Why spend time carefully constructing an argument when all that's really needed is a bumper sticker. Hence the following...six quick insights that you can either cheer or hiss based strictly on what you already believe.
1) Building Better Brains: Whenever people talk about mankind's progress down from the trees and out of the caves they are sure to bring up cars and computers and, that extra special favorite, going to the moon as proof of our privileged place way beyond anything our ancestors might have imagined. But ask yourself this...how have advances in science and technology made us better as a species? Have Ice Age cretins simply replaced their clubs with thermonuclear devices? How, specifically, have Space Age humans gotten any better than their Stone Age predecessors at using their brains to maximize harmony and minimize discord here and abroad?
2) Analysis at a Distance: The professional societies to which Shrinks belong all agree it's unethical to analyze an individual you haven't examined. Why? Because it would then become obvious that the whole business is a sham. Two analysts, on different sides of the love/hate Bush dichotomy, recently wrote about the President's mental state on being told of 9/11. One said the long silence was a time of critical thought prior to a reasoned decision while the other saw it as a time of total confusion probably related to brain damage brought on by years of substance abuse? Believe what you will, Drs. Laura, Phil and Ruth are nothing but busybody yentas!
3) A Good Education: Mostly this is defined as learning that you can take to the bank; learning that results in a check. From air conditioner repair to architectural design, it's a good education if it leads directly to cash and prestige near the top of your social station. This, my friends, is not education. It's training. This is what you should learn on the job and what kids learned, during more enlightened times, as apprentices. True education, a broad liberal arts approach to knowledge, teaches one how to live not how to make a living. As such, it's a luxury that those with limited finances can't afford and those with limited intellects can't appreciate.
4) Throwing Money at a Problem: An obvious example of such nonsense would be a fellow off to the side of the road tossing cash at a flat tire. A less obvious example would be the same fellow writing a check to charity. In the best light, charitable organizations may be seen as ineffective...in the worst light as counter productive. Can you name a single one that did such a good job it was able to close its doors? After administrative skimming, the fraction of the donation that's left goes to what exactly? Would you bet your life on it? One agency's rather astute slogan was Don't give until it hurts...just until it feels good. To donate is to buy yourself a warm, fuzzy feeling. Period!
5) Curing Cancer: A common refrain goes something like Why doesn't the government start a crash program to stop cancer? We went to the moon so why can't we find a cure. The problem with such reasoning has to do with the difference between science and technology. Science asks why some cells go berserk while technology asks how can we make a big rocket bigger. Clearly, one is a whole lot harder than the other. And besides that, breakthroughs in science (unlike developments in technology) can't be rushed. No matter how big and well funded a bureaucracy you build, you simply can't speed up the pace of serendipitous discovery.
6) Middle Class Parents: Today's enormous middle class is a relatively new phenomenon. It evolved mostly from merchants and craftsmen who were better off than lowers but by no means uppers. Curiously, this in-between group took on the parenting role of the lowers but, with more leisure time, extended it beyond all reason. Uppers have nurses and nannies to handle the grunge work. Lowers are forced to do it themselves until their broods reach adolescence. The middles serve as cleaners and care givers (thereby losing any status as authority figures) and then insist on asserting control through the teen years. No wonder the middle class turns out to be neurotic.
