for our bad manners and profligacy. So be it. I’d rather live in the
United States than in any other country. We will not only get through this, but
emerge stronger than ever and once again, we’ll be the city set on a hill
letting our light so shine as to be a beacon of freedom and prosperity to the
entire world.
I’m a pragmatist, and I recognize the challenges that lie
ahead to recover from this mess. But I believe with every fiber of my being
that things are going to be better than ok, and sooner than the so-called
experts predict. I’m not suggesting we all go Hakuna Matata on this, but let’s
put things in perspective shall we?
May God continue to bless us. And may God continue to bless America.
Where to begin? The last couple of months has been marked by
a series of headlines that even Hollywood couldn’t invent. You’d have to be
living under a rock not to see or hear what’s been happening in the economy, politics,
society, media, technology, defense, even the environment.
In the economy. Forget the statistics – they’re useless in
depicting what’s really going on in your wallet. The old adage “Figures lie and
liars figure” has never been more true. Depending on how the pundits and
so-called “experts” spin them, the only thing that really matters is how we and
our families are doing. It’s a good time to ask the question, “Are you better
off now than you were three years ago?”
For the vast majority of Americans, the answer is an
unequivocal “Yes.” Rising wages, low inflation, increasing productivity,
greater convenience and utility provided in part by technology, in part by
innovation, systems and processes…all have improved our lives. The stock market
at all time highs doesn’t just impact the wealthy. It impacts everyone. Whether
or not you have an investment portfolio, economic GROWTH, which the stock
market reflects, increases demand for goods and services, including the things
made by the companies we work for and the services WE render. That all
translates to improvements in our lifestyle.
In politics. The cataclysmic impact of the 2016 election on
the status quo, what some call the “Deep State” or the legions of government
minions many of whom work hard but produce little of value, has slowed the
slide down the slippery slope the Left has had us on for so long. It is a long
slog back up, but the shrill, childish and petulant voice and actions of the
so-called but misnamed “progressives” have been fully exposed. The cancer has been
identified and bit by bit it is being eradicated such that the greatness and
“can do” spirit of America has begun to re-emerge.
In society. Some are content to let the next couple of
generations have the world they’re making. I am not. I believe it is still my
duty as a parent and as a concerned citizen to impart traditional values and
traditional norms to my children and grandchildren. Basics like manners, virtues
such as thrift and hard work, meritocracy, courage, self-reliance, communication
and interpersonal relation skills in the face of technological isolation (a
subject for another time), the importance of family, charity, trustworthiness,
and on and on. These are things that I’m afraid the next two generations don’t
fully understand, appreciate or possess as much as they should.
In media. As I have stated often, the impact of the
“one-to-many” amplification provided by the Internet has allowed the most
fringe-lunatic, caustic voices to reach and influence many. We used to say that
PowerPoint made everyone a graphic artist. Similarly, Social Media has made
everyone and anyone a journalist or pundit (present company included). The
firehose of data not all of which is actual information but all
of which is biased and deceptive in one form or another has created a distorted
reality…in fact, it has changed reality and societal norms, not always for the
better. Character assassination, taunting and hazing, for example, are
facilitated and empowered with the new media. And like the accident by the side
of the road, it is the macabre, shocking and emotion and nerve-tingling input
we receive that we pay the most attention to and are most influenced by. Never
has the need for critical thinking been greater. And never has it been found
more wanting.
In technology. Rapid advances in technology are proving to
be be both good and bad. This is a subject which we’ll touch on more and more
as robotics, artificial intelligence and quantum computing impact our society
and livelihood more and more, and at an accelerating rate. My wife received an
umbrella from the firm she works for recently. Nice umbrella, but would you
believe it came with an APP!!!! Yes, an umbrella with an App! For those of you
who are blissfully unaware of what an APP is…it’s just a software program dedicated
to doing a limited set of tasks on your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone like
report the weather or control your whole house! I mean really…an umbrella with
an APP???!!!!
