Sunday, September 26, 2010

Looking forward—please don’t firebomb the messenger!

Here are some changes that progress is bringing to our lives you can believe in!

As sure as Apple et al are changing the way we live our lives, technologically speaking, genetic engineering will be changing the way our religious beliefs fit into our lives. Although Western-style religions have been able to successfully resist changing their basic premise over the millennia, church elders have been forced to make concessions to accommodate scientific advances since the days of Copernicus and Galileo.

Taken together recent advances in physics, biology, chemistry, nanotechnology, and medicine all have made the possibility of creating life a reality. Does that fact, in and of itself, mean we have reached the final stage of our evolution?

When we begin to clone ourselves, or at least to clone replacement parts, a procedure which will become a reality in the next 20 years or less, we can all stay at the peak of health indefinitely, at least theoretically. (Subject to cash on hand, of course.)

So where does this leave our religion? Religion has always served the purpose of answering the question; what happens to sentient beings after the body dies? My question is, "what happens to religion if the body never dies".

What if, as proposed 10 years ago, a lifespan is just a plumbing problem on a nano sized scale? If we solve the problem of the ever shrinking telomeres at the end of our genes, insuring cell reproduction can continue without degradation, can't we live forever? If we eventually correct that one minor flaw in our genetic make-up, and we can extend our lifespan to at least biblical proportions if not galactic spanning lifetimes, are we gods?

The advance of science will not be stopped so the probability of man's living a lifespan of hundreds of years, dying only when tired of living, will become a reality eventually. Are our Western religions like Christianity and Islam prepared to deal with that eventuality? Seems those religions are based more on dying than on living.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

How is this for a concept steeped in self-delusion? The American Dream.

The American Dream has been blown to smithereens over the previous decade and “the dream” shows no sign of reappearing anytime soon.


Supposedly John Q. Public is on the fence about whether or not to allow the tax benefits enjoyed by the top 2% of the nation’s income earners to expire.

Are You Kidding Me!

We are talking about those whose incomes have been above $250,000 per year, on average, for the previous several years. Is that you, or anyone you know?

Of course not! But that is the grand American delusion. We all think we are just a year or two away from having to consider how to manage our finances after a huge income tax increase comes down on our soon-to-be huger incomes.

The last thing we want to do is to put into place a tax code which might adversely affect our own future net incomes. Stupid. Stupid! Stupid!!

The top 25 hedge fund managers each earned over $1 billion last year. Each one of those incomes could have paid the yearly salaries and benefits of an additional 20,000 teachers, firemen, or police officers to the nations labor forces. And we are supposed to feel sorry for these people’s tax consequences?

I will say it again. How ridiculous! How stupid are we that we feel sympathy for the rich? Why are we crying for the only segment of our population that has managed to increase its wealth over the last decade? Let us not forget that most of these people were rich to start with, will never miss a meal in their life, and will continued to enjoy the best of everything regardless of whether they end up paying a few thousand dollars more in income taxes next year.

We vote and act against our own self-interest frequently because we believe that some kind of divine intervention will balance the scales of our lives some time down the road; at least in many versions of heaven. Unless we start sharing the wealth more equitably immediately and forget about down-the-road most people’s lives will continue to degenerate. We used to consider ourselves to be living in a land of equals but, in fact, nothing is currently further from the truth.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Has the day of the honorable man run its course?

After watching four decades of political leaders around the globe becoming embroiled in controversy, I am now convinced that very few, if any, of our public figures are less than a total cretins in disguise.

Prior to Bill Clinton's presidency there was no such thing as moral turpitude
when it came to public figures sitting in office. Nor, for that matter, were any of our nation's other leaders and public figures any better. John Kennedy was a closet hero when his relationship with Marilyn Monroe became public. Forget about Jefferson's legendary cross culture and public policy misadventures.

But times change and dirty laundry is in the air everywhere today. There is no limit to the number of “stains” exposed on a daily basis around the world and no concern to the degree to which these exposures offend every Nation’s morality, let alone what's left of any country's dignity. For more disgrace for example take the world's captains of industry, people like Tony Hayward, or the leaders of Enron, or Bernie Madoff. These people make the news, but they are by no means the only news of this kind.

How about the military endowment fund; A pseudonym for the military appropriations committee and its band of modern-day treasury looting Robin Hood's. You remember Robin Hood, king of a band of merry men who looted the king’s treasury, stole the king's fortune, and then waged war for profit with those gains. If times do change, it doesn't seem like much of a change over many centuries.

There are always, of course, people of outstanding character and integrity. These people seem to avoid the public whenever possible, and avoid public service with a passion.

I wonder why.