On ignornace

There is more than one way to be ignorant. One way is to fail to achieve your goals through the application of ignorant actions. Another way is to use wise actions to achieve ignorant goals. This is the type of ignoramus that sits in the white house today.

Conventional wisdom offers some guidance with the addages, "Look before you leap", and, "Be careful what you wish for."

But, one of my favorite quotes is, "Common sense isn't all that common".

Why?

Because Man is attracted to much that is harmful. It is a flaw in the design and something we must keep in mind as we act. The architects of the US Constitution knew this and it is why they designed our government to check and to balance Power. The architects of the Abrahamic Religions knew this and it is why the story of Adam and Eve is preserved through the centuries.

A democracy, when it operates in such a way as to reflect the will of the People, is an effective way to weed out the bad actors. Selfish actions by leaders leads to widespread discontent and opposition...in a healthy democracy. We have the widespread discontent in America but not the opposition. Democrats were swept in with a mandate to change the friggin' course only to announce that "Impeachment" is "off the table" and the "Power of the Purse" will not be used to end the war.

That is historically called "loyal opposition" and it is what I suspect troubles Ralph Nader enough to run every 4 years. He takes "a pox on both your houses" approach, and I am tempted but not swayed by him

Why?

He doesn't seem to build a movement between election cycles. We don't have instant runoff voting, the only way to break the two-party lockdown. And, once you've peed in the pool nobody is going to swim with you - in other words, he would be a president without supporters, a leader without followers.

It is tempting to believe that the force of your own moral example is enough to change the world. I'm not so sure people are capable of fundamentally changing. They have been yelling, "Crucify him!", rather than giving thanks for millennia. People only pretend to honor the Prophets, because living like them requires more love than exists in the typical human heart.

At least that's the way I see it.