In defense. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins for a
reason. It spawns evil leaders and causes even whole nations (or quasi-nations)
to seek power and dominance at the expense of others. Rodney King had it right
when he said, “Can we all get along?” The answer is “no”, not until a perfect, benevolent
leader (e.g. Jesus Christ) comes along who can inspire men with free will to
follow Him so as to eschew and eliminate evil. In the meantime, the United
States, despite all its imperfections, is still the best surrogate or
substitute because our form of government vests power (nominally) in the
people, i.e. spread across everyone rather than a single benevolent,
charismatic leader. Our constitutional republic or representative democracy has
been the greatest catalyst to human advancement in the history of the world,
despite its faults. It is not just worth defending…it MUST be defended against
those who seek to destroy it out of envy and a thirst for power. Wilsonian
appeasement of evil cannot and must not be tolerated. Might doesn’t make Right,
but adults (the U.S. at its best) must stop and modify the aberrant behavior of
petulant and in some cases violently misbehaving children (Iran, NOKO, Venezuela,
Russia, China). As arrogant as that sounds, it is, in my opinion, an apt characterization
of the current world stage and depiction of our responsibility as a nation.
In the environment. I’m not running for office so I’ll state
it plainly. Climate change is real – it changes all the time. And man has little
to nothing to do with it. The famous George Carlin routine says it best where
he humorously but acerbically rants at environmentalists while pointing out how
insignificant mankind is when compared to the history of the earth and
concludes, “The planet is fine. The people are f****d!” The wildfires in
Australia? No, not global warming…man-kindled by a bunch of malcontent Leftists
as it turns out. Bears floating on minuscule ice packs? Nonsense…they swam
several miles out there to hang out and fish! Follow the money! If there’s a
tree-hugging environmentalist/alarmist out there, there are grant dollars
nearby. “Please pass the offering plate…”
Are there Rightist sins? Of course! But in the grand scheme
of things, the principles of the Right are, in fact, RIGHT! Evil exists over
here as well – crony capitalism comes to mind. But for my money, Winston
Churchill was also right (.sic): “Democracy is the worst form of government except
for all those other forms which have been tried…” and by
extension…conservative/Right principles are the worst form of societal norms
except for all those other forms (socialism, communism, democratic socialism,
etc.) that have been tried.
And America still stands as the light shining on the hill.
God Bless Her! Happy New Year and Happy New Decade.
The intrusion of technology in our lives is rapidly becoming
domination. The abrogation of humanity to artificial intelligence (emphasis on
“artificial”) is real and advancing rapidly.
It is alarming how much our society has become enslaved by
the little screen in our hands. And I do mean enslaved. It’s no longer FOMO
(the Fear of Missing Out). It’s that for some, even many, every moment of every
day is monitored, organized (or disorganized), influenced or controlled by
technology. It’s as if we’ve outsourced our critical thinking abilities,
self-control, conduct governors, interpersonal communications, hell, our consciousness.
It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that some have outsourced their SOULS.
I don’t need an “app” to monitor how much I sleep at night.
I don’t need to be fed “relevant” advertising when I visit a website. I don’t
want “free” stuff. The price of “free” is relinquishing personal data to an
amorphous algorithm that creates a digital profile of me. That profile is used
(and manipulated) in all sorts of ways, the vast majority of which are driven
by the pecuniary interests of the technology company that conjured up, sorted
and sold my profile to anyone who would pay for it.
Technology has permeated, or infected, virtually every form
of human communication. People facing one another, looking into each other’s
eyes, interpreting body language, noting inflection, giving and taking
non-verbal cues, interacting with one another in the moment…are
behaviors increasingly, frighteningly, diminishing. And since communication,
whether incoming or outgoing, is what I would call a basic component of
humanity, we are as a result becoming less and less human.
