The Boiled Frog

The other day I heard Rush Limbaugh say something that he has said many times, that ignorance is the most expensive commodity that we have in this country. As almost always, Rush is right, yet the contemporary brand of ignorance in the current culture is one that, if it continues and grows at the current rate, will change this nation into the antithesis of its original existence. Furthermore, what it is becoming will make reformation a difficult task.

Ignorance is part of life. We all have ignorance regarding something. Plainly, it means not to know something. When it relates to cars, I am ignorant. I can put gas in a car. I can put oil in a car. I can check the air pressure on the tires, but after that, don't ask me to fix anything.

Why don't I know much about cars? Is it because I have never had the opportunity to learn? No. Is it because I don't have the ability? No. So why am I ignorant about cars? This is why: I don't care. When it comes to how a car works, how to fix it, what kind it is, etc., etc. I am completely apathetic. I am perfectly fine to explore expertise in other areas so that I can earn money to pay other people who actually do care about cars to fix any problems that may arise.

In many scenarios, there is nothing wrong with being ignorant. We are not God, and we do not have time to know everything that there is to know even if we were able to do so. That is why we pay doctors to know how to fix us, why we pay architects to design our buildings and houses, why we pay auto mechanics to fix our cars.

On the other side, if I know nothing about cars, should I make decisions on how cars are made? How they are fixed? How they are sold? I know how to do some computer programming. Should I determine how doctors should do surgeries? I know how to transpose a song from one key to another. Would you feel safe in a building which was built from plans on which I had overridden the architect and changed?

Sounds crazy? These things happen every day, and like the frog that is boiled, the heat continues to rise and the frog legs will soon be served.

In last Sunday's sermon, the guest preacher sited statistics that said that the entertainment industry has surpassed all others in the amount of money that it grosses from American consumers. There's nothing wrong with entertainment, but our culture's obsession with Hollywood and anything "pop" is a large part of the gas used on the stove to cook the frog.

For example, ask an MTV viewer about Sara Palin? He or she may be able to regurgitate some soundbite from P Diddy who implied that she should not be elected because she is from Alaska, and that because Alaska doesn't have "crime" and "black people", she should not be the vice-president. This comment alone was enough for me to see that P Diddy was not a "political" architect, yet he is an architypal source for policatical information for many in our society.

If the above excersise sparks your interest, go out and do a personnel poll. Include a question that asks a person to describe the difference between socialism and capitalism. Ask him to describe the role of "the Fed" in the economy. Ask him about inflation and unemployment rates. It is highly likely that, if it were a test, most of the class would fail; yet these are fundamental, elementary concepts that relate to our economy, and these people vote.

These are the people who will be voting in the next election, yet they are totally ignorant to the issues about which they claim to care. These voters will influence policies and laws that will affect the economy, whether there is more socialism or capitalism, what will happen to inflation, etc. These things affect their lives daily, but they are more interested in whether or not Brittaney Spear's "come-back" will be successful.

It is this ignorance, that causes these people to vote against their own interest. The union member votes for the candidate that says that he is for the "working family" and he will raise the minimum wage, not knowing that this action hurts himself in the long run causing inflation. His food costs more. Materials costs more. Sometimes, the company has to make cuts, and he loses his job, all because he was ignorant about the things that affected him the most.

It is this ignorance that has everyone on the "bail-out" bandwagon. We have politicians that want to take 700 billion dollars of tax-payer money (for those who get their news from MySpace, this is the money taken out of your paycheck each month, the government doesn't have its own money) and turn to government to fix a situation that was caused by corrupt politicians in the first place (i.e., do some research on Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer, and Chris Dodd's as they relate to the current situation). The government has already taken over Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac and has again successfully reduced the size of the free and private market in favor of a government-run economy ( for those who spend more time watching E TV than reading the Wall Street Journal, this is Socialism, as in the kind of economy in Communist China).

It is ignorance that had people voting for Hillary just because she was a woman. We care about her gender, but the fact that she wanted the government to take over the entire healthcare industry was not anywhere on their maps of understanding. It would have been a big step toward socialism if she were to carry out her plan to REQUIRE every American to have health insurance...what's wrong with that, that is exactly what the Founding Fathers had planned, having the government control the life of its citizens...

...or is it ignorance from apathy (not caring as in me and cars) that facilitates the above scenarios that continue to cook the frog, that continue to move this country from a free and democratic one to a socialist and government-controlled one? In some cases it is, but in other cases, some choose to remain ignorant because the truth does not fit their agenda. In the words of Al Gore, the truth is "inconvenient"; it is an obstacle. I will likely spend more time on this type of ignorance in a future post...

What does one do when the same people who are campaigning and voting favor candidates and policies that will inevitably, at most, hurt them, and at the least, contradict their values and interests? They exist this way because they don't care. How does one get them to care? At this time, I don't know...