"I'M REALLY A GAZELLE" PLEADS SLICK
I think there is a point here to be made regarding the "big picture", but let me preface my remarks by saying that I don't read newspapers, (except IBD and WSJ), I don't watch news on TV, (except NBR and a couple of others on PBS), and I don't listen to the radio. Here is why: some years back I got the idea that maybe the press/media/news/politicians/psychiatrists was kinda like a bunch of piranha in a watering hole. They sit and wait for some poor lame gazelle to trip and slide into the water. Then it's a frenzy to see who can get the biggest chunk before there is nothing left but a skeleton. The big piranha, (Geraldo is a stellar example), will even jump out of the water if they see something that even looks like fresh meat. The rest of the school takes their cue from the big fish, (and yes, the metaphor is not exact, there are some "good" piranha). The game is: "create a controversy, we don't care about anything else. Eat or die." The rules in the water are set by the piranha.
My point is this: there are a lot of things about life as a gazelle. You could study them for a lifetime, and the piranha would be a footnote. If you are less than 40 years old, you may not remember what it was like to see your dad leave his keys in the car all night, leave your house unlocked, or have his 7 year old kid walk 12 blocks to school by herself, without worrying that some jackass on prescription drugs would jump out of the bushes and carry her off. That's all changed now, and the piranha are a big part of the change. (Yes, there have been huge positive changes in the social fabric of the country, and that is a wonderful thing. That's a different metaphor.)
When some nimrod piranha doctor, (and how these yo-yos get a medical degree is another subject called "Kevorkian; Threat or Menace"), is arguing whether or not a nutball was or was not insane when he mailed a letterbomb to somebody he had never met, one must pull one's view away from the watering hole and look around. If you mail a letterbomb to somebody you never met, you are most assuredly psychotic, (not to mention the felony involved, and not to mention murder), and we can argue your punishment. If someone can't see that, then a strong case can be made that that someone is also psychotic. And since, IMHO, we should all operate on the theory that one is responsible for one's own actions, (because there is no other sane way to look at it), then the bonehead piranha that does the stupid/illegal/bad stuff is responsible for what he/she did!. Yes, the gazelle did slip and fall in the water. That doesn't mean that we must all then jump in to participate in the meal.
When the watering hole gets too small, and the gazelles don't slip, the piranha are forced to chew up each other. That's the rules in the watering hole. If you're in there, it's real simple. But if are a gazelle, and you don't stick your head underwater, you can just look at these fish and think, "silly fish", make a lame joke about it to the guy standing next to you, and move on. You know that if one of those fish jumps out of the water, you can crush it with the twitch of one leg. So, lighten up and be a gazelle!
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