What matters is increasingly lost. Virtue is not even a word or concept in the social vocabulary – it’s an anachronism, out-of-place with life at the speed of text or email traffic. Home and hearth are Hallmark Channel themes. The importance of Family, of doing what’s right, of eschewing wrong, of telling the truth, of adhering to your word, of working hard for an honest day’s wage, of being kind, of self-discipline, of moderation, of humility, of courage, of what used to be common morality…all are for the most part either banned from the new social ether or are relegated to being quaint ideas from the past.
God doesn’t use an iPhone. Many who are tethered to them
don’t believe in God anyway. Faith, a moral compass, yardsticks of right and
wrong…all have succumbed to technology. Religion is thus also a casualty of
technological so-called “progress”.
I admit that I too have been caught by the groundswell.
Rather than stick my head out the door to decide what jacket or coat I’ll wear
today, I quickly tap my Accuweather app to learn what the temperature is and
whether it’ll become warmer or colder. Rather than pick up the phone and call
my daughter to ask about some detail of the upcoming grandchild’s birthday
party, I send her a text.
Some courageous (and seemingly more happy and content)
members of my generation have deliberately eschewed technology. One of my
oldest friends still uses a flip phone, and he leaves it on his dresser with a
dead battery most of the time. The guy who installed the sprinkler system on
our lawn 35 years ago and still services it today doesn’t use email. He carries
a cell phone but never answers it. I leave him voicemails but he doesn’t listen
to them…he just calls me back when it’s convenient for him to do so.
At first I was annoyed that I couldn’t reach people who had
largely disconnected from The Grid, but now I’m starting to appreciate the
benefits of lowered blood pressure and appreciation of what IS important that accompanies
doing so.
Little by little I hope the pendulum swing towards
increasing technological domination of our lives and away from humanity will
swing back. It’s happened before in world history. I can hope it will happen
again and we’ll all be the better for it.
P.S. I just realized how hypocritical I am for using an iPad
to write this post and throwing THESE thoughts out into the social ether as
well. Sigh…
We’ve gone from handwritten invitations on personalized stationary to “I’ll have my people call your people so we can do lunch,” to “I’ll have my bot sync with your bot and we can Facetime.”
Emails, and now texting, have replaced real interpersonal communication with what I call bot-speak. For the uninitiated, bots, short for robots, are bits of software that perform automated tasks across the internet, including sending messages meant to sound and act like humans. Bot-speak has warped relationships, particularly among Gen Z, into superficial digital encounters.
A sign of the decline of a great civilization is a breakdown in language leading to a breakdown in meaningful communication leading to miscommunication leading to misunderstanding leading to conflict. The ambiguity of message frequently created by the abbreviated/truncated language of texting has caused countless avoidable arguments, hurt feelings and destroyed relationships.
Texting has become a shield or filter for real communication.
Here’s a typical exchange.
Guy: Wanna get together?
Gal: R u asking me out?
Guy: Y let’s meet at Starbucks
Gal: Dunno, time?
Guy: 10
Gal: 10 mins or 10 o clock?
Guy: 10 o clock
Gal: AM or PM?
Guy: AM
Gal: K.
Guy: look fwd c u there
What’s really going on here is the guy doesn’t have the courage to actually speak to the gal face to face. Texting allows him to be arms-length removed from the interaction and shields him from having to make eye contact or risk bumbling his words when he asks her out. Result? Superficiality: increased depersonalization, reduced interpersonal communication, increased isolation and distance between people.
OMG, what r u talking about?
