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

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.

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.

Conservative Libertarian

Which means that I believe in a society setting minimum rules of behavior and enforcing them with a limited government, paying for it by fees and fines.  Everything has a value and the consequences of infringing upon the liberty of others will require restitution and resolve.

Current Events

May 3, 2011 One has to wonder where all of this is headed. My initial feels are that we are in for some really bad times, economic, political, social, and even religious. However, I am impressed by the history of this country and the resiliency of people. There are a quite a few who think someone should take care of them. there are some who will try to profit at the expense of others and the vast majority will do what is necessary to work it out. It is those people that constantly outwit the pundits and cause the outcome to be different than the conventional wisdom proponents suggest.

I am inclined to think that there are some signs of positive things happening which will rescue this country from those who wish to destroy it. The question is, will we learn a lesson from the up coming economic meltdown and start to live within our means or will we, as they say 'kick the can down the road'.

Smartest guy in the room

Bernanke's failure is rooted in his belief that WWII was a model for America's recovery strategy.  Spend money!  He failed to understand that America circa 21 century is not a developing nation but a fat and sassy one. He failed to recognize that industrial America was poised to produce all of the necessities for a generation of people ready willing and able to build it themselves and pay for it with credit.  Today's american, even the so-called poor have too much of what we don't really need so cutting back is not a problem and, for many, paying their bills makes more sense. He failed to recognize that manufacturing of the staple goods have gone over seas and every purchase at Walmart sends the money to china. His belief that opportunity chases money and if there is a surplus of money the innovators will rescue the day when in fact 'need' is the mother of invention and surplus cash leads to surplus laziness.  He forgot that america of old had few regulations and abundant resources waiting to be developed as opposed to an over regulated, uncertain business environment, with all of the resources placed off limits to development by the environmentalist wack-os. His biggest failure was to let the socialist's powermongers give the money to the Walmart shoppers and siphon it off for welfare and union saving rather than use the money to motivate 'employee hiring' enterprises that are viable and not simply pipe dreams.

The whole premise that the economic system would collapse and that everything as we know it would cease to exist indicated his basic failure of not really recognizing the potential of America and Americans, it  epitomizes the attitude of the so called elite, the smartest in the room mentality.