Friday, July 18, 2014

Alice in Blunderland

We've been hearing about downed Malaysian airliners for half of the year. And for the other half of the year, all we've been talking about is the Ukraine. 

So now we can talk about downed Malaysian airliners IN THE Ukraine. 

Who makes this shit up? No blog can possibly compete with these headlines...

A glimpse into the future past
If you want to know how people lived a thousand years ago, just look at the Middle East. People were killing each other constantly. Everyone disagreed and yet they were each "right" about matters concerning the impossible aka. religion. Even at this late date, there are so many different factions involved, that it's impossible to keep track of the entire fiasco. Who is aligned with whom, for what reason and for how long?

Granted it wasn't that long ago that all of Europe was en fuego constantly, with war as well, so perhaps I shouldn't be so judgmental. It only took that continent several hundred years of continuous warfare and two world wars to finally decide upon a common currency. Still, the major difference is that Europe had centuries to prepare for modernity whereas many of the Middle Eastern countries were living in the Stone Age as recently as the 1950s. I'm reading an excellent book called "The Looming Tower: Road to 9/11". I'm not finished yet, but already a key takeaway is how many different sects exist within Islam and how even within the Sunni sect, the Saudi Wahhabi sub-sect differs from other Sunni interpretations. It's no different than Christianity with all of its sects, except generally Presbyterians don't declare holy war on Lutherans. 

A Clash of Civilizations: We are all infidels
But don't get me started on religion. Seven billion people and at least 8 billion religions. Plenty of reasons to kill each other to go around. I understand why people raised in the recent Stone Age would want to turn their back on the modern world. They know that it's a cesspool. They know that it's generally morally void, materialistic, superficial, promiscuous, decadent, stop me any time. Nevertheless, it's our cesspool and those of us who call it home don't buy into the fantasy delusion that there is only one way to live i.e. the lethal delusion which is held by every single fanatic who was conveniently informed by God of the only way to live. And therein lies the warfare. Because once someone settles on the lethal delusion - then warfare becomes inevitable. Hence why Bin Laden declared global jihad, which was directed at most Muslims as well by the way - for their intransigent failure to see things his way. Here in the cesspool, our common religion is tolerance, because in the nuclear age, without it, no one survives. 

We Can Fix the Middle East, Global Warming, Peak Oil, ExxonMobil all at the same time:
What's the point? The point is that we could have solved this never-ending clusterfuck in the Middle East a long long time ago. Just stop buying their oil. Everything they buy derives from oil money. They vehemently reject a modern way of life except when it comes to heavy artillery and the other toys of the modern battlefield. Our continued reliance on their oil provides the funds they use to buy the weapons  and fund their jihad. Without the oil money they would be fighting with sticks and stones. 

How many lives were blown apart on all sides during these recent wars and now in this recent conflagaration, all so that SUVs can drive to soccer practice 50 miles each way?

We can fix this problem. Send them back to the Stone Age, where they'll be happier anyway.

Of course, this all makes way too much fucking sense, so instead we will just continue wrapping these same nooses around our necks, bungee jumping off that same bridge and otherwise taking non-stop advice from game show hosts on how to "fix" these problems.