Exstimulating Circumstances

The winds of change, the winds of chance, what we know what we cannot say has passed. I have only one goal and from that goal I derive milestones which spin off subprojects and subsubprojects and subbasement library book research into submarine bases. What I miss I'le find, or so those who want to go dragon on me and test their wares seemingly unawares will find out.

My life is short but life is long and will go on long after I'm gone. Of that I'm sure. I know the messages and notes and rituals and closed doors that pass from generation to generation but so what?

File folder #420 - transcript from Livescribe audio recording # 13,495 (paraphrased):

"We must not move too fast because we want to make sure we're moving slow enough to get the message across."

"You mean, you haven't yet gotten the sign to tell us to move forward with the plan?"

"That's what I'm saying without saying. Get with the program!"

"I am. I have the one timestamped an hour ago."

"You need the one timestamped two hours ago, amended 10 minutes ago to account for changes in the last five minutes."

"But of course. What am I doing?"

= = =

Do or do nothing. That's what we pay you for, isn't it? Well, we pay you for something. I'm not exactly sure what, but we'll figure it, or you'll figure it out as you go along.

The point is to make everyone wealthy enough to afford to make their own choices, including the choice to hire more people to make their own fortune and make their own choices, who in turn can decide to hire more people, etc.

Life is a pyramid scheme. Haven't you noticed? Haven't all the signs been there all these thousands of years?

Oh, but this time you've decided to take into account why all the pyramids sit empty. How to take care of more than one condition, right? You want to take this three-dimensional puzzle and put it all together for the very first time, knowing that you'll never be rewarded by all the people all of the time, no matter how ingenious your solution will be.

Ask Bertrand Russell for advice on this one. Wouldn't that be a hoot? Hey Bertie, what do you say we stop factory production to solve global warming, putting more people on unemployment, and then while we're at it, let's figure out how to give all the people, including the ones with no jobs, "free"...no, strike that last word, universal medical care while we use war to end war and pay off our debts with our debts, claiming a record profit while we ask foreign governments for more money/time, all in the name of freedom, green as we can make it, and still have time to attend fundraisers to pay for our next reelection campaign? And that's just Monday's agenda.

Life's a busy beaver and then the dam bursts.

And I wonder why you get no respect. Who exactly is in charge anymore? Is it the people, who have no real clue what it takes to coordinate multilevel governmental negotiations within one country, let alone a few hundred? Is it you, who are caught between your honorable kin, the people, the press and the wall?

At the same time, you have to pretend to be patriotic while you give and take with other patriots on their native soil, loyal while giving away the farm, tough while conceding, weak while bombing someone's backyard and family-friendly while approving dirty work.

Would your job be any easier if you weren't trying to keep your job long enough to make your life comfortable after your job is over? After all, who's altruistic? Is anyone really working just for the people?

I've met computer programmers who could carry more variables in their heads than the average person could remember names. And that's all while they figure out new algorithms to control the variables in arrays across multiple subroutines. Are they any better or worse than the average politician's year worth of calendar entries sorted into a matrix of "who knows who" and "who can do what to make this deal go through for the next deal to fall into place"?

See why we've put all seven billion of you into a giant version of the Sims crossed with Command and Conquer with a few characters from WoW thrown in for humour? Simplifies the predictions. A little randomness mixed in with semper fi for what we need to get done to meet my one and only goal ==> getting us (or some of us) permanently off this planet and into other systems.

So, back to the situation at hand. How do we re-employ the despondently long-term unemployed to help pick up the slack so the so-called universal health care coverage is actually profitable without turning up the heat in this sauna called Planet Earth? "Green" jobs that can't be relocated overseas? That one made me laugh. I'd love to support Gore's plan, he and I (well, at least I) having been born and raised in Tennessee, but carbon cap trading is yesterday's news, pre-2008 global growth fairy dust. Call it "cut and run," if you will. You could always declare a world war, employing a lot of idle folks and sending a bunch of folks off to die, but who are you going to call the enemy and who's going to pay to have their hides saved this time?

Difficult choices, difficult choices...hmm...[strumming fingers on desktop]

I don't care about bipartisan solutions to this problem. I don't care about single party countries rattling their sabers or plurality countries crying foul.

It's really as difficult as it looks, isn't it? Too bad the people can't see what you're trying to do. It'll make interesting reading for political historians. Maybe not a bestseller but at least full of drama, twists and unexpected turns to the left and right. Makes me want to get every one of you to declare yourself a member of the same political party and get down to real negotiations. Throw aside doctrine, planks and platforms. As much as I dislike saying this, can you imagine a legislative body uniting under one flag, truly indivisible, reasonable and rational enough to put political ideology on the impossible-to-reach pedestal where it belongs?

But we like to gamble. We like to place bets on the future, never worrying about whether the bets will pay off because we won't be around to win or lose. Outflanking an enemy 20, 50 or 100 years from now doesn't make sense.

Are you committed to the short sale, making sure lobbyists get their investments back while the constituents get the short shrift like Lane Kiffin stuck it to the University of Tennessee, making Al Davis look like the Swami more than two swamis, Johnny Carson and Chris Berman, put together?

The long-term payoff is another option. Jumping party boundaries. Campfires are burning. The wagons are circling right. Question is, who's going to join? Who's going to get up on the stage of the campground meetings and declare there are no more sides anymore as long as people have "good, conservative values"?

While the right's evangelizing, what's the center, where most people reside, going to do? Form yet another group with more people and more power? Who's going to lead their charge down the middle and put a halt to the tiny but vocal flanks? How do you outflank the flanks?

Who's going to say, "Enough! I'm dropping my party affiliation so I can sit down with my fellow electeds and solve this problem correctly the first time?" Will someone negotiate a trade? For every Democrat who drops out, a Republican will follow?

What am I saying? Sometimes I let my dreams override what I see of the future. The future is more along the lines of this: a dramatic vote in Massachusetts, a last-minute change of mind when the House and Senate merge their versions, and a victory the majority can be proud of. Many countries will keep close tabs on the proceedings and proceed accordingly. It's the same thing all over again. If you don't believe me, you can look it up in old newspapers. The story hasn't changed but the names have been changed to protect the storyline.

If only someone had the courage to change the storyline...

Meanwhile, back in the laboratory, there's a new invention. A few days tinkering and my friend should have it ready. I can't wait to see the contraption he's contrived this time. He says that Kamen's sidewalk scooter is just a hoop and a stick by comparison. More as soon as I find out!