Aside from depersonalization and isolation, Bot-speak can test intergenerational relationships. One example:
Grandma: How’s that new munchkin of yours doing? Gen Z Daughter: She’s the bomb Grandma: I don’t understand. The bomb? Gen Z Daughter (already impatient): She’s fine grandma. Grandma: Is she sleeping through the night yet? Gen Z Daughter: GTG Grandma: GTG? Gen Z Daughter: Good to go. Grandma: Good to go? Gen Z Daughter (now really impatient): Yes, she’s sleeping through the night. Grandma: And eating well? Gen Z Daughter: G2G Grandma: You mean GTG? Gen Z Daughter: No, G2G, got to go g-ma (grandma) have doc appt shortly Grandma: Oh, ok, LOL. Gen Z Daughter: What’s funny about a doctor’s appointment? Grandma: I was just wishing you the best. Doesn’t LOL mean Lots of love? Gen Z Daughter: ROFL No. It means Laughing out Loud. Grandma: What does ROFL mean? Gen Z Daughter (now exasperated): Rolling on the floor laughing Grandma: You or the baby? Gen Z Daughter: Really G2G g-ma TTYL Grandma: Let me guess, talk to you later? Gen Z Daughter: Y XXOO Grandma: Now XXOO I understand!
Walking down memory lane a bit, I remember when we all were convinced word processing would make us more efficient, save us time, improve productivity. Wrong. The ability to easily correct typographical and grammatical errors caused us to spend inordinate amounts of time re-writing. Spell checkers and grammar checkers often caused confusion rather than correction.
We were also taught that email would improve our lives. Wrong. It allowed us to transfer responsibility for a task to someone else while thinking we’ve “dealt with the problem”. Recycled problems have only made us less efficient.
The result of all this communications technology, including Bot-speak, is sloppy and lazy language, an inability to write coherently, or even SPEAK coherently. Nevertheless, it’s here to stay. I don’t see a return to correct grammar and diction anytime soon. But I’m going to keep trying to help my children and grandchildren actually answer their phones and listen to their voice mail messages, eliminate Bot-speak except for the most informal communication, and banish “like” from their vocabulary unless it’s used as a simile.
My dad used to say, “Engage brain, open mouth, speak.” He constantly warned against both speaking before opening my mouth (i.e. mumbling) or opening my mouth and speaking before engaging my brain. He was also fond of quoting, “It is better to keep silent and be considered a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” Both are wise sayings today.
PS, here’s a dictionary you might find useful, culled from the website of a young girl who, thankfully, is speaking up against Bot-speak to her own generation. I’ve edited the list, including adding some abbreviations I’ve encountered that she hasn’t!
AFK = Away From Keyboard
ASAP = As Soon As Possible
ASL = Age, Sex, Location (also, American Sign Language)
BRB = Be Right Back
FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out
GG = Good Game
GJ = Good Job
GREE = I Agree
GTG = Good To Go
HMU = Hit Me Up
I’d’v’e = I Would Have
JOMO = Joy Of Missing Out
K = Ok
KK = oKay, cool
LMAO = Laughing My A** Off
LOL = Laughing Out Loud
NCD = No Can Do
NP = No Problem
OMG = Oh My God
OTP = One True Pair
ROFL = Rolling On Floor Laughing
TTYL = Talk To You Later
TTYT = Talk To You Tomorrow
TY = Thank You
TYVM = Thank You Very Much
Y = Yes
YW = You’re Welcome
WTG = Way To Go
Common Slang Expressions
A Stan = Stalker or fan
Bomb = Awesome
Bye Felicia = Bye forever (from the film “Friday”)
Ditto = Me too
Dope = Cool
Extra = Trying too hard
High Key = Loud and proud (opposite of low key)
Lit = Cool
Ship = Belong with each other (as in relationship)
Wack = Lame (e.g. a lame excuse)
Woke = A reference to how people should be aware of current affairs
Yass = Yes
I was alarmed by an article
I saw recently regarding how Silicon Valley, i.e. the tech companies, are
trying to build a social scoring system similar to the one created by the
Chinese to control their population. A social “score” would,
essentially, label you on how well you
adhere to political correctness.
