You're Stupid, I'm Not

Chapter Nine - Pretending

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Admit it. You live your life and pretend you care. You pretend you care about your friends, your family, your job, your church, your youth group, your class, your...whatever. But you really don't care. All you really care about is you.

You care about how you feel, what you think, what you do, what you think of yourself and what you want out of life. You care about how many Facebook friends you have (or don't have), how many views your site has gotten, how many YouTube plays your video has gotten. You don't really care about other people. You want other people to like you and you want that popularity, so you pretend to care about people. You pretend to care about their issues, their problems, their feelings, their thoughts, their illness, their...whatever.

You give them an ear or a shoulder and pretend to listen. At the end of the day, all you think about is you. It's back to how you feel, what your opinion is, what your life is like, how much money you have, or how well you're doing. Test this - when you stay up at night and can't sleep, are you worrying over someone else, or are you worrying about your position and condition? You compare yourself to others and it uplifts you! You think, "my job stinks, but at least I have a job!" You probably thought this right after your friend told you they just lost their job. Do you help them find another or do you just give them words of comfort and support? At then end of the day you still think how fortunate YOU are compared to THEM.

Test this again - do you ever run over someone, hurt someone, offend someone or otherwise trample on someone to elevate yourself, or to get what you want? Then you excuse this with a thinly veiled "I'm sorry" (if at all) or something like "none of us is perfect." The real issue is that you just don't care. You got what you wanted, so to heck with the rest of the world. All is well! You are fine! So what if someone was trampled on along the way? They weren't that important anyway.

Ask yourself and test yourself again. Why do you go to church where you go? Do you go because YOU enjoy it? Do you go because the sermons don't offend YOU? Do you go because of all the activities they have that YOU or YOUR children can participate in? What if the sermons really cut to the quick? What if the sermons hurt your feelings and wounded your conscience and convicted and convinced you that your life wasn't on track? Take away all the non-essential activities and peel back to the core of what the church is supposed to be, according to the examples given in the New Testament. Would you still go? Would it be boring to you?

I submit that much of what goes on out there in the world is competition. Churches feel like they need to compete with the world for your attention, so they come up with activities and events and promotions to keep you "involved" or "plugged in". They rule out the competition. You don't have to do softball with a group of peers or neighborhood friends when you can do it with your church family. You don't have to send your kids to after school activities or sports when they can be locked in at the church for the weekend. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying any of these activities in and of themselves are specifically wrong, I'm just sayin'...

Test this one too! Take all the church calendars (youth, choir, Sunday school class, etc.) for next month, get them all together, and put all the events on one calendar. Then go through each event and highlight all the ones you or some member of your family is going to be involved in. Then highlight the ones you could be involved in with a different color, or qualify for because of age, the class you attend and so on. Then step back and look at the calendar. How full is it? Why aren't you involved in the events you could be? You don't have time? The church leadership may fix that next week with a sermon designed to make you feel guilty, out of touch, or otherwise hindering your kid's walk with God if you don't do more. Seriously, though, look at the calendar. You may find you don't have time