I don't watch the local news. Yes, I do care about what's happening in my community, and yes I do have a feed on my home page for local newspaper articles, but I don't watch the evening news. Sometimes though I accidentally catch some of it, and after my initial feelings of bewilderment pass, I'm reminded of exactly why I very intentionally avoid it.
Recently there was an accident here in the area involving a texting motorist and a police car on the shoulder of an interstate. Clearly a potentially very serious situation that thankfully didn't involve much more than what I imagine was a good scare for everyone. Last night, as my TV flips to the most recent channel I was watching after I'd deleted my recording of a syndicated Scrubs episode, I happen to catch the end of this story on the evening news. "Okay, that's probably a legit news story", I tell myself, "Nothing there to warrant me being annoyed enough to write a blog post regarding my annoyance, that no one will ever read." Then, to what I guess should have been my anticipated bewilderment, they follow the story up with a series of video pieces in which they asked random residents how they "felt" about texting while driving.
There are just so many things wrong with this. The idea is wrong, the use of resources is wrong, the content is wrong, the delivery is wrong. This isn't a debatable subject. No sane person thinks texting while in control of a two thousand pound missile made of glass and steel is a good idea. But, if it were a debatable subject, don't stick a camera in the face of random people on the street and ask them a question for which they have no time to prepare an answer. Even with time and no camera the average person probably isn't going to have anything meaningful to say on the majority of topics, so there's almost zero chance of getting something worthwhile in this manner. If however the local news is going to choose to ask a question that has only one sane answer, and then to do that via ambush on the good people of the community, it would be ever so nice if they would save this activity for their interns and use their resources to air some meaningful content.
In the article linked above it mentions that there is currently no law against texting while driving. I won't get started on the implications of needing to create such a law, but should we decide to do that, I think we should also include one to protect citizens from "Pulse of the People"-type segments by local news teams.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Well, it looks like I did have something to say
I find myself awake, with some free time, and a marginal amount of energy. I'm so shocked I'm barely able to type. We as a family are waiting for the arrival of our daughter any day now, and so among other preperation activities, my mother in law is staying with us for awhile. I'm of course very glad to have her as a guest, but she has also been so kind as to cook (not that I really do any of this anyway) and do the dishes (this I do try for most of the time) several nights in a row now. So, I find myself with some free time, some energy, and someone else to watch The Biggest Loser with my lovely wife. Naturally I don't really have much to say tonight, but in the true spirit of blogging, I'm going to say something anyway.
I recently read a book called "For the Children's Sake" by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (daughter of Francis Schaeffer). I realize that having books recommended is almost meaningless most of the time, and I think that stems from the real lack of book reading we do as a culture, so when one does finish a book one feels compelled to recommend it because there is little or nothing to compare it to in order to determine real value. I also realize that in my current season of life I am not reading with nearly the volume I would like and so I quite understand ones reluctance to take a book recommendation of mine as well. Having said all that, this book is well worth the read. I'd even go so far as to suggest that every parent (at least in our predominantly western culture) should read this book when considering how to educate their children.
Jumping subjects almost entirely, I heard someone on the radio the other day talking about how the lack of trust by the consumer in the government and financial sector to do right by the investor is one of the major causes of the severe economic downturn we've seen in the U.S. I don't think this is any kind of news flash, and was almost completely passed over during the radio show, I suppose for the reason that it wasn't seen as a particularly insightful comment. I suppose we Americans as a culture take trust for granted at almost an instinctual level, and as Stephen MR Covey would point out, greater trust means faster results means more money. As we are forced to more heavily regulate, audit, monitor, record, and report what's happening in the market place, the market place slows done, increases overhead, and generates less wealth. Mix this up with some good old fashion greed and fiscal irresponsiblity by a lot of parties, and you get a nice red color with which to paint a sign that reads "Welcome to the Great Recession".
But trust is such a part of our culture that we hardly even notice it, except when it wanes in the face of gross misconduct by those in whom trust has been placed. This is something my mother is quick to point out. The fabric of the American society is woven with values like honesty, trust, responsibility, kindness, respect, equality, and the like, and that these values are from the Judeo-Christian tradition. In the modernist or post-modernist world, this fabric is not possible. How can you trust someone to do the right thing if there is no such thing as "right" or if "right" is simply determined by the majority? The answer of course is that you cannot, and so in the market for example we are no longer permitted a framework based on universal truths from which we can make decisions, we must instead have rules to govern every facet of our behavior. The real trouble of course with this approach is that it is impossible to predict all of the damaging schemes people are capable of creating (because we're such an infinitely creative lot, for better or worse), and so it's only possible to regulate after the fact. Thus we have the mortgage crisis, the banking crisis, and steriods in baseball. So, what is the ultimate answer? We need only look to a few countries that have not founded their market (and indeed their society) on Judeo-Christian principles to see the answer. The removal of freedoms, or of all freedom is the final solution. If a people cannot govern themselves, they will be governed.
