"A Confederacy of Dunces"

Alrighty then, time to move along... right after this final footnote to the passionate discussion that followed personal observations in the previous post, "An Inconvenient Monkey Wrench."


First, let me just say that I'm going to stand ("hide") behind the opening premise in "Monkey Wrench:" 

At a time when the bulk of his "work" laid behind him, Albert Einstein, perhaps the most scientific, studied, and brilliant of all scientists, was asked about Intelligent Design. "I see a pattern but my imagination cannot picture the maker of the pattern... we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."  

When one doesn't know answers to life's persistent questions, it's nice to "buddy up" to someone who's life's work centered around researching said answers. It's a relatively (pun intended) safe place, standing behind Albert's demure frame in the face of naysayer "bouncers."  Look, I'll admit that I couldn't make third string on the University of Alfred E Neuman's debate team. I couldn't even get away with the tiniest fib to my dear mother any more than I could find a safe hiding place for my prized October, 1966 issue of Playboy Magazine (Jane Fonda), the one I dug out a bachelor neighbors trashcan. The women cleaned every nook... even between mattresses! 

So neither little ole me nor the books I read are going to change anyone's mind politically, spiritually, or evolutionally speaking. Those are personal "truths" that only you get to be the "decider" of (thank you George W. :)). I do, however, like to get out my pointy little stick and poke "assumptions" now and then... you know, absolute things like gravity and the belief that the earth is flat. What's that? Oh, pardon me, of course, now, in light of new information, we know the earth is round. So gee, the question that keeps coming to my little mind is, "What new information might come our way as technology and science advances, something that will change mindsets, and assumptions, and formerly, beyond-the-shadow-of-doubt theories?" I took logic 101 at SMSU, so I get fallacies. Hell, I'm guilty of them as often as not. But, as smart as "they" are, "they" don't have the whole picture yet, in my humble opinion, as some things remain to be discovered. And sometimes the incomplete little picture gets crammed down our collective throat in school as "fact" instead of theory. Sorry, but that just rubs me the wrong way. Do you realize that it takes an average of ten years to correct and distribute revised textbooks as "new information" challenges previous beliefs? I'm just saying...

Personally, with apologies to Mr Louis B. Leakey, I admit to rooting for the Intelligent Design Team when it comes to "The Origin of Man." I do it with head fully out of sand... being ok with evolution when it comes to adaptation of plants, animals and near-human creatures, the "survival of the fittest," so to speak, although I prefer more "Intelligent" over "fittest."  But when it comes to humans... us... our survival over pre-industrial revolution times depended more upon cooperation than competition. This is a "truth" that we need to get back to in light of today's age of competitive edges that are the leading source for escalation of problems from pollution to overuse to extinction to fighting over oil/resources. We need to leave competition in the arena of Olympic Games, because industrially, environmentally, globally... as in, country to country, state to state, citizen to citizen, neighbor to neighbor, school to school, person to person... it's cooperation, not competition, that will get us out of the mess we've created. Humans are wired for cooperation, not war. But "scarcity" puts us in corners and we (our lifestyles, etc.) become threatened. Over populate a space and watch what happens... put too many people too close together and watch how things get competitive and go ary. Where humans are involved, "Survival of the fittest" language shouldn't apply, let alone be uttered, for when it is, people like Hitler and Chairman Mao misuse it to justify atrocities and control. 

We need to find a way to put "war" and power aside and re-start cooperation, lest we be a unique species that fails en mass in spite of superior intelligence and ability to reason and predict outcomes based on history/information. That, dear reader, is just good old common sense... something I'm blessed with in lieu of I. Q..  

Argument is essential. But somehow we need to use it less as a weapon of division and more as a weapon of solution. Take a look around... read the headlines, if you can stomach them... something needs to change. That is all Gregg Braden wants us to understand. He is using science and history as a tool to motivate us toward change... action... survival. Perhaps I misrepresented him by singling out sensational snippets. Don't let that stand in the way of keeping an open mind about who we are and why we're here. It is in seeking answers to those questions that we can rejoin as humans instead of Americans, Russians, Chinese, and so on. Once we are of one mind to heed our inherent goodness, we have the power to end war, suffering, oppression, poverty and destruction of our planet. That is the message to be taken from Deep Truths... the only one that really counts, actually, because we are running out of time. Get the "Confederacy of Dunces" in politics and religion to quit bullshitting their way around the bush and do something tangible; show us some progress or get the hell out of our way so we can do it person to person, neighbor to neighbor, country to country. Don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. Anything is possible with motivation, and what more motivation could you ask for than our dismal record?  That's the message. Read the damn book... take what you like and throw the rest out... but don't discount it because of it's cover, me, or some new scientific evidence that rubs you the wrong way. 

I seldom defend people; most have ulterior motives and feet of clay. But ideas, I will defend... especially those on how we might escape the mess we've made. Those ideas are getting put out there... just in case. We need a little traction. We are at a tipping point...  

I was in need of a little "Drama," so instead of walking Lovely Ouray we went looking for trouble... driving over guardrail-less Red Mountain Pass on snow and ice during a storm.

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It doesn't take long to find "Drama," in the form of a family of Bighorn Sheep

Wind on Red Mountain was creating ground blizzards... so we drove on to Silverton, a remote mountain town that basically goes into hibernation from November till June. It was like a Ghost Town...

We drove up to the cemetery overlooking Sleeping Silverton. A hole opened up in the clouds, so we took a walk. With only 8 inches of snow, we left our snowshoes in the car.

By the time we started home, roads had cleared along with the skies.