Imagine living on a planet where the connection between cause and effect is very different. Inhabitants practice risky behavior and keep getting surprised by delayed impacts. by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Come take a look at life on the newly discovered planet Crazy. Inhabitants there look exactly like us and live in an advanced technological society. But the big difference is a strange time warp effect that greatly shapes their lives. Actions these beings take produce effects that are delayed by rather long times.
A sharp kitchen knife slips and hits a finger. What happens? There is no immediate bleeding. But weeks or months later there will be bleeding from that exact location.
For long holiday seasons, inhabitants consume vast amounts of fat and sugar laden foods. What happens? Nothing, not until months later when their body weights sharply increase.
A worker fails to conduct proper maintenance on a huge complex industrial machine. What happens? Nothing, not until more than a year later when there are terrible sounds as the machine literally explodes. And a number of workers hit by flying debris are briefly knocked out but then stand up and feel fine, until some months later when they suddenly drop dead.
The Crazies have become used to their time blindness as something natural and inevitable. Surprises keep coming and connecting them to causes remains mysterious.
On a larger scale, the planet's society has used deep geo-thermal energy technologies to support their energy intensive lifestyle. The very deep wells drilled into the subsurface at many locations have frequently but unpredictably caused massive quakes and volcanic eruptions with devastating impacts. But they happen months or years after the initial deep drilling and energy extraction. Drilling is always pursued at more locations.
The Crazies simply are incapable of accurately predicting or forecasting exactly what and when harmful effects of their actions will actually occur. All they can do is focus on the immediate utility and benefits, whatever they are, from the action or behavior and blindly accept the worst outcomes whenever they occur.
But what is even more fascinating is how this remarkable planetary condition has over a long time shaped the behavior of inhabitants. Has it made Crazies far more cautious and risk averse? No, just the opposite. This phenomenon has produced a population that is inherently addicted to and accepting of risky behavior with a focus on living in the present.
That's right. This time-warp phenomenon has not made the population more careful and contemplative. To the contrary, unable to accurately anticipate the more negative but less immediately visible impacts of their behavior, they have become routinely reckless. Their various institutions do endless research and studies trying to fathom why the cause-effect relationship is so strange, but their reckless behaviors continue as if there is no alternative. Sometimes, Crazies cannot even figure out why some terrible events happen and what could possibly have caused them because of long delays from their causation.
This sophisticated society and culture basically accepts negative consequences as isolated events and merely focuses on and rationalizes the immediate benefits of individual and collective actions. Despite considerable experience with unforeseen painful impacts hitting them eventually, the Crazies do what they want and suffer the consequences. They are by nature individually and collectively uncontrollably time blind.
Does any of this behavior on planet Crazy sound familiar to Americans? Think BP oil disaster, as well as regular explosions at industrial facilities, coal mine disasters, a national obesity epidemic, huge numbers of children dropping out of school, homeowners rebuilding in flood-prone areas, people unable to pay off their credit card debt, product recalls because of unsafe conditions, often deadly foods and prescription drugs, and uncontrolled federal government spending and borrowing as if great pain will not infect the nation. Add on constant election of Democrats and Republicans to Congress and the White House because their lies and promises of reform are repeatedly believed despite many decades of corrupt behavior to the contrary.
No real surprise that negative outcomes and outright crises and catastrophes keep hitting us. Risky and often stupid actions and behaviors keep occurring as if their inevitable negative impacts are invisible.
Take solace in moaning such things are God's will or just unavoidable. Or conclude that, in the face of missing reformed personal, corporate and government behavior, time-blinded humans are crazy too.
To learn more about time blindness here on Earth check out the work of Jack Alpert at skil.org.
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 11
thumbs so far
The views expressed
in this article are those of Joel S. Hirschhorn only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Joel S. Hirschhorn is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Posted By: Roy Ellis
Date: July 21, 2010 02:34:37 PM
Yes, that's how it is, living with the Corpocracy. I guarantee you, little will change until a strong, united political movement comes on the scene to remove the Corpocracy.
I am about one-quarter of the way through Andrew Napolitano's "Lies The Government Told You" and I strongly recommend it to those who, like myself, are not well educated in the Constitution.
But, it's more than that. Its not just having knowledge of what's in the Constitution but understanding the true meaning and impetus of each issue covered. For instance, Obama will talk about ‘freedom of worship’ but the Constitution calls out ‘freedom of religion’. One word different but with huge significance.
I firmly believe, as Glenn Beck does, as Gary Wood does in ‘Study Your History.com, that in order to correct our situation, save our Republic, we must educate ourselves as to our roots, the Founder’s, Constitution and our history. My firm belief that there is a reason why civics/government is not taught as a major subject in our schools. Perhaps some schools adequately address the subject, I am not aware. We need a strong civics/gov’t curriculum in our grade schools. Sure, it’s more efficient to raise ‘workers’ by using the time for more ‘important’ things like math, science, English, etc. But, not so important that we lose our liberty, freedom, and Republic over. Nothing is more important than that.
Comes thru loud and clear in this excerpt from the Decl of Indp:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
In that last sentence, please replace the word ‘King of Britain’ with the word ‘Corpocracy’ and read it again. Here is what this respected Superior Court Judge, Napolitano has to say about the status of our current government:
“The U.S. government --- is not a democracy. In fact, some would argue that it is not even a republic, since our leaders do not actually work for us. Some believe that the U.S. government is actually an oligarchy in which just a few thousand people, “mostly in government, finance, and the military-industrial complex, run this country for their own purposes.: These powerful people seek to preserve their power by manipulating the mainstream media, controlling campaign finance money, and thus nominating candidates who will work for them, regardless of their party affiliation.”
Amen, to that! And, we can thank , primarily, the 17th amendment and voter apathy for the Corpocracy.
The Republic Sentry Party seeks to remove the Corpocracy by fighting fire with fire; use democracy vote within the party to force candidates/incumbents to support the party agenda (remove the Corpocracy) and focus them on their constituents rather than big business.
