Empirical Emergency 6/27/09

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.

Emerson
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Howdy
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I wonder, with anxiety, what it is that has stupified the human race. It seems to me that very few things we humans do make any sense. We have wealthy Congressmen deciding on legislation to affect the poor, and if, by chance, it looks worthwhile, they vote against it. We have men who couldn't throw a football if their lives were at stake discussing the relative merits of one athlete over another. We have folks who would be frightened to death to step out on a bare stage in front of an audience critiquing those who do. We have those who are too old to go into battle sending others off to do it. We have men and women fighting in a foreign land under the ruse of defending ourselves and then coming home in boxes. We have children disappearing or being abused at home, We have pastors preaching honesty and family values who have mistresses on the side. We have medicines which are dangerous to our health. We have products that can cause accidents. We have economic theories that feed the greedy and starve the poor. We have banks that plunder people and courts that tie them down. And we are all out to get even with somebody.

What has brought us to this point of stupidity? Social structures, traditions, fear?

I don't know where to point the finger of blame except at myself. I learned a while back that it's no use complaining about a problem unless you are prepared to do something about it. I wonder what more I can do. I write in this journal every day and pray that my words have some positive effect somewhere in the world. Whatever teaspoon of wisdom I have comes from decades of trying to overcome my own ignorance. But it does seem futile sometimes when faced with the bland, blind nonsense I see and hear around me, nonsense that is gleefully accepted and seriously put into practice by all of us.

Where are the thinkers? Where did they go? They can't all be hiding out in some secret Bohemian Club, or securely tethered to a University post, or masquerading in a blue collar on some tight lipped assembly line somewhere. Wisdom often comes in strange forms and from unexpected places, but it takes a thinker to recognize it.

I like to read books, journals and magazines hoping to become a thinking person. But I also like to read newspapers because in the haystack of useless ink every now and then someone writes something intelligent. With the demise of newspapers, the haystacks have grown into wastelands. I think so.

To be a real thinker in this age is to be an odd, eccentric, unorthodox, illfitting, dangerous crack pot who has to face the demonic outrage and lethal attack upon himself by the general population. Maybe that's why it is so hard to find any. We need to pray to the great God to let loose a few more thinkers from under His protecting wing.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
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May you have a relaxing weekend.
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