Hokum's Razor

Hokum’s Razor

It is as fine as frog’s hair the difference between an educated citizenry and the ability of those in power to control those that are educated. The tipping point between complacency and moral outrage is a very fine line indeed. I’ve lived through the last 50 years as a distracted yet interested observer. Education is, after all, a life long endeavor and the greatest equalizer. The trick is to know what to observe, study, and learn opposed to what you are being fed, manipulated by, and placated by as you go through your life minding your own business.
The propaganda is subtle but the corruption is complete. Morals and values are replaced with painted on patriotism and misplaced loyalty. Yet these are how Americans want to follow their leaders. Things that may once have been a part of our republic and its values are misplaced when we expect them from the extreme end of capitalism and the manipulation of religion. We have a country of fundamentalist fanatical consumers.
I don’t remember when the turning point was for me, around my mid-thirties perhaps, when I realized that there was a drastic diminishing return with regards to my happiness and my debt load. I had been caught up in the marketing and advertising to the point where the seasons of my life were defined by the things I owned. A snowmobile, ski trips, and ice fishing for winter. Fishing gear, a canoe, and travel in spring. A boat, a motorcycle, a sports car, and so many other things for summer, and all of the above in the fall, but the service I had to put into supporting all those things diminished rather than enhanced my life.
I turned away from the pursuit of material goods as a way of defining who I was. To my credit card companies I’m a free loader, only using my cards to make purchases and then paying off the total amount. To others I may appear as being cheap or frugal owning electronics and vehicles until they stop working and can’t be repaired. And to listen to our Presidents Bush, and I’m sad to say, Obama I’m not much of a patriot because my first impulse is not to go out and make purchases to give the economy a boost. Though I have made purchases as my needs demanded for durable goods.
The primary factor in any equation for capitalism is growth. Listen to any economist and growth is the key healthy indicator for any sector. And this single factor is behind every negative aspect in our society and the planet.
When traffic patterns, vehicle fuel consumption, the destruction of public transportation, and speed limits are considered, all of them contribute to the need for more fuel, more oil, more gas stations, more tires, and more repairs.
When scientists develop food sources through gene manipulation and other methods to increase yields, the cost goes down visibly, but the cost on the planet in the use of fertilizer, land, and water is unseen and not taught to the public. Another aspect of this, not immediately visible is the growth in the global population. Where, in the past, population was a factor of naturally available food sources and organically grown crops, population is now out of balance with the natural ability of the planet to support it. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is a result of contaminants and run off from upriver. Another contributing factor has been the levee system that prevents silt, a natural by product of flooding, from nurturing the delta groves.
Electrical generation has been a factor of demand also. Larger homes need more lighting, cooling, and heating. Larger homes need more construction material, more furniture, and more maintenance. Everything is designed to encourage consumerism, capitalism’s extreme. But it does promote growth.
With larger homes, cars, boats, and toys more insurance is needed, more protection, and more attention. The loans necessary to buy them also cost more money. A home purchase for 150K can wind up costing twice that with interest over thirty years.
Larger people also need more care and maintenance, especially if they’ve been fed the processed foods we eat and use tobacco products, all approved and sanctioned by our leaders.
The citizens in this country are nothing more than the support system for corporate greed. Regardless of the patriotic rhetoric, religious overtures, and outright manipulation all of who we are and what we do is a designed to enrich a very small percentage of people. The deck is stacked against morality, simplicity, and common sense.