I have been away from this blog for two weeks and can now say with assurance that I am an addict. The first week I was at a rather unique conference in Montana devoted to bringing problems in the ecosystem, economy, agriculture, medicine, and related areas to a focus from the perspectives of complex systems theory. My job was to set the tone from a complex systems view and I tried to emphasize the interconnectedness of all these topics and the meaning of the phrase "The whole is more than the sum of its parts." The second week my wife and I unwound at a ski resort in Park City, Utah and we did something we never do. We watched Tee Vee! What a riot! What a juxtaposition. Look below to find out why we were so freaked out.
First of all the conference in Monana got pretty heavy. I will write more about it in future diaries, but I want to focus on the juxtaposition of that heavy, serious contemplation of what is in store for us as inhabitants of this troubled planet and the nonsense going on in this "political" campaign.
First of all, I am profoundly ashamed that the voters of this country are tolerating the mockery of any serious consideration of the problems we are facing. The press is totally useless in this matter. It sensationionalizes lies and deception and pretends to be giving the public an unbiased view. All it really does is serve its own greedy needs in the same spirit that the Wall Street criminals it shames.
I can not over emphasize the magnitude of the gap between the level of pseudo discourse the debates, the press treatment of the election, and the stump speeches are descending to relative to the real gravity of the situation we are in.
I finished Crashing the Gate on the plane on the way home tonight. Then among my 800 e-mails was a contract from john Wiley for my new book on complexity theory. Needless to say, I'm a bit spaced out right now.
I hope to write a series of diaries on this topic in the folowing days. Tonight I wanted to see if anyone else is aware of the lack of reality in this election's presentation to the people of this country. It sure seems that Colin Powell is. I think he may be on the way to redeeming himself?
Oh, and the mention of "redistribution of wealth" is the final straw. What has been going on for the last eight years? I'll have lots more to say about this!