Think of the consequences of the following: Some twenty something kid develops a computer
program that collects every bit of data on you from the internet, including
privacy-invading captures of emails, texts, voice mail messages, credit
reports, and of course Facebook and Instagram posts. An algorithm (basically, a
complex series of equations and instructions) then decides whether the dossier
it has compiled on you adheres to the social orthodoxy prescribed by its mostly
Leftist creators. You are assigned a score which, if insufficiently high, could
prevent you from obtaining insurance, a mortgage, a car loan, weapons to defend
yourself and your family (nor just firearms but think, pepper spray!). Continue
down this path and medical care could be rationed based on your score. Your
ability to obtain a drivers license, or fly on an airplane could all be
impacted by your ‘score’. So too could your ability to check into a hotel, or get
your kids into a private school, camp or music program. How about your internet speed being throttled up
or down based on your number?
This is Silicon Valley tyranny of the highest order.
Artificial intelligence…what the computer geeks call
computer programs that mimic human thought processes through complex “if-then”
rules, is just that…ARTIFICIAL. It’s not REAL intelligence! It’s data
manipulation, whether the data is valid or not, whether it’s true or not,
whether it represents reality or not, whether it is complete or not. While the
geeks would argue its totality represents who you are, I submit individual human
beings cannot be represented by a set of numbers.
Instead of real human beings using real intelligence,
computer programs are making assessments based on monte carlo simulations of
the propensity of an individual to be or do certain things. It’s unadulterated
nonsense. People aren’t average. People are individuals, but the Leftist gurus
of Silicon Valley would have you believe they can categorize you and collect people
into pens like livestock. They use terms like “community” and “social justice”
to connote egalitarianism, but it’s really manipulation, brainwashing and population
control to achieve the Leftist utopian dream.
And we’re letting it happen. The fact that I’m typing this
on a laptop and that I’ll use an intenet connection to first save it in a cloud
repository, then publish it on this website in the hope that people, especially
my family, will read it some day and be positively influenced by it…is a trade-off.
I have no illusions that there are computer algorithms that are mining my posts
for key words and phrases that already categorize me at least as a neanderthal
but at worst, as a old white guy white supremacist. And the thought that the
government and commercial institutions would ever adopt policies to allow or
deny me freedoms or products and services based on where I fall on this social
scoring spectrum, is unsettling to say the least.
It used to be we’d gather our families together for Sunday
dinner and at that table learn the wisdom of our elders. The patriarchs and
matriarchs would instruct and seek to influence us, and by example, teach us
about the world, right and wrong, how to conduct ourselves, how to find
happiness in our lives.
Today, we write blogs, and emails, and texts. Our
conversations are about movies and sports…in some families politics is no
longer an acceptable subject, and if one member of the family is either
agnostic or atheist, religion too is a subject off the table.
We are so paranoid about offending even our own family
members that in a sense, the Left has won. My children can’t discipline their
kids for fear some social worker will show up their door and haul them into some
judicial hearing on child abuse! Have the thought police so intimidated us that
we have abrogated our responsibility to impart our values to our children and
grandchildren to Sesame Street, the Leftist indoctrinators in their schools and
colleges?
Some of us “old people” say, “It’s their
world, and their problem.” I, on the other hand, ask, “Will we stand
by and watch our kids’ world devolve into an immoral and totalitarian cesspool
without speaking up, without using every opportunity to point out the craziness,
the manipulations and fallacies of the demagogues and those who seek to impose their
will on and exercise power over us?”
We can either choose to be silenced and cower, or stand and
fight for the traditional values that have proven throughout history to be the
greatest driving force of mankind’s prosperity.
TODAY IS
Wednesday May 15, 2024
Quips & Quotes
January 2, 2024 "As we enter 2024, there is widespread public agreement about two things: (1) something big is about to happen, and (2) whatever that something is, it sure as hell won’t be pretty! While it may get pretty ugly pretty fast, though, there is an upside to what’s coming: as a country, we can finally pull this disgusting Band-Aid off, face reality for what it is, and stop pretending. However bad this year might prove to be, it might also be tremendously liberating.
