Our Duty to Reality              April 8, 2013

            Well the results are in!  Harsh sanctions imposed on nuclear wannabees are an overwhelming success—North Korea and Iran are bowing to the pressure; caving in to our superior power and intellect, embarrassed by the din of angry global disappointment.  Behaving like the children we assumed they were, they have put down their toys, hung their heads in shame, and slunk off to the time-out corner.

            Oh wait!  That’s the obstructionist bigots in congress.  The nuclear wannabees are the ones giving us the finger.  Well wait, so are the bigots in congress.  What in the world are they all thinking?!  The Draconian settlement of WW I imposed by France and others on Germany, plus cyclical economic hardship, and a particularly sick response produced Nazi Germany and WW II.  What makes people think that austere economic measures will produce positive results in North Korea, Iran, Europe or America?   Austerity doesn’t hurt well-insulated hatsanbadges—harsh economic conditions hurt people on Main Street.  The powerful and the rich aren’t even aware of most of the suffering.

            Oh, right!  We WISH they were, therefore we THINK they are.  Sadly, ‘wish’ and ‘think’ can fool us if we don’t pair them with ‘what’s working’ and ‘what’s failing’ in an honest assessment of reality.  Around here, we see AUSTERITY FAILING EVERYWHERE, and harsh sanctions creating only desperation.  In acting on principles, politicians have a duty of not being stupid and of actually solving problems.  Right now, it isn’t working.