Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Why I Despair

One of my favourite blogs is The New Oxonian, which is written by Joseph Hoffman, PhD.  What I am citing here from one of his recent posts really spoke to me.

The failure of the culture to inspire has led to the failure of people to be curious and a general acceptance of the status quo in most things–especially religion. Why should people want to know more about anything when they have a thousand bucks in the bank, an iPhone, and a new MacDonalds opening up down the street? Starbucks is for people with jobs.
American culture is not hardwired to evoke curiosity about science, religion, or anything else. It’s designed to breed complacency. If Theodore Roethke had lived today, he would write about the inexorable sadness of shopping malls and gated communities and universities where nothing happens and a society where conscience dies daily in the onslaught of the latest economic data.   
. . . .
THE opposite of complacency is not excess. It is moderation, and if the argument against moderation is that it has nothing to show for itself, the counter- argument is that excess has much, much less.                      

Monday, July 2, 2012

Bring Out Your Truly Stupid

Summertime -- aah!  Now is the time when we see a number of human beings take themselves out of the gene pool in the hope that they will be the winner of this year's Darwin Awards.  The only problem with this is that young people who have not beeen taught otherwise can get caught up in the so-called adult hi-jinks.  However, the wonderful Second Amendment which always gets rights added to it rather than any other amendment, now seems to be applied to for private ownership of fireworks, some of which qualify as ordnance.  So, now I get to see these tacky outposts spring up during this time all over Connecticut and we have even more traffic because it is illegal to sell these things to idiots in Rhode Island.  So, appreciate the EMTs and Emergency Room teams who have to deal with the aftermath of 3rd/4th degree burns; traumatic amputations, etc.