The Sheep Look Up (Apologies to John Brunner)

I’ve not posted for a while, but I am back, for good or ill.  I’m going to lay down my basic philosophy that will be behind most of what I am going to post from now on.   I put some of it into my last post, Stupid People, but in this post and the next few I will be more detailed. 

In Stupid People I briefly discussed the categories that I think people fall into.  While I need to come up with a better name for me and my fellow travelers than Vulcans, I think the categories work. 

I think that you have to have a basic philosophy underlining what you write and mine is to try, as best as I can, to accept reality, even though it sucks, and start from there to attempt to change it.  If you make suggestions to change the world that are so driven by your particular ideology that you ignore any data that conflicts with that ideology you will end up like the neo-cons who still defend the invasion of Iraq. 

I certainly have an ideology, but most of what I write about is driven by Pragmatism the philosophy, and just trying to find pragmatic solutions to the world.  I want the world to be a certain way, but know that it isn’t and may never get there. 

But,if you start from a position that does not recognize the real world, you will never get anywhere. 

So, lets talk about Sheep.

Sheep make up the biggest part of the world.  They are not very smart on average, and mostly they stopped thinking during their teen years, probably when the hormones started kicking in.  They found out a few things which seemed to be true, decided this is how the world works and that’s it.  You can beat them over the head with something that doesn’t fit in their view and they will never accept it.  To sit down and ponder something and try to figure it out never occurs to them.  After all, thinking makes your head hurt. 

They want someone to tell them what to do.  That’s a lot easier than figuring it out yourself.  So anybody who can sell them on a point of view, usually through looking good and pandering to their pre-conceptions and biases, will get their vote, or dollars.  (See upcoming post on Wolves)  Actual relevance to the real world or any facts is quite beside the point.  Its how they want the world to be that matters and so they sit around drinking beer and begging to be exploited.  And so they are.  By wolves or sheepdogs.  (More on that to come)

Do I sound cynical?  Do I sound frustrated?  Good, that’s what I want to convey.  Because the sheep let the wolves and sheepdogs run the world and those of us who don’t go along with them pay the price for their stupidity also.  So, if you want to change the world, you have to deal with the sheep.  Either by directly exploiting and using them, or by getting the hell out of Dodge.  (My preferred solution, if slightly impractical) 

Ok, well that’s out of my system for now.  Maybe my next post will be less ranting, and more philosophical.  (Which is what I though I was doing)