I saw a young lad
wading near the shore of a local lake recently. He was wearing a helmet. The
kind hip bicyclists wear in urban renewal areas. How a helmet could protect him
in this endeavor I can’t say. Maybe his parents thought he might bump heads
with a trout. In recent years I've often seen older kids wearing bike helmets…even
those just riding slowly around their
cul-de-sac.
Safety is
everything now. I get it, I am a parent. The last thing I want is for any kid
(or anyone for that matter) to get hurt needlessly. But we have taken things so
far we are being not just feminized, but infantilized. It’s not just that we
are loathe to do anything that could get anyone physically hurt in any way, we
no longer wish to hurt anyone’s feelings. Or risk offending anyone somehow. And
it’s not just people anymore.
We no longer can
stomach disturbing an owl so we limit harvesting timber. If a single
snail-darter would be inconvenienced we will give up on hydro-electric power.
Peta would like to ban hunting and fishing (gathering will be next).
We pamper our
pets and put them in ‘spas’ when we are on vacation. We put ‘not for human
consumption’ on posters and packs of razor blades. There are some near-term
benefits but terrible long-term costs attached to this ‘cocoon-culture’.
Our softness will
be our undoing. Can you imagine the Revolution occurring today? Who would bear
the burden? Who would stand up and say what they meant, no matter the
consequences. Who would sacrifice life and liberty.
Who among us
today would’ve put their families and
their few earthly possessions into a Conostoga wagon and faced down various
mortal threats for months at a time, crossed the Great Divide and made it to
California to seek a better life? (Now people are leaving California en masse).
Any volunteers
for a reprise of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Exactly as they did it -on
foot -with the same provisions and the same risks? There are no Indians to
worry about now, but dang that Lyme Disease!
We haven’t been
back to the moon in decades. The future of manned space exploration is up in
the air at best. The space shuttle is shut down. Hell, it seems we can’t build
an extraordinary (many years ahead of its time) plane like the SR-71 Blackbird
anymore. The SR-71 photographed in high-resolution detail the entire area of
conflict in the middle east during the Six Days War. In 30 minutes. This
intelligence may have saved Israel as
they were fighting several opponents at once. This was 40 years ago. (Would we
even help Israel now?).
I wonder if
Orville and Wilbur ever got banged up. Were there ever any casualties in the
space program?
The economy is
suffering in part because we won’t drill or extract. Many individuals no longer know how to
do/build/fix things themselves. We won’t achieve at the level we did in the
past because we won’t take the risk. (“No risk, no reward”). All
organizations-public and private- will soon be comprised largely of these
non-knowing non-risk-taking but politically correct individuals. Robots. These organizations will be non-knowing non-risk-taking
politically correct entities. The only difference is the government will have
the ultimate power, as it will have
created a village of idiots that must be taken care of.
Might that be the
goal? It takes a Village…of Idiot’s…to vote for… me.
In truth,
computer technology and all things attendant to it are advancing rapidly. The
computers help us design things and solve problems. Computers are getting
‘smarter’ at a startling rate…just as we are getting dumber and weaker. We will
be dismissed-told to sit the rest of this one out-with the coming singularity.
Yet this isn’t
the most astounding result or aspect of our softness.
For all this
safety consciousness, we will do nothing to protect ourselves or our loved ones
from those who have repeatedly tortured, maimed and killed innocent human life
on a massive scale for years on end. Politically incorrect you know.
And now we
release five top Taliban members? Those who have-at the very least-aided and
abetted terror around the world?
I bet we issued them helmets as they left Gitmo.
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