WE NEED FORTUNE TELLERS, AND TO BELIEVE IN THEM:
There are two times when I meditate most, coming up with insights: When I'm out taking a walk, and when I'm riding along in the car... (driving OR a passenger). This morning on the way home from breakfast out, my great idea was, "Why is it we don't have fortune tellers anymore." Of course I know that no one can see the future, but when fortune tellers made it their business, they at least looked at the facts of what was going on at the time; what had happened historically during like periods; and predicted a like outcome. If anyone ever said History doesn't repeat itself he was wrong. The fact we record history should make each of us into our own fortune teller. What is wrong with this human race is that we have a very low attention span. We blindly seem to be going out for instant gratification without even a thought as to the outcome. How did human-kind ever get to this point? I believe it is because we used to rely on fortune tellers instead of looking ourselves for the signs of the future outcomes based on the past and what is happening today.
From my perspective--one who has lived through a past oil shortage, and even earlier was brought up by parents who had managed to survive the Great Depression and learned the hard way about what happens when a society doesn't watch what is happening to the economy until it is too late--I could see this coming for a long, long time. From Ronald Reagan's presidency on. I thought it was going to be the National Debt which would do us in... living in a nation operating on a deficit as a way of life.
People my age and older also went through the economizing on gas with the smaller vehicles during the last big oil shortage, and I just couldn't believe it when less than 30 years later, people living in cities thought it cool to get a Hummer. Only on the unpaved roads of the Ozark mountains or in urban neighborhoods with drive-by shootings could I see the necessity of some car that looked like it could survive a war zone.
So... Now the United States is suffering a HUGE surprise, like, "I never saw it coming!" ... Come on! How Could We Not Have Seen This Coming?? We were a nation in denial. And, I'll bet if we had fortune tellers, people would only be going to them to get insider information so they could get more instant gratification in their wallet, or driven off from a showroom. This whole country has to either straighten up and fly right... or to GROW UP. Enough is enough. The stupidity is like mass thinking: down to the least common denominator. We seem to want the government to do all the thinking for us, not realizing that WE ARE the Government. We have to think ahead. Was IBM's slogan just "THINK"? or "THINK AHEAD"? We have to do both.
I remember taking a walk in the woods way above Rock Road in Vestal, NY--a little road along a creek that through the eons had carved a deep canyon. From above, I heard the roar of an auto and looked down at a noisy sedan full of teenagers one of which had chosen to spread eagle face down on the roof holding on to the gutter above the front doors, while the car was driven way too fast for this little road where there was barely room to pass an oncoming car. They had absolutely NO forethought of what would happen if they met another car. The one on top would be killed for sure. They were lucky. No one was coming, they joy rode without incident. Crazy, wasn't that. But, teens will be teens, and some will die because of their lack of forethought, or their want of the thrill of doing something life threatening and surviving. But, to be adults in this world, a CEO or President of an automotive company without any forethought is like strapping everyone on the roofs of the cars they are building, hoping that there's nothing bad coming from the other direction... just around the bend.
There are two times when I meditate most, coming up with insights: When I'm out taking a walk, and when I'm riding along in the car... (driving OR a passenger). This morning on the way home from breakfast out, my great idea was, "Why is it we don't have fortune tellers anymore." Of course I know that no one can see the future, but when fortune tellers made it their business, they at least looked at the facts of what was going on at the time; what had happened historically during like periods; and predicted a like outcome. If anyone ever said History doesn't repeat itself he was wrong. The fact we record history should make each of us into our own fortune teller. What is wrong with this human race is that we have a very low attention span. We blindly seem to be going out for instant gratification without even a thought as to the outcome. How did human-kind ever get to this point? I believe it is because we used to rely on fortune tellers instead of looking ourselves for the signs of the future outcomes based on the past and what is happening today.
From my perspective--one who has lived through a past oil shortage, and even earlier was brought up by parents who had managed to survive the Great Depression and learned the hard way about what happens when a society doesn't watch what is happening to the economy until it is too late--I could see this coming for a long, long time. From Ronald Reagan's presidency on. I thought it was going to be the National Debt which would do us in... living in a nation operating on a deficit as a way of life.
People my age and older also went through the economizing on gas with the smaller vehicles during the last big oil shortage, and I just couldn't believe it when less than 30 years later, people living in cities thought it cool to get a Hummer. Only on the unpaved roads of the Ozark mountains or in urban neighborhoods with drive-by shootings could I see the necessity of some car that looked like it could survive a war zone.
So... Now the United States is suffering a HUGE surprise, like, "I never saw it coming!" ... Come on! How Could We Not Have Seen This Coming?? We were a nation in denial. And, I'll bet if we had fortune tellers, people would only be going to them to get insider information so they could get more instant gratification in their wallet, or driven off from a showroom. This whole country has to either straighten up and fly right... or to GROW UP. Enough is enough. The stupidity is like mass thinking: down to the least common denominator. We seem to want the government to do all the thinking for us, not realizing that WE ARE the Government. We have to think ahead. Was IBM's slogan just "THINK"? or "THINK AHEAD"? We have to do both.
I remember taking a walk in the woods way above Rock Road in Vestal, NY--a little road along a creek that through the eons had carved a deep canyon. From above, I heard the roar of an auto and looked down at a noisy sedan full of teenagers one of which had chosen to spread eagle face down on the roof holding on to the gutter above the front doors, while the car was driven way too fast for this little road where there was barely room to pass an oncoming car. They had absolutely NO forethought of what would happen if they met another car. The one on top would be killed for sure. They were lucky. No one was coming, they joy rode without incident. Crazy, wasn't that. But, teens will be teens, and some will die because of their lack of forethought, or their want of the thrill of doing something life threatening and surviving. But, to be adults in this world, a CEO or President of an automotive company without any forethought is like strapping everyone on the roofs of the cars they are building, hoping that there's nothing bad coming from the other direction... just around the bend.
posted by Cranberry Jo @ 11/09/2008 12:19:00 PM
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