Saturday, May 23, 2009

Contemplating Confounding Conclusions of the Common Man

What a world we live in! Knowledge is expanding at an exponential rate in all areas. Technology is making available to us electronic devices we only dreamed of, or saw on Star Trek. We are able to do more with less natural resources than just a few years ago. Automobile emissions have been reduced by nearly 98% since 1975. One laptop computer contains more computing power than what was available to most businesses just 25 years ago. The discoveries of man have been astounding, and yet when we look at the world today politically very little has changed since the beginning of time.

Never before has the manipulation and disinformation of the general public been more obvious. In centuries past there were very few educated and even fewer with access to any kind of information that would dispute or question the policies of those in power. Today, however, in free countries around the world we have access to information that can bring in to question the information (or propaganda) that we are being given by our media and elected officials. What continues to amaze me is how many in our global society continue to follow the curriculum that is hand-fed to them without even questioning... like sheep (no wonder the Bible uses illustrations of sheep and the shepherd so much) blindly trusting and following where their leader says to go.

Now, with what I am about to say next please don't label me as a extremist, gun-toting, Bible-thumping, hate-monger set on destroying the planet. That seems to be the tactic most often used by leftists to destroy anyone that disagrees with their agenda. Instead, consider for a moment the possibility that some of what we are being told about the economy, gun control, terrorism, climate change, etc. could be wrong. What if actions we are taking are not making things better, but worse? Is there anything wrong with analyzing the facts (and not those force-fed to us by the media) and at least questioning our policies? In the current political arena this seems to be treated as heresy and a attack on well-known and established truths. This is not at all the case.

Why are we so determined to give up freedom and liberties that we have had for more than 200 years based on unproven theories? Why does the media never question the fact that states and communities with a larger number of concealed handgun permit holders experience less violent crime than those that demand an unarmed population (read More Guns, Less Crime by John Lott) ? Why do they never mention the fact that over 700 international scientists dispute the claims of man-made global warming (from the website of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, hardly a bastion of conservative thinkers)? Why do we continue down the road of less freedom, less choice, less individual responsibility when it is costing us jobs, safety, freedom of speech and expression? When did common sense become so un-common? When will we wake up and rise up to a higher level of personal responsibility and throw off the chains of government control? I fear that if it is not soon... it will never be.