I can't recall the name of the comedian who said the modern world has made us all impatient. She (i remember it was a she) had a line that went, "I bought my father a microwave and now he stands there and yells at it saying 'Come on! I don't have all minute!'" Which nicely sums up the American attitude toward coffee as well as the economy. Fix it NOW!
But some things in life take time, that's all there is to it. I was once speaking to a geologist who said to me, 'do you realize that any rock in your driveway is at least a million years old?' A million years and it's still a rock. It hasn't been ground into sand or dust yet. That takes another million or so years. Like it or not, you can stand over your tomato plants and threaten them and call them names but that isn't going to get you a fresh tomato any sooner.
Here's a shocker for some of you: getting a bit of information from the TV, radio, magazines, newspapers or the CNN website has nothing to do with knowledge and education.
It used to be against the law for someone to ride into town, gather a crowd and hold up a bottle of colored water with flavoring in it, claim it would cure gout, rheumatism, heart disease, athletes foot and warts on your buttocks and then collect money from suckers who couldn't wait to buy a bottle or ten. Apparently that's no longer true. You can say any damn fool thing you want, even something that is scientifically incorrect or made up and get away with it in print or on the airwaves. People can compare Barack Obama to Hitler and be listened to, despite the fact that even a cursory reading of the totalitarian regime the nazis imposed isn't remotely similar to anything any president has ever put into place. The Bush administration can stand in front of the American people and lie - lie - about Iraq's role in the September 11th attacks and weapons of mass destruction and drag the entire country into war and nobody bats an eyelash except a few cranks like me who are called "unpatriotic." (For the record, staunch conservative Bill O'Reilly admitted on the David Letterman show a few nights ago that going to war with Iraq was a mistake but he supported the invasion because all of the "reportage" indicated weapons of mass destruction. So much for accurate reportage). So yes, you can sell snake oil. And if you get caught at it, nobody's going to say or do a damn thing. If you've been following the news you know that Bernie Madoff has been bragging in letters to friends about being treated like a celebrity in prison. He ought to be scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush for $3.50 an hour, all wages to go to some charity. He ought to be sold into slavery. But instead he's a guest of the taxpayers and laughing about it. All things considered, not a bad ending to his story, considering what would have happened to him in, say, Saudi Arabia if he had embezzled the king's money.
But I digress.
So back to the questions: what do you "know" and how did you "learn" it?
Learning takes time. You have to do a little research, ask people more knowledgeable than yourself, read more, more research, re-consider your hypothesis, examine things from different angles, etc. And most people are not willing to do that. They want the answer NOW. And dishonest politicians and arrogant know-it-all talk show hosts are happy to provide them with an answer now. A wrong answer, an answer that is poorly thought out, an answer where repercussions are never considered, but what the hell, it's a bunch of words that sound good.
Unfortunately, if you get your "information" from people who aren't experts, might as well have a bright seventeen year old high school student with a copy of "Cardiac Surgery for Dummies" do your quadruple bypass.
But some things in life take time, that's all there is to it. I was once speaking to a geologist who said to me, 'do you realize that any rock in your driveway is at least a million years old?' A million years and it's still a rock. It hasn't been ground into sand or dust yet. That takes another million or so years. Like it or not, you can stand over your tomato plants and threaten them and call them names but that isn't going to get you a fresh tomato any sooner.
Here's a shocker for some of you: getting a bit of information from the TV, radio, magazines, newspapers or the CNN website has nothing to do with knowledge and education.
It used to be against the law for someone to ride into town, gather a crowd and hold up a bottle of colored water with flavoring in it, claim it would cure gout, rheumatism, heart disease, athletes foot and warts on your buttocks and then collect money from suckers who couldn't wait to buy a bottle or ten. Apparently that's no longer true. You can say any damn fool thing you want, even something that is scientifically incorrect or made up and get away with it in print or on the airwaves. People can compare Barack Obama to Hitler and be listened to, despite the fact that even a cursory reading of the totalitarian regime the nazis imposed isn't remotely similar to anything any president has ever put into place. The Bush administration can stand in front of the American people and lie - lie - about Iraq's role in the September 11th attacks and weapons of mass destruction and drag the entire country into war and nobody bats an eyelash except a few cranks like me who are called "unpatriotic." (For the record, staunch conservative Bill O'Reilly admitted on the David Letterman show a few nights ago that going to war with Iraq was a mistake but he supported the invasion because all of the "reportage" indicated weapons of mass destruction. So much for accurate reportage). So yes, you can sell snake oil. And if you get caught at it, nobody's going to say or do a damn thing. If you've been following the news you know that Bernie Madoff has been bragging in letters to friends about being treated like a celebrity in prison. He ought to be scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush for $3.50 an hour, all wages to go to some charity. He ought to be sold into slavery. But instead he's a guest of the taxpayers and laughing about it. All things considered, not a bad ending to his story, considering what would have happened to him in, say, Saudi Arabia if he had embezzled the king's money.
But I digress.
So back to the questions: what do you "know" and how did you "learn" it?
Learning takes time. You have to do a little research, ask people more knowledgeable than yourself, read more, more research, re-consider your hypothesis, examine things from different angles, etc. And most people are not willing to do that. They want the answer NOW. And dishonest politicians and arrogant know-it-all talk show hosts are happy to provide them with an answer now. A wrong answer, an answer that is poorly thought out, an answer where repercussions are never considered, but what the hell, it's a bunch of words that sound good.
Unfortunately, if you get your "information" from people who aren't experts, might as well have a bright seventeen year old high school student with a copy of "Cardiac Surgery for Dummies" do your quadruple bypass.
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