We can't.
Maybe it's that simple... we just can't handle truth anymore. We've gotten so soft and scared that we will refuse to recognize the truth until it slaps us hard in the face.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours." - HST
Man it's been a crazy couple of days... I've been meaning to tear right into this thing so lets get going.
Facts are stubborn things. (Points if you can tell me who said that one!)
We can dress statements up in phrases like "I'm just saying what I think" or "We all have our own opinions"... but they don't really add any sort of value to what was said.
Lets get deeper into this thing.
I have never (or at least very very rarely) heard the two nonsense pieces mentioned above from people who actually had done the research on the subject or who knew what the hell they were talking about. We can't really believe that there's no such thing as a hard truth or real fact. If there's nothing concrete in this world then we might as well just rule by the magic 8-ball. "It's just what I think" defends a bad hair cut or a poor choice of restaurants... it's not really admissible in a debate about national policy or morality.
I think it all comes down to another crock we've all bought into... "offensive is bad"
The ideas behind not offending people have their start in the best of places. Manners and the concepts of polite conversation are ideals that I think this nation can and should try to recapture. We weren't supposed to offend people with conversation topics that come across as rude, mean, etc. And I agree with those ideas in theory at least. I think you should try not to needlessly tread on people's toes just for the fun of it. But sometimes the truth is an offensive thing. Yes I said it... truth can be offensive.
But offensive doesn't mean not true.
If I point out how fat someone has become, or mock a bald man, or ridicule the mentally challenged... have I lied? I've crossed social rules and boundaries certainly... no question there. Pointing out the obvious for the sake of mockery is needless and wrong. But look at that wording... obvious. The obvious truth of the statements is what made them offensive. I have to walk carefully here because I don't want to come across as endorsing baseness...
I don't think we got here on purpose, I think we just took things way too far. That seems to be a recurring theme in history; people never know when enough is enough. I can understand where those motivations come from... it's very easy to get carried away by a cause. The difficult thing to determine is at what point you've stopped moving towards your goal and have begun to cause your own brand of harm.
The concepts of politcal correctness stem from politeness. But we went too far and now we are boardering up on ignorance. If we really hope to find solutions for any of our problems we have to start from the facts, whatever they may be. It's possible that some people are not going to like them. But, as I qouted earlier, "Facts are stubborn things" and they do not change or become less simply for being disliked.
Facts are stubborn things. (Points if you can tell me who said that one!)
We can dress statements up in phrases like "I'm just saying what I think" or "We all have our own opinions"... but they don't really add any sort of value to what was said.
Lets get deeper into this thing.
I have never (or at least very very rarely) heard the two nonsense pieces mentioned above from people who actually had done the research on the subject or who knew what the hell they were talking about. We can't really believe that there's no such thing as a hard truth or real fact. If there's nothing concrete in this world then we might as well just rule by the magic 8-ball. "It's just what I think" defends a bad hair cut or a poor choice of restaurants... it's not really admissible in a debate about national policy or morality.
I think it all comes down to another crock we've all bought into... "offensive is bad"
The ideas behind not offending people have their start in the best of places. Manners and the concepts of polite conversation are ideals that I think this nation can and should try to recapture. We weren't supposed to offend people with conversation topics that come across as rude, mean, etc. And I agree with those ideas in theory at least. I think you should try not to needlessly tread on people's toes just for the fun of it. But sometimes the truth is an offensive thing. Yes I said it... truth can be offensive.
But offensive doesn't mean not true.
If I point out how fat someone has become, or mock a bald man, or ridicule the mentally challenged... have I lied? I've crossed social rules and boundaries certainly... no question there. Pointing out the obvious for the sake of mockery is needless and wrong. But look at that wording... obvious. The obvious truth of the statements is what made them offensive. I have to walk carefully here because I don't want to come across as endorsing baseness...
I don't think we got here on purpose, I think we just took things way too far. That seems to be a recurring theme in history; people never know when enough is enough. I can understand where those motivations come from... it's very easy to get carried away by a cause. The difficult thing to determine is at what point you've stopped moving towards your goal and have begun to cause your own brand of harm.
The concepts of politcal correctness stem from politeness. But we went too far and now we are boardering up on ignorance. If we really hope to find solutions for any of our problems we have to start from the facts, whatever they may be. It's possible that some people are not going to like them. But, as I qouted earlier, "Facts are stubborn things" and they do not change or become less simply for being disliked.
Oilslick
I cannot believe that oil is under 50 dollars a barrel.
OPEC doesn't want us drilling in the ANWR... so they've tanked the price of oil.
Drug Dealers...
OPEC doesn't want us drilling in the ANWR... so they've tanked the price of oil.
Drug Dealers...
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