Tuesday, June 28, 2011

angry birds revisited

Today's conventional wisdom is that we can launch an idea toward a perceived problem or futuristic outlook and think that it is relevant.  For example, I read a recent article about the demise of the Dollar as the reserve currency.  In 25 years...  That is like loading an idea up in a sling shot and launching it toward a perceived situation and expecting that at the end of the journey the idea will be unaffected by time and distance and that the structure has somehow not changed.

Everything changes and the simple fact of addressing it causes changes.  Instead of pontificating about the outcome which is worthless it would be much better to put forward a strategy toward some desirable end.

For example the world needs a reserve currency and that currency needs to be as stable as it can be.  Stability comes from discipline which is achieved through responsibility.  A second aspect is that the reserve currency status is not delegated but earned. It is achieved by being the predominant economy.  Economic vitality presumes risk and risk is associated with instability. Instability can only be countered by integrity and responsibility.

Integrity can be taught, modeled and promoted. Responsibility can be monitored and measured. It is the standards of responsibility that must be discussed. It is the duty of the purveyors of conventional wisdom to maintain the standards of responsibility.

Angry Bird Mentality

The recent smart phone game to go viral is called "Angry Birds".  Little did the authors and developers know but they actually created a metaphor for our current mentality.  In angry birds a structure exist which houses some green pigs that have supposedly stolen the birds eggs.  Angry birds are then sling shot toward the structure with the intent of destroying the structure and killing the pigs resulting in a fictitious score and utter destruction of the structure, the pigs, and the birds.

The current mentality is that capitalism, the green pigs, have stolen the riches of the world, constructed an edifice unto themselves and therefore must be destroyed by catapulting constituent groups of angry citizens into the structure to break down the environmentally damaging structure and destroy the capitalists within while accumulating points which presumably means that the person shooting the birds can now post his name as score leader.

The metaphor doesn't stop there.  Once the destruction is complete, the game will reset or advances to the next level epitomizing the current mentality which assumes that life is a game and that it will reset itself with no lasting damage.  Society can be destroyed, the pigs of the world vanquished and all will be well at the next level.  Only it is the same scenario with more pigs, bigger structures, improved defenses which proves more difficult to destroy.

I have a suggestion to improve the metaphor and that would be to eventually turn each pig red and house them in an practically indestructible grass shack adjacent to the diminishing capitalist structures. Eventually all of the pigs are turned red, the capitalists no longer want to steal the wealth or build environmentally destructive structures, the world is at peace and the birds are no longer angry and the game comes to an end. RIP

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Self-absorbed

It has occurred to me that the political climate, we find ourselves in today, was inevitable. The standards of good and right are always contested by the proponents of selfishness and laziness.  The experience and wisdom of sacrifice and hard work by the ambitious are wasted on the philosophies advocated by the self-absorbed. The willingness of the meek will always be met by the greed of the malcontent.   And the apathy of the many contributes to the strength of minority.

Consequently we find too many of the future generation: increasingly ignorant of their history; illiterate, stupid, and uninformed; deeply in debt and lacking the resolve and education to do what is necessary to make things better.

The world doesn't have to be plundered or wasted and the people don't have to be starved or abused but the  greedy and powerful won't exercise self-restraint and the poor and powerless won't exercise self-control.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Metamorphic layer

Either I don't understand the metamorphic process or the process is different than explained.  How does a layer of metamorphic rock exist between two layers of sedimentary deposits?

I suppose that the layer is lime stone which is a precepitate while the upper and lower sedimentary layers are erosion deposits. Which could mean that the lime was deposited while the world was dry or cold and the ocean was very stable and possibly very deep resulting in the hard lens.