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Lately I have been unable to refrain from random thinking. Much here is controversial.
I wonder how many businesses destroyed by fire after failing to make money were actually cases of self-inflicted arson in an effort to collect on insurance. And I wonder what underground organizations specialize in these sorts of "transactions."
Regarding business transactions, I have been arguing for more than a decade that being a leader, a president especially, is not the same as being a businessman. Navigating a nation through a sensitive and volatile geopolitical landscape requires diplomacy; it's much more nuanced and complicated than "making deals." It is about understanding and respecting the values of other cultures in an effort to maintain balance and alliances in a global community.
I say this unequivocally: My problem with the current U.S. president has nothing to do with his political party. I would be equally disgusted if he were a Democrat. And I believe it's time for all who know in their hearts that the man is petty, greedy, vengeful, and narcissistic to stop making excuses for him. The real heart of America is not made of glittering gold. The blood that runs through it is red, and it comes from those who have worked hard and sacrificed to preserve freedom.
Does anyone in their right mind believe that big tech companies can effectively "self-police" in the free market? That they are likely to step back willingly from competing against other companies out of a sense of the Greater Good? The only thing stupider than that idea is the far left's call to defund the police. If man could control his selfish desires, there would be no need for government, no call for a “social contract" to protect citizens. We could simply move back to the original Garden, snakes be damned!
Artificial Intelligence has no bias. Its method of analysis is based on factual information, not opinion. However, we human "Creators" might not want to hear the answers to certain questions. For example, what living thing poses the greatest danger to earth's existence? Or, what action needs to be taken to prevent the end of the human race? Or, if we were to pose Robert Frost's question from his poem "Fire and Ice" would we dare to ask, how will the earth end? Will it simply correct Frost by dismissing those two options in favor of "Nukes and Plagues?"
It's baseball season, and another "be careful what you wish for" moment occurred to me recently as I recalled Kevin Costner's film “Field of Dreams.” The quote “Build it and they will come" may have served as motivation for all kinds of businesses to expand, often without regard for whether there was a real chance for success. It became justification for a "build, baby, build" mindset. However, such "progress" has often been imposed on communities, resulting in environmentally risky projects or ones conceived without foresight. There are several examples of these kinds of dubious enterprises in the area where I live.
Has our education system failed so miserably that there are enough ignorant voters out there who believe the political pitch about all the socialists/radical communists out there wanting to take over the country? Is this neo-McCarthyism something summoned back from the dead by political sorcerers? Are our young people not being informed in high school about how our government accommodates elements of both capitalism and socialism? Are people unaware that things like Medicare, Social Security, the postal service, public education, public infrastructure (i.e. roads and bridges) are all examples of beneficial social programs?
Finally, I'm thinking about how people love to complain about taxes, like it’s some greedy big government agent stealing their hard earned money. I propose this as a solution: End taxation. Instead, give everyone a weekly voucher to be spent at a federally run casino. As you probably know, the house always wins. Hence, it would be a win-win situation. The government would make a ton of money, and people would stop whining.
However, there is always the danger that the people will blame their inevitable losses on some hidden group of radicals who rigged the game.
Peter Alan Howard, author of the novel Rosebud Dreamworld, lives in Dunkirk.