Why? Because, one way or another, things will soon change. For too long, those who “run” America have had two things in common: (1) a hatred for individual freedoms, and (2) an even deeper hatred for the one country on the planet explicitly founded on their protection. As a national security surveillance State superseded the U.S. Constitution, leftists have controlled academia, journalism, the legal system, and entertainment. They have shoved anyone with a working brain out the door while assuring themselves that they deserve their privileged social positions and unearned accolades. They tell themselves that they are smart and enlightened, but anybody capable of self-examination knows this not to be true. Leftists are not happy people. They have not figured out any special meaning to life because, to them, life is meaningless. In other words, for too many years, a collection of the most depressed, least curious, morally relativistic, and intellectually homogenous people on the planet have been given pampered positions in exchange for acting as nihilistic and narcotic-dependent sea vessel captains willing to steer America into an iceberg of decline and failure." J.B. Shurk, American Thinker, January 2, 2024 "Do We Hit the Iceberg or Finally Change Course?"
November 3, 2023 "There’s a subtext to nearly all American political trends today. It’s hardly ever spoken about overtly and explicitly. But the topic is nonetheless always there. All insiders know about it. It’s also the central and critical debate concerning America’s future.
The question is as follows. Will the United States continue the present system whereby representative democracy persists as a mere veneer to keep the public distracted and defocused on the real rulers in the nation? Or will something dramatic be achieved whereby the swamp is truly drained, the administrative state gutted, the agencies disempowered, and we return to an actual constitutional system in which the people truly rule themselves through their elected representatives?
These are the two paths. It’s one or the other. They’re mutually incompatible." Jeffrey A. Tucker, November 3, 2023, Epoch Times, p A22, "Are You an Institutionalist or Anti-Institutionalist?"
October 30, 2023 "If you want an indicator of how lost Western civilization has become, go to your kids’ school and check their rules on fighting. Most likely, you’ll find out if two kids get into a fight, both get suspended, regardless of whether one was a punk bully who started it and the other was simply defending himself or some little kid. This is a moral disaster, of course – violence in the defense of what is right is a moral obligation and a symbol of a greater rot within society."
"The world's true nature is that good is forever pitted against evil."
"We must learn again to be ruthless in defeating our enemies. The big lie that Western civilization tells itself is that there are no real enemies, that there are no bad people – except the people of the West themselves, who bear some sort of original sin for not being corrupt and inept Third World barbarians."
"We have forgotten our strength and our courage. We have forgotten that we survive not through gentle hugging but through sword-swinging.The idea that Israel should somehow give these Hamas barbarians food, water, and electrical power even if it surrounds Gaza and prepares to attack is mind-boggling insanity. The moral illiteracy of expecting Israel to care more about the Palestinian people than other Palestinians do is simply bizarre."
"The hard truth is that the world contains bad people who must be crushed through ruthless violence, which shocks and horrifies modern sensibilities. But it is reality nonetheless. When people want to kill you, you are at a decision point. You can either let them kill you or stop them. But stopping them often involves aesthetically displeasing actions, such as blowing them into little bits with bombs or shoving a bayonet into their guts and watching them die in agony. And it necessarily means inflicting death and damage on the noncombatant camp followers around them. That’s why they say war is hell. And that’s why starting one is probably not a good idea. But when someone else starts one, you have to choose them or you. Someone’s going to die badly, and you know, I propose it is those other guys."
