The danger of oblivion

Have you noticed how much more oblivious people are these days, even when their own survival may be at stake? I am not talking mountain climbing. I am talking parking lots, door ways, sidewalks, or other public spaces.

Parking lots are great places to see this. Not too long ago, I was driving through the parking lot of a shopping center and could easily have driven right over a woman talking to another woman--I was within inches of these women and they never once turned their heads. They never once noticed. They never once cared. So I sat there, observing their complete oblivion to a busy parking lot, fascinated but worried.

The other day, I was leaving a restaurant and a young kid slammed into me, bounced off, then went inside while his mother practically stepped on my foot. Why? Because I was not there.

My friend calls these people oblivoids and I argue we are becoming a nation of oblivoids.

What is this incredible oblivion linked to? Self-absoprtion? That there are just too many of us and we have grown tired with civility? We are pressed for time? We just don't care anymore? Bad parenting? Stupidity? The white trashization of our culture? (Just watch ABC and NBC for one night and this is confirmed). A loss of compassion for one another?

I don't know but it scares me and off I go into a "when I was a kid" diatribe but WHEN I WAS A KID, my mother would have made me say "excuse me" to every transgression. Would have taught me to apologize for slamming into anyone or stepping on their foot. She even made me write out thank you cards by hand no less(!) whenever I received a gift from anyone. In other words, I was raised to be aware of other people: their presence, their generousity, their speech, their needs...
My parents were attuned to their surroundings enough to create a space of civility around our existence. Maybe this was just the Middle Class way.

Now you have to anticipate the oblivoids because they are definitely not anticipating you. Can we be expected to compensate for these people in our society?
TO be the ones that say "I'm sorry" when we did absolutely nothing wrong but they
slammed into you in the grocery store line? Do we become like them and say nothing eventually? Being aware of one another and the space we take up is critical to a
civilized society. One thing is for sure, we are heading in the opposite direction.

Thank you Nancy Pelosi for Empowering the Psychopaths

"Are you still on that?"

Yea and why the hell aren't you? I am still pissed. Still flummoxed. Still paroxyisizing. Still pick an adjective (please!).

You see the effect her professed sing-a-long with the Mafia has had on these psychopaths--it has empowered them. You don't play your trump card at the beginning of the game. You hold it close to your chest then slap it down at the end. What is going on? Has anyone told Nancy Pelosi that the Bush Administration prefabricated an excuse to attack Iraq then inserted the objective in after 9/11? That they fabricated the intelligence, a nice way of saying LIED? That they ruined so many lives inside and outside the beltway? Karl Rove? Hell OH? Yes, he is still in the Oval Office. Hello? Anyone home? That the final grab for oil reserves has started worldwide with new powerful international players? That the Euro may displace the dollar on the world market? Are you all yawning by now? Yea, so tell us something we don't know. So we can assume Ms. Pelosi knows this stuff, right? On to the next premise.

If she knows these men are criminals, then why empower them? Why grant them immunity from the law and the constitution? What in the hell does she possibly think she can get from "cooperation" with this Mafia? A cut on the profits? Protection?
Kickbacks? Deals? Is she naive as hell? I really don't get it. Is this a "strategy" like the "strategy" of the Democrats the past six years to DO NOTHING but wait while thousands die in the meantime? What more could you possibly want but an impressive and blatant series of CRIMES if you are the opposition party? The "other" party? The checks and balances of the whole system--you have a bunch of crooks on your hands and you proclaim you want a "spirit of cooperation" with them? Help me. What is this?

I don't understand and I want to understand. My blood pressure needs to understand.
The veins in the side of my neck need to understand. My clenched jaw needs to understand.

Why did the progressive 'darling' of the Democrat Party declare impeachment off the table within the first 20 minutes at the gavel? Somebody explain it to me.

Thank you

How to truly measure the rate at which a civilization evolves--an inversion

What is a measurement of how "advanced" a culture is? Is it based on technological
developments? The ability to manipulate more and more macro and micro environments (genetics)? The ability to kill thousands of people with one bomb, or conversely, destroy only structures? What is the measure?

As stated by Carl Jung, we call cultures that lived with and on the land "primitive".
Cultures that used native plants and wildlife and moved between the sea and mountains, or prairie to harvest the earth's natural resources are considered "savage" or "uncivilized". We, however, the more advanced culture, spend millions and millions of dollars, subjugate populations to drill and refine oil into which we turn into products that we use only once, then we bury them in the ground where they pollute our soil and watersheds. Yes, indeed, we are the more "advanced" culture.

The whole idea and definition of progress has to be re-evaluated and the survival of the human species depends on it.

How ironic that we have suppposedly advanced through so many industrial revolutions only to find that we are now at global risk of extinction. Personally, and in alignment with E.O. Wilson, the best thing for the earth would be the extinction of the human species. She would be fine without us. Parasites are hard to expel.

So how do we measure civilzation if technological achievements are not the way? Do we measure it by the arts then? Music? Literature or poetry? Do we measure it by how kind we are to one another (altruism which I argue is impossible in the human species) or how cruel? Is power a measure of how civilized a culture is?

None of these are right. I propose that we measure a civilization by the rate of its lowest mentality, not its highest and until we can pull the lowest mentality forward
(the end must meet the tip), this is where our culture sits. It is not the scientist who discovers a cure for AIDS that advances our civilization. It is the ignorant, selfish and barbaric that define it and until we can force these primitive beings
(many of which are in the U.S. Congress) forward, our whole culture suffers. More simply, we are dragged down into the dregs which is what they represent.

If we do not pay attention to this, we face alarming changes in our society as these
lower levels of civilization gain more power yet by doing so, they prove my
theory.

A civilzation moves at the rate of its lowest mentality.

I'm afraid this is the best measure.