President Obama is very often referencing the fact that America has always risen to big challenges, and this is for the most part true, but we have always done so by building on the foundation that was laid at our country's inception. In recent decades we have been making a concerted effort as a society to remove that foundation and replace it with something much less capable of holding a thing as weighty as a rise to a mighty challenge. I hate to sound all "right-wing" here, but this is just logic. If America decides at this time (the next three to five years) that we will refuse the principles upon which this country was founded (the most fundamental of which was that there are universal truths and that they are revealed in the Judeo-Christian tradition), then we will no longer have our country's history as a precedent for our country's future. We will be laying a new foundation for our society and attempting to build on that. This may succeed and it may fail, but whatever it ends up being, it will not be the America of the past two hundred years. It simply cannot be.
I recently read a book called "For the Children's Sake" by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (daughter of Francis Schaeffer). I realize that having books recommended is almost meaningless most of the time, and I think that stems from the real lack of book reading we do as a culture, so when one does finish a book one feels compelled to recommend it because there is little or nothing to compare it to in order to determine real value. I also realize that in my current season of life I am not reading with nearly the volume I would like and so I quite understand ones reluctance to take a book recommendation of mine as well. Having said all that, this book is well worth the read. I'd even go so far as to suggest that every parent (at least in our predominantly western culture) should read this book when considering how to educate their children.
Jumping subjects almost entirely, I heard someone on the radio the other day talking about how the lack of trust by the consumer in the government and financial sector to do right by the investor is one of the major causes of the severe economic downturn we've seen in the U.S. I don't think this is any kind of news flash, and was almost completely passed over during the radio show, I suppose for the reason that it wasn't seen as a particularly insightful comment. I suppose we Americans as a culture take trust for granted at almost an instinctual level, and as Stephen MR Covey would point out, greater trust means faster results means more money. As we are forced to more heavily regulate, audit, monitor, record, and report what's happening in the market place, the market place slows done, increases overhead, and generates less wealth. Mix this up with some good old fashion greed and fiscal irresponsiblity by a lot of parties, and you get a nice red color with which to paint a sign that reads "Welcome to the Great Recession".
But trust is such a part of our culture that we hardly even notice it, except when it wanes in the face of gross misconduct by those in whom trust has been placed. This is something my mother is quick to point out. The fabric of the American society is woven with values like honesty, trust, responsibility, kindness, respect, equality, and the like, and that these values are from the Judeo-Christian tradition. In the modernist or post-modernist world, this fabric is not possible. How can you trust someone to do the right thing if there is no such thing as "right" or if "right" is simply determined by the majority? The answer of course is that you cannot, and so in the market for example we are no longer permitted a framework based on universal truths from which we can make decisions, we must instead have rules to govern every facet of our behavior. The real trouble of course with this approach is that it is impossible to predict all of the damaging schemes people are capable of creating (because we're such an infinitely creative lot, for better or worse), and so it's only possible to regulate after the fact. Thus we have the mortgage crisis, the banking crisis, and steriods in baseball. So, what is the ultimate answer? We need only look to a few countries that have not founded their market (and indeed their society) on Judeo-Christian principles to see the answer. The removal of freedoms, or of all freedom is the final solution. If a people cannot govern themselves, they will be governed.
President Obama is very often referencing the fact that America has always risen to big challenges, and this is for the most part true, but we have always done so by building on the foundation that was laid at our country's inception. In recent decades we have been making a concerted effort as a society to remove that foundation and replace it with something much less capable of holding a thing as weighty as a rise to a mighty challenge. I hate to sound all "right-wing" here, but this is just logic. If America decides at this time (the next three to five years) that we will refuse the principles upon which this country was founded (the most fundamental of which was that there are universal truths and that they are revealed in the Judeo-Christian tradition), then we will no longer have our country's history as a precedent for our country's future. We will be laying a new foundation for our society and attempting to build on that. This may succeed and it may fail, but whatever it ends up being, it will not be the America of the past two hundred years. It simply cannot be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)