October 16, 2023 "Though around the world sociopaths stabbed some folks, the Day of Jihad fizzled in America – how many bummed patriots slammed in a mag hoping some mutant was going to choose his small town to prove Jason Aldean right? But it is only a matter of time. When you allow millions of military-aged males to come unvetted into your country, including many from bizarre hellholes where hatred for Americana is more common than food and indoor plumbing, there is a non-zero chance that some of them are part of sleeper cells waiting for the signal to murder Americans here at home." Kurt Schlichter, Town Hall, October 16, 2023, "We Are Sitting Ducks And Our Leaders Do Not Care"
August 22, 2023 "When arguing in federal court in HI in 2020, I had to get permission from the governor to enter his precious state to argue that his silly COVID lockdowns violated the Constitution. I lost. This same state, in real life, has shown how little respect for life its leaders really have. My perfectly healthy clients were not allowed to travel from one island to another to visit their own property. American citizens were turned away at the airport because they got the wrong COVID test on the mainland. The hotel gave me “parole” from the one way card key rule only to do my legal business and leave. I could not call an Uber or take a taxi at the airport. The National Guard met me at the gate to escort me to Hawaii COVID immigration to provide my information, which they verified with the hotel. I was to keep my phone on at all times so that they could track my location. This same police state didn’t turn the water on in Lahaina, didn’t have sirens, can’t begin to tell you how many children died from their incompetence. Or begin to explain it. Remember all this the next time you are asked to comply with farcical, unjust “laws” made by dictators. They are lying when their lips are moving about how much they care about you and your little life and your paper constitutional rights. Americans are beginning to realize how much we are on our own. Such a betrayal." Harmeet K. Dhillon, on "X", 8/22/23 12:44 AM
August 17, 2023 - A MUST READ!!!! The following is a transcription of Newt Gingrich's comments on Hannity last night. "“I think what you’re seeing tonight is one tree in a forest, and I think we are drifting towards the greatest Constitutional crisis since the 1850s, uh, and the rise of secession and the Civil War. I don’t mean that as hyperbole. Uh, if you read Andy McCarthy’s remarkable book, Ball of Collusion, which came out in 2019, he makes very clear that it is Barack Obama who corrupts the Justice Department, it is Hillary Clinton who routinely breaks the law and gets away with it. And now we have Joe Biden who’s learned, he’s learned from Obama that is doesn’t matter what you do, if you’re a liberal Democrat, you will not be prosecuted. He learned from Hillary that a person in high public office can get millions and millions of dollars. And they learned from watching Donald Trump that a true outsider, willing to take on the entire system, could destroy their entire machine. So what you’re seeing across the country, is a desperate, last-ditch effort by a corrupt machine to destroy their most dangerous opponent in a way which not only breaks the Constitution, destroys the rule of law, and establishes a moment of bitterness, uh, which I think will last for a generation or more. I think this is gonna be a horrendous period and we just need to understand: The people who want to control America and dictate to the rest of us will break any law, lie about any topic, and manipulate the system any way they can, and that includes a lot of the elite news media.”
August 10, 2023 "The fact that young men are getting more conservative is a cause for optimism. Remember, if you grew up male in the last ten years or so, every institution has been deployed against you. You’ve been told you are bad and horrible and evil and worthless. In contrast, every girl is an empowered girlboss ready to take her rightful place at the pinnacle of society. And to facilitate that, they must displace the dudes. And it’s no secret – that displacement, that consignment of men to second-class status, is not merely admitted but celebrated by our trash ruling class." Kurt Schlichter, August 10, 2023, Town Hall, "Angry Young Men Are Going To Disrupt The Garbage Paradigm"
Articles/Writings We Think Are A Must Read
Who Will Say No More to the Current Madness?
Once again, Victor Davis Hanson has nailed it. In his article there is a list of the most egregious crimes and failings of the Left and this Administration. Stronly urge readers to read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt of the most salient points:
“America is in existential danger.
The Biden administration has utterly destroyed the southern border — and immigration law with it.
Biden green lighted 7 million illegal aliens swarming into the U.S. without legal sanction or rudimentary audit.
China spies inside and over the U.S. with impunity. Beijing has never admitted to its responsibility for the gain-of-function COVID virus that killed a million Americans.
President Joe Biden printed $4 trillion at exactly the wrong time of soaring post-COVID consumer demand and supply shortages. No wonder he birthed the worst inflation in 40 years.
In response, interest rates tripled, gas prices doubled.
Our military is thousands of recruits short. It lacks sufficient munitions.
Following Biden’s humiliating pullout from Afghanistan, vast troves of arms were abandoned in Kabul. Billions more in scarce weapons were sent to Ukraine.
The Pentagon’s woke agenda trumps meritocracy in promotions and advancement.
