The sweetest minority

The number of people who really care about anything, especially their fellow human beings, strikes me as being the smallest of minorities on this planet.

It is so difficult to find anyone who pays any real attention beyond that required by their employer, be it at a retail store, government office or even a church.  When I run across the rare person who looks me in the eye, shuts their own mouth and listens without interjecting their opinion or acting like I am somehow burdening them, I feel like I owe them something, lunch, dinner a heart-felt thank you and handshake, whatever.

Why don’t more people get it?  The old adage ‘You catch more flies with sugar then vinegar’ applies to every facet of life.  Sometimes it really is just as easy as listening without comment.

Yes, I am guilty of hypocrisy, I find myself not practicing this, especially with members of my own family (that whole abuse the ones closest to you thing is a ripe subject…).

I commit to be a member of the sweetest minority; to more frequently recollect how I feel when someone really listens to me and to listen to people talking to me.

Keep making decisions with your asshole

I hate politics. I hate the US political machine. I hate feeling like an impotent peon, a faceless number in a sea of numbers. The system is broken and needs to be fixed. But the fixin’ is the problem. It needs to be fixed at the roots – what needs to be fixed is exactly what drives my opinions – ignorance. The vast majority of the US population is dumb as sheep.

I know, that’s a bold proclamation coming from someone who professes extreme ignorance. But I know I’m ignorant so I’m justified in calling the kettle black. Far too many Americans substitute opinion for knowledge. The Greek philosopher Parmenides warned about the dangers of substituting opinion for knowledge 2,500 years ago, so it’s clearly an activity we humans have partaken of for the majority of our existence. What Americans do is expound upon their opinion of a subject as if in the doing they are gaining knowledge. What is sickly diabolical is that the entire culture is geared to produce and even foster people who are convinced that their opinions really are knowledge and therefore that their opinions should be acted upon.

The distinction between knowledge and opinion is rarely made to adults and as far as I can tell, never made to children in the US. Kids are taught that they can have an opinion about everything in the natural world and that there are no consequences to having those opinions. The tragic truth is that in the absence of fact (knowledge) our future is left to be shaped solely by opinion. If you doubt me, consider the incumbent US President and the debacle that will be his precious legacy.

The fix is rethinking how people are educated in the US. It is distinguishing between knowledge and opinion and elevating the pursuit of knowledge above the value of opinion. Know the facts: Pursue knowledge, then form an opinion. Act on the facts, on what you know.

Opinions are like assholes; everyone has one. Do you want to keep making decisions with your asshole?

Ah, this the first

I’m wallowing in my own ignorance while I sit here and enroll in a blogging service and listen to an episode of A Prairie Home Companion. Blogging and APHC seem a somehow appropriate combination, kind of like peanut butter and chocolate.

I have had a number of calls from family and friends over the past 24 hours with conversations ranging from the recently released to DVD Sweeney Todd movie to reports that US black ops forces are actively engaged in destabilizing Iran. This pretty well describes the extent of my ignorance; clearly broad.

Maybe wallowing isn’t the right word, lamenting is probably a better choice. I don’t keep up with the news, I find it overwhelming and wholly depressing. Hence my ignorance of the state of the world. The interesting thing about we humans is that even while in the grip of oppressive ignorance, we maintain our right to have an opinion of what we are oppressively ignorant of. That’s what this blog will undoubtedly contain more of; opinions firmly based in ignorance. So here goes.