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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Fertilized Freedom 5/02/09

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

Malcolm Forbes
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Good day to you.
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One of the strangest and most dangerous human aberrations is the inability to listen to an idea outside of one's prejudice without becoming enraged. Unfortunately we have seen a lot of that lately on the public political scene. I have also seen it in my private life.

When I was in high school we were told which textbooks to buy for the various classes, as was normal. Being a good student I carefully studied those books, on government, history and literature, believing I was reading a legitimate, unbiased account of those topics. As a grew up, got out into the world and heard and read other points of view, my mind broadened to accept the possibility of different ideas. Decades went by and one day I came across some of those high school texts that had somehow ended up in my sister's library. I read through them again and was stunned to find how one sided much of the writing was and how viciously the authors attacked the ideas they didn't agree with, some of which I had come to accept. The editorial content of the textbooks simply expressed the prejudices of my teachers. I went back further to consider what I had carried over from my sub-standard elementary school, remembering the scornful remarks of some of those teachers about certain ideas. It seems that my education was narrow minded, not open minded. My thinking had been closed up in a box, and I didn't know it. Fortunately I survived it, I hope. Some don't.

For over a year I have been making daily observations in this journal about ideas, events and human life. If I express my own opinion, I say so. Last year a friend of mine, an actor who I had worked with a few times and who I thought was a good guy, asked if he could be included on my list of those who receive my daily dollops of delight. So I did. But immediately he began responding to them in a very rude and scornful manner. He simply did not want to read anything that didn't conform to his vew of the world nor what he was convinced was the only truth. He finally said "Don't send me this crap." So I stopped.

The purpose of my journal has been all along to allow myself and others to think about things, to ponder and consider with an open, active mind the ideas that come across my desk. My motive has been out of respect and appreciation for the infinite and fascinating complexities of the universe of human thought. The reason for reading anything written by a thinking person (and I humbly consider myself one of those) is to provide nourishment for the heart, mind and soul. To disagree is healthy provided it comes from careful thinking and articulated with respect. But to a priori slam the door in the face of an opposing idea no matter how clear and thoughtful it is makes one a dangerous fool, in my opinion.

DB The Vagabond
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Suddenly it's June. Imagine that.
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