Today I had a Revelation ...

And, not for the first time.

Unreasoned

I ran a reader poll on DailyKos today,  asking about issues of interest to political progressives - "the Left".  I was surprised by the answers:  about half of those responding don't care about a particular issue.  Rather, they are concerned about the whole complex of political issues taken together.  Or, they just want to get rid of George W Bush.

I've asked about this sort of thing before,  and have made little progress in getting definitive answers.

Most people just emote, if that is what it is.  We are beyond having reasons to elect or remove a President, starting or ending a war, or doing or not doing anything at all.  It's coming down to grunts; thumb up, thumb down.  That's it.  Then it's over.

There are a few people out there who want to talk about issues,  make up a program,  or put together an agenda.  Very Few.

Governments are collections of agencies and agents that do things.  That is, the government is a building here, another one there, filled with people do some assigned task.  Or, maybe it is a soldier marching down the road, while another soldier flies through the sky.  It is thousands or millions of people bent upon some task almost everyday.

What would some Star Creature think,  let down into the midst of Kansas City IRS, Seattle Social Security, or Marine Corps training?  How are all those disparate motions explained?

Yesterday, I watered the peppers.  Peppers?  Yes, peppers do grow in warm locations for many years;  they are perennial tropical plants.  Shortly after the water seeped into the largest pot,  hundreds, then thousands, of ants came to the surface,  running for their lives.  Instinctively,  they headed for the tallest pepper bushes and ran all the way to the top.  Ants know a flood when they see one,  and they know what to do about it.

Perversely, I thought, now is the time to get rid of this persistent ant colony.  There they are,  all out in the open,  ready to be wiped off this Earth - quite literally by tissue paper.  So,  I did some of them in.  Then I thought, why bother?  They make my fruits (the peppers) smaller,  and suck the life out of some branches.  But, they've been here for 400 million years - at least that's what the New York Times said yesterday -  and they are not going to go away easily.

Today, I realized it is hopeless.  Officially, I give up.

Space Really is Good

My friends, the Cordones, sent along their views on my comments about space:  A picture of a WAL*MART coming sign planted on Martian soil. Another friend told me similar things last Sunday at lunch.

But, you know what?  I don't care;  it doesn't matter.  If I understand how evolution works,  we will go there if we are capable of going there. It doesn't matter whether I or anyone in particular support the space program.  It will just happen, one way or another.

If we make it, there'll always be people saying humans are rotten and polluting all over the place.  There'll be those who find a home, and those who want to keep going.  The human experience will not have changed,  only the stage where it is acted.

If we don't make it there,  it will be because we're another T-REX.  We could be the last in a long line of monsters.  So what?  Sooner or later, another species will do it.  Maybe the bacteria will adapt to space, or maybe they already have.

It's the line in Doctor Zhivago that refuses to leave my brain, "I just want to live."

February 12, 2004

Last update: 11/02/2007

© Copyright California Expert Software 2007

All rights reserved.