Our enemies — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — are on the move, while the U.S. seems listless.
The Biden renegade Department of Justice, CIA and FBI have become weaponized. Ideology, politics, and race — not the law — more often guide their investigations, intelligence operations and enforcement.
The downtowns of our once majestic major cities are becoming unlivable.
They are mired in refuse and trash, violent crime and homelessness. Stores and businesses leave. Millions each year flee the blue urban coasts to the red west and south.
To even say there are still two biological genders, that global warming may not be entirely manmade or necessarily destroying the planet, or that class, not race, is the proper barometer of inequality is to face ostracism and career cancellation.
The public assumes that Biden is severely cognitively challenged, likely corrupt, and a serial fabricator.
Most know what must be done, but few will tell the truth: Balance the budget. Return to legal only immigration. Restore a well-funded, but unwoke Pentagon.
Insist on racial unity. Curb the overweening administrative state. Enforce the rule of law.
Produce more gas and oil. Reestablish civic education. Insist universities protect free speech and due process — and stop proselytizing.
In other words, restore what until recently made America the strongest, most prosperous, and freest nation in the world. And quit undoing all the great good that eight generations of prior Americans bequeathed to us.”
Victor Davis Hanson saying it better than anyone. Perfectly describes the childish, impetuous behavior of the Left. A quick and incredibly accurate take on everything we see before our eyes.
An excerpt:
“Cry-baby tantrums won’t win over the public. These nonstop puerile meltdowns have turned off most Americans who tire of whiny narcissistic hypocrites.”
Strongly recommend the artful summary of what the Left is trying to do with the Disinformation Governance Board canard written by Michael Walsh in “The Pipeline”, May 2, 2022. You’ll find the whole article here. Some excerpts:
“So now the mask has dropped and, for the first time, the American people can see the modern Left in all its hateful, unadorned, vituperative, spiteful glory. Case in point: the announcement last week that the Department of Homeland Security—one of the excrescences of the Bush administration, cobbled together in its panic over 9/11—has created the “Disinformation Governance Board” in order to combat what it has, via its hitherto little-known Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, already dubbed “mis-, dis-, and mal-information.” Otherwise known as alternative points of view, but shut up, citizen.”
“Let us now remind ourselves of the late historian and Soviet scholar Robert Conquest’s third law of politics: “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.” At this point in American history, that is not only a theory but a fact. Having narrowly “won” the 2020 election by stealing it fair and square, the Left is putting pedal to the metal to accomplish as much of its anti-foundational agenda as it can before the clock runs out on its tiny congressional majorities this fall.”
On the Subject of “Things happening in the background to purge the illicit Biden administration“
The article in American Thinker by Dr. Brian Joondeph entitled: “Nothing Can Stop What is Coming. What if Nothing is Coming?” lays out the case for the increasingly skeptical that anything is going to halt the Leftist Leviathan. Strongly recommend this article not to throw cold water on all the hope so many of us have of there being some justice on the horizon, but to lay out the stark possibility that it’s all wishful thinking and we’re stuck with what we’ve got at least until January 2023.
On Climate Change Fraud
One of the best debunking articles/videos I’ve seen recently on the revolting fraud being perpetrated by the climate alarmists. In very calm, easy to understand terms the author shows how graphs and picking the right starting point for data visualization is being used to create the narrative that they rely on for their funding, their power, their nefarious attempts to alter society and our world. This same manipulation occurs with ALL kinds of data and the Left is expert in obscuring truth, altering perception and brainwashing a lazy, non-thinking mass of sheep to believe what they want them to believe. Strongly recommend watching this…12 minutes long and a must see!
Featured Friends
Straight Line Logic
Robert Gore’s blog. I put Gore up there with Victor Davis Hanson, Jordan Peterson and Thomas Sowell. His theses are chock full of substance.
The Burning Platform
Unabashedly conspiracy-theory driven, but thoughtfully so and well-written. Makes one think, “could this really be what’s happening?”
