Sunday, August 15, 2010

When is the right time to reject...

False promises, phony science, religious dogma, racial prejudice, and anything else we are taught from birth?

Society has survived this far because we have learned to challenge what we were taught to believe from birth. If Galileo had not challenged the church position on what was, at the time, considered to be the center of the universe, we might still believe the universe revolves around Earth.

Lord knows the church doesn't change its position until told to do so. Lately, or for at least the last 2000 years anyway, communication between the church and God seems to be experiencing technical difficulties, especially where canon law is concerned. What priests do is frequently ungodly.

The old saw blade doesn't fit the new kerf profile carved in our new wave of future generations. Slices of society become thinner and thinner and overlapped and overlaid until the vectors which point to society's future direction now point in all directions.

We have lost our compass.

Where religious dogma once filled the herd instinct of humanity (come all yea sheep to my flock), the Internet now is, and has replaced and obliterated the blinders and constraints religious leaders once placed on society. Frankly, people are smarter, better educated, and less easily lured down the garden path than at any other time in the history of humanity. They are moving to a different drummer than a 250th generation, frequently morphed BAAL.

Putting laptops in the hands of every remote segment of humanity will have consequences far beyond commerce. This will spawn a new world morality eventually.

Hopefully, it will be a more humane one. Hopefully, we will grow to appreciate each other for our differences, not just our similarities. And, hopefully, we will not try to imprint a herd mentality on a sentient society based on a Neanderthal
heritage.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Root of All Evil II -- The US Tax Code

Fellow Americans,

According to Paul O'Neill, former Secretary of the Treasury and CEO of Alcoa, our tax code is an "insult to intelligence", and a fundamental disaster for the country going forward.

Mr. O'Neill opines that a group of intelligent people would "design something that is sensible, that encourages savings and investment, and that fairly distributes the burden of public goods and services we need". In his opinion our current tax system accomplishes none of these.

The reason his suggestion for a fairer tax code is doomed to fail is because, well, it is fairer. At the core of power in this country lies a special-interest lobby which basically directs Congress to do its bidding. The last thing that cabal wants is a fair tax system. Those with the most have the most to lose under a fairer system.

Money talks, fairness walks.