The Bullshit Age

We have a country that's run by idiots - brilliant, eh?
Stan Hertzman
January 4, 2006

How does this happen? Simple, we have become fallen victims to our own greed and, now, the tail's wagging the dog. Maybe I'm as naive as a Purim Bunny and it's always been this way, but, in the past ten years I've witnessed an unraveling of our poor, pitiful, young country beyond imagination. Just like us, everyday we bring new kids into this world to go through the gauntlet of life here in America, the good old (not really) U.S. of A. The self appointed port of freedom for planet Earth. The planet that we are destroying in a geometric fashion in an attempt to make it better, better, better...Hey, Dude.

This destruction is coming down in many ways. For one, we're addicted to fossil fuel aka CRUDE OIL This is a very recent addiction in relation to the timeline of this planet, man and progress.

This is the home of the brave and the home of the intelligence that merely 500 years ago thought our planet was FLAT! Our country was founded by a pack of breakaways looking for a new game - they were tired of the old ways. They were deists. They were restless takers. As their descendents, we, as did they, live on a big-ass ball that spins on its axis at over 1000 mph, and, generally forget that they're in constant motion, and feel like we are standing still. It's this same motion that keeps us alive and, subsequently, kills us - whack! Darn that gravity. We are obsessed with motion and are always scurrying about wanting to be somewhere else. Sadly enough , since balls are round and we're riding on a big one, the further we move away, the closer we get to where we started. It's only time and conditions that alter the new location. Not only does our ball spin around, it circles around the sun once a year. Now wonder the world is wound! Hello restlessness.

So, let's address time and conditions. This is BIG - really. It is the essence of so much of the game we play to justify our existence (life). Do we want time to progress, hence advocate change? Or, do we want time to stand still and have things just the way they were. Well, it's been said, ya can't have your cake and eat it too or, in modern terms, you can't have the planet and destroy it too. In plain speak, ones dealing with time and conditions is the source of playing the game of life. Since we all can probably agree that the all or none thing just doesn't win; we must look at winning and losing. No winners without losers, right? So, is winning the answer? Right again - NO. And to follow, modus tolens logic tells us that losing is also not the answer. Ah ha, where does this put us, after all we are gamers? Well, it puts us right where we are today. We are living in decisive, divisive times. We have taken the game from America to the world to it's dangerous boundary. As in the original Planet of the Apes - The Forbidden Zone - that real place that represents something gone terribly wrong. The place that exemplifies everything wrong with the game we're playing. The place where the relevance of time and conditions was taken for granted during the pursuit of winning and short term values. When winning is defined by the wealth you have and the power therefrom, then a certain self righteousness or cockiness begins to rule. This wealth and power gets to the heart of the plebiscite and insures the election of incompetent leaders, if they're even leaders at all. Of course, only those who don't get it become our leaders and, amazingly, we follow - for a while - depending upon time and conditions. Eventually, it becomes obvious (and this happens very fast) that this pervasive incompetence is just not a momentary fuck-up, but rather an erroneous strategy gone wrong. Again, someone thinking they knew something. No real capable, intelligent human would put themselves in this game thinking they can win by changing the rules, or, could they?

Mark Twain, Einstein, Vonnegut and I think we are way far over our heads with the evolution of leadership, how it's gained and the price we pay. May I get real current? Thanks. Let's talk Iraq, coal mining disasters (have you seen my wife, Mrs. Jones?) and the automotive industry. Are not we all a bit tired of hearing, I'm sorry, we had the wrong information, it's hard work, we did the best we could, sad but true, it was a miscommunication, someone made a mistake? Well, if there were The Dark Ages, The Renaissance and The Industrial Age, then, we are now up to our necks in The Bull Shit Age. Allegedly, we have the best of everything from technology to underwear (short of what Israel has that's better) - the best tools ever, so we're told, and are the most educated. Yet, in the face of this, the players of the game, common people, are more split than ever and about to revolt. They have given up on the game - even the winners. It's all about today, my this, that and the other. Does anyone care about tomorrow - the real tomorrow? The tomorrow that our children must live in? If we care about tomorrow, we have to care about today, but we can't forget about tomorrow in pursuit of the short term and those consequences.

Oh well, back to coal mining and cars - they are quite related. Did anybody say "FUEL?" The disasters of our time, in the face of all our advances, are met with pathetic results housed in poor leadership, communication, unexplained information trails, irresponsibility and deceit. How does one explain the headline today that 12 of 13 of the buried coal miners were found alive, when, in fact, only one has survived so far. Freedom of speech is one thing, but the way this went down was unconscionable. What about the time lapse? What about those reckless CNN interviews? What about the people? Heads have to roll. But, the point is, that it's all about fuel. True or not, CNN tossed out the figure that mining in China last year took 6000 lives. Hell, they might as well be in Iraq, but we're not at all up to speed on casualties there. See we're supplying our energy needs and, now, with the help of Willie Nelson, we may get pointed toward some better fuel options. Of course, one could be moderation of fuel usage; or, moderation of consumption; or, moderation of mobility; or ???????

So, we can't dwell in the House of Bull Shit forever. These old structures won't stand. We could just wait for an asteroid, global warming and a nuclear accident. We can't play the game the old way any more, the board's about to be thrown. Being passive won't get it, our kids are conditioned not to get it soon enough. We can't wait until American Joe and Josephine decide to heave the game, that'll be too late baby, though we really did try to make it. If we're serious about having real leaders who are intelligent and competent, then, we must change the game and pronto. There's no catching up in the old game, so bring on some new rules, enforce the law and pay attention to what's left of our Constitution before time and conditions make it and us obsolete.

Not only as Democrats, but also as Americans, we cannot justify failing to assume an aggressive role in taking corrective action to gain control of what is an obvious disaster in leadership and the mechanisms that set and keep this losing process in motion. There are many faulty components ranging from the media to money - too many to even specify, but, we cannot act in a disjointed manner and hope to achieve any results. Buying into the illusion that wrong doings will be found out and be corrected is a falsehood. The more wrongs to correct, the harder the task. Our path lies before us and goes in one direction and as Ken Kesey said, "either you're on the bus or you're off the bus."

P.S. I'm totally with Bill Maher when he says, "I'm pissed that more people aren't pissed."