A casual thought....
If the human race eventually disappears from the planet, the reasons may involve technology, but won't necessarily be due to the concept of technology itself. Rather, the underlying factor will be a peculiarly human trait--the natural and well-understood reluctance and inability to admit a mistake--compounded by the amplifying effects of the broadcasting and imaging technology of television and all its variants.
Ask any couple just how agonizing a process it is for one of them to admit a mistake and have even a small chance of being thought of as sincere with an audience of one. Now think of doing the same thing live in front of millions of people, whose tax dollars and futures are in your trust, and upon whose votes you depend for your continued ego satisfaction.
Pretty near an impossible expectation, I'd say. Making matters worse, most politicians (with a few exceptions) are idiot savants--their principal (and, often, only) skill in life is convincing you they're smarter than you are and therefore deserve to decide your fate and the fate of some of your money. (And, let's not forget, Bob Bullock's old adage about some in the Texas Legislature applies here: "if you think he's crazy, you should see his constituents." Michele Bachmann, bless her pea-brained soul, probably is smarter than a good many of her constituents.)
And, of course, if you can't admit a mistake, and belong to a collective body (politicians) with the same problem--you'll collectively steer the Titanic into the iceberg over and over and over again, and then do your best imitation of Richard Pryor's "who you gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?" routine. And, eventually you and the rest of your reality-deniers will really fuck things up bigtime, and *poof!*, the human race is history.
Like a lot of other people, I was always a bit amazed that George Bush could never think of a single substantial thing he'd done wrong as President--even after sinking the Titanic multiple times and then torturing the survivors--but, the simple truth is that he was just a living caricature of the basic problem (although he added a lot of comic relief to it by sincerely believing he had everyone fooled).
Maybe that's the silver lining to the dark cloud: we're going to exterminate ourselves, but, we're going to laugh ourselves silly doing it....
Ask any couple just how agonizing a process it is for one of them to admit a mistake and have even a small chance of being thought of as sincere with an audience of one. Now think of doing the same thing live in front of millions of people, whose tax dollars and futures are in your trust, and upon whose votes you depend for your continued ego satisfaction.
Pretty near an impossible expectation, I'd say. Making matters worse, most politicians (with a few exceptions) are idiot savants--their principal (and, often, only) skill in life is convincing you they're smarter than you are and therefore deserve to decide your fate and the fate of some of your money. (And, let's not forget, Bob Bullock's old adage about some in the Texas Legislature applies here: "if you think he's crazy, you should see his constituents." Michele Bachmann, bless her pea-brained soul, probably is smarter than a good many of her constituents.)
And, of course, if you can't admit a mistake, and belong to a collective body (politicians) with the same problem--you'll collectively steer the Titanic into the iceberg over and over and over again, and then do your best imitation of Richard Pryor's "who you gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?" routine. And, eventually you and the rest of your reality-deniers will really fuck things up bigtime, and *poof!*, the human race is history.
Like a lot of other people, I was always a bit amazed that George Bush could never think of a single substantial thing he'd done wrong as President--even after sinking the Titanic multiple times and then torturing the survivors--but, the simple truth is that he was just a living caricature of the basic problem (although he added a lot of comic relief to it by sincerely believing he had everyone fooled).
Maybe that's the silver lining to the dark cloud: we're going to exterminate ourselves, but, we're going to laugh ourselves silly doing it....
posted by Montag at
11:23 AM
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