I always loved going to Wal-Mart with the Master and wife. While they shopped I sat in the back of the 4-Runner and watched the Wal-Mart birds run around. I think they are some species of grackle, but to me they are just Wal-Mart birds. What’s funny is that they just scuttle around, under, and on top of cars looking for something lying on the ground to inspect – I have never seen them fly once. When one finds something, all the birds in its sight run over to inspect it too. It seems like a thoughtless reaction – just a shiny package that nine out of ten times is empty. After several minutes, but after every last one of them inspects it several times, they all scatter waiting for someone to discover something else attractive. Occasionally, they will be rewarded with a tasty morsel left in the package, but usually only one of them benefits from that. And they never fly! I said that already, didn’t I?.
I got to thinking how similar these birds are to humans; not all humans, but a vast majority of them. These humans cannot ignore glitzy attractions, such as celebrities, tabloid papers, rumors or mindless TV shows. First one, then more and more people herd together until they become the attraction itself. Their politics seem like that too. Only difference is that the first few followers are bought by some rich dude who then attracts more and more with smoke and fire. The followers don’t realize the packages dispersed on the ground are mostly empty too; they are too busy admiring the rich dude’s teeth, or hair, or tailored suit, or fancy rhetoric. Unknowingly, the packages wait like IEDs in the Middle East. But, instead of body limbs, they destroy and alter any remaining brain cells. The humans become sheepish Wal-Mart birds. And they still can’t fly!
Remember what you learned in school before the Federal and State Governments chose to dictate what they wanted you to learn, like reading “And Tango Makes Three” and the Bible, or enduring water-downed courses that even the moron two classes behind can understand, or taking art history classes instead of learning how to balance a checkbook. Everybody learned that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Right? So why do the Wal-Mart birds – and Wal-Mart humans – continue to run in circles? Why not fly? Fly away from the IED packages. Find a roost and think a little. Use some Common Sense -- observe the big picture, recognize the real and important features, ignore the razzle-dazzle, and commit energy only on positive forces.
Forget party politics! Your mind is already corrupted if you think party first -- your mind is already in need of major reconstruction to learn how to understand real issues and how to logically analyze information.
Consulting 101: Everything you hear is simply a FINDING. It isn’t a FACT until it is discovered to be true by a number of credulous sources. Be skeptical. Don’t analyze findings, ANALYZE FACTS. When you are trying to determine what is right or wrong, or how something should work, or what should be done, go ahead and HYPOTHECIZE, i.e., define the conclusions you need to prove to make a recommendation . Then go collect MANY findings and from them determine the facts. It always helps to create a list of questions that need to be answered to guide you in your search of finidings. Now, do the FACTS, not the findings, support or reject your hypotheses? If supported, a hypothesis will become a CONCLUSION; otherwise, formulate a conclusion from the rejected hypothesis. When you can prove or disprove all the hypotheses using facts only, derive LOGICAL, COMMON SENSE RECOMMENDATIONS. Important here is to PHASE the recommendations into workable solutions, i.e., practical in cost, resource use, and timeframe.
It’s time to fly again. It’s time to wake up. Don’t be a Wal-Mart bird. Speak – don’t baa. Don’t hover under cars, then herd together just because the sun reflects off a shiny object. You must make a commitment to learn the issues before you. You need to learn how to discern right from wrong, true from false, and the forest from the trees. Strive to see the Big Picture, not the limited pixel a politician directs you to focus on. You have an obligation to all Americans to help uncover the facts and direct your Representatives to do what We the People know is correct.
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