Choosing The Lesser Of Two Evils

Merely postpones the inevitable.

Sign Of The Times

Walk/Don’t Walk signs can be very helpful when crossing a street. Like stop lights for automobiles they help control the flow of traffic. Without them it would be close to impossible to get across a busy intersection. They are really convenient when intersections have turn arrows for automobiles. Even should cross traffic be at a stop nothing can ruin a day like being hit by a car turning into the path we’re walking.

But are they absolutely necessary? 

I’m talking about when the walk path is clear, no cars are coming –or are a significant distance away to not cause injury or death- and the sign indicates “Don’t Walk”. Should we stay or should we go? Should we cross the street because we can or should we stay put because the sign says so? Do we put all our faith and trust in a machine to tell us when to walk safely or should we use our own intellectual abilities to reason as to when it is safe to walk? When the sign says emphatically “Don’t Walk” although our intellect tells us it is safe to do so, do we obey the sign or our own confidence in accomplishing the task before us, that being crossing the street safely?

I do not raise these questions idly. I have too often seen people standing at a street corner with no oncoming traffic and not attempting to cross for no other reason than that a little square box with a red phrase told them not to walk. These people put more faith in that mechanical sign than in their own common sense. They obey a machine that tells them not to do something they clearly could do instead of obeying themselves.

What does this say about humanity when they more readily obey a machine, while helpful is not the final say on our behavior, instead of our own common sense? What does this say about people who defer solely to a machine instead of themselves when they could clearly make a decision to take the initiative and override the machine’s instructions?

Are we getting too good at following orders? Are we becoming so good at being told what to do that we cannot cross a street confidently without first getting an other’s permission? In this case a machine’s permission? What does it say about us if we cannot act of our own volition but must wait for permission to do something we are clearly capable of doing all by ourselves? 

If we cannot cross the street safely without first getting someone or something else’s permission what more does that say about our individual abilities? Can we trust the people to critically think? Take the initiative? Problem solve? Take responsibility? Question Authority?

One can tell a lot about a person just by the way they cross a street. And what it tells us isn’t good.

And election day is coming up.

A Prayer Against Despair

O Lord, please protect me
From my own stupidity.

What On Earth

Our abuse of the earth will only destroy the world

Her inability to accommodate us, the world

Will not be her destruction, merely ours

The earth will eventually evict the world

Before we ever destroy her, keeping our deposit.

Our Other Selves

Others are blamed for everything.

If only they would…

If only they wouldn’t…

If only they did…

If only they didn’t...

To others we are the other.

The Boss and The Bureaucrat

Last night I had thought about adding my literary voice to the multitudes who shook their collective heads in amazement that bureaucrats in London wouldn't let a couple of senior citizens named Bruce and Paul stay out past curfew to sing a few songs for their fans in Hyde Park.  But curfew is curfew.  Rules are rules. The letter of the law will be obeyed even if the Spirit In The Night suggested otherwise. 

Now, the thought of pulling the plug on The Boss is kinda amusing.  Considering his reputation for playing three hour plus concerts the thought that the only way to get him off the stage is to cut the power and make him go home would be of the highest compliment for him and his band.  The bureaucratic fear that he might entertain the public into infinity unless he was stopped should put a smile -or big grin- on any and all Boss and E Street Band fans.  But he is an American and when in London...

But.  But...  Mr. McCartney?  Sir Paul McCartney?  A Knight!  If only he had his horse and lance.  A knight and Member of the British Empire is unceremoniously told he can't stay out past 10:30pm and play with his friends.  This is now the second time the city of London has shut down a concert involving Paul.

Not only did The Boss give the public more than their money's worth with a three hour plus concert he threw in a mini Paul McCartney and the E Street Band featuring Bruce Springsteen concert as an added bonus at no extra charge only to have it all pretty much immediately shut down by the powers that be because they were more concerned with rich neighbors of the park instead of a public that was having a wild but innocent time courtesy of two artists grateful for and to their fans.  Bureaucrats are rarely talented and also rarely grateful to and for anything except themselves and their rules.  And that is why the concert ended the way it did.

This never would've happened in Asbury Park.

 

Reality Check

 

Scowl and stare

Glare if you dare

The world doesn't care

Whether it's fair

 

Self Distraction

People who can't stand to be alone

Can't stand to be with themselves

Materialism

When the going gets tough

The tough go shopping

Prophet And Loss

What does it profit a man

To try to gain the world and fail

And lose his soul

Wants Wanting

Socialism:  We want what's ours


Communism:  We want what's yours


Capitalism:  We want what's ours and yours


Americanism:  I want what's mine and what's not mine and what's
                          left over

Communication Breakdown

If people speak

Only when spoken to

Who would speak first