The Expectation of Truth

Do we even expect our leaders to tell the truth anymore?

A few years ago, maybe a generation ago, the assumption that we made was that the boss wouldn't lie to us. If he did, he was a rotten guy. The good guys NEVER lie. They might not talk, but they would not lie.

Think about it: in those old movies, if the hero was being tortured, did he ever LIE to the bad guys? or did he just suffer in silence? He suffered. And when the Captain turned to the rest of the crew, did he say something like "Gentlemen, there is some kind of trouble in the engines, but we expect the Chief to get them back online shortly. In the meantime, I'll be continuing with my personal examination of the lifeboats" or did he say "Gentlemen, we've been hit below the waterline, we're taking on water and will surely sink. Prepare to abandon ship and my God have mercy on our souls."

The second sounds like an old movie, doesn't it? We expected our Scoutmaster, Priest, and Doctor to give it to us straight. If there was any 'bending of the truth' it would be in our best interests. Remember lines like, "Give it to me strainght, Doc, I can take it."

We don't expect that anymore, do we? We expect our Doctors to proscribe drugs that give the best sales incentives. We expect the Banker to lie to us about profits. We don't believe a word from our Goverment officials. I begin to understand why so many people are still willing to vote for George Bush. He lied to us over and over on many. many subjects (Iraq & WMD, Top Ten List of Lies, and whole lists of lies) and people still intend to vote for him.

Bluntly, He lied to us about why we are going to war. He sent almost one thousand young men and women to their deaths for no good reason. He lied to us about our taxes, about his drug use, his drinking and driving. At this point, if it turned up he was actually a woman named 'Georgette' I wouldn't be surprised.

And that's my point. We don't expect him to tell us the truth. We don't expect Kerry to tell the truth. Even if he is. We don't believe him. We don't believe the goverment when it tells us ANYTHING.

Or the banker, the scoutmaster, etc, etc, etc.

I'm sorry folks, I can't even joke about this one. It seems that the bad guy finally won one.

Good night, and thanks for listening.

Elections

Am I the only one who is already tired of the presidential election? I know, I know I should be paying attention, but the media has already made up their minds. We have the Approved Images(TM):

Bush: well-meaning, stumbles over his words, but a real cowboy. He'll get the job done. He may lie to us from time to time, but all in a good cause. And he's more sinned against that sinning. That rotten CIA is always telling him lies...

Kerry: effete, well-meaning but lacking in charisma. He would never have gotten us into the war, but that's a bad thing because he couldn't run a War on terrorism(TM). He flip-flops on the issues too much to be a good leader.

Both of those images are over-simplified to the point of being wrong. Neither man is (by any stretch of the imagination) a fool. You don't get into THAT level of politics and stay a fool. There are too many sharks in that water.

But we'll hear more sound bites, and fewer insightful articles that really compare the two men and there style. More chances to hear what kind of undies they wear and fewer chances to hear what they would do about job creation.

You know, when the net began to get important, I really thought that this would be the medium that let us get some stories with meat. Maybe we don't want meat. Maybe I should just sit down, shut up, and eat my network pablum.

Nah, probably not.

-Dave Reed

Vacation

I read in the paper today that Americans take fewer, shorter vacations than anyone else in the world. Frankly, I haven't decided whether I'm outraged or proud. On the one hand, there's that "wow, what manly men we are! We never take breaks, we just work until we drop" thing. Sort of a work-ethic gone mad. You know you've been there. You've bragged to your friends about how busy/overworked you are. You've probably even tried to one-up your spouse with how hard you had to work this week. You know you have. We're Americans and we're proud of how hard we work.

But... There's also the slightly whiny voice that says "Howcum he gets a month off work, and I only get two weeks?" And now I find that the "corporate culture" is to work too many hours and never take a day off. Are we that scared of the next round of layoffs? Or are we trying to get ahead. Is it fear or ambition. Heck, I can't even answer honestly for myself. Can you?

The upshot of the article I read was that overwork is killing productivity. We are becomming a nation of overworked, underpaid, snarling, snapping grouches who never get anything done.

Hmmm.. I'll fit right in.

-Dave Reed

First Post

I suppose everyone starts a blog with no real idea what's going to end up in it. I certainly couldn't give you details but I have a general idea. I'm going to comment on our world. I hope this will help me make sense of things. I certainly hope that someone will read this and keep me honest. Not let me get away with sloppy thinking. Not let an unvoiced assumption go by.

At least, that's my plan. We'll see how it works.

Don't expect real regular publication. About once a week I should get something up here. It depends on just how aggravated the mayor/governor/president make me.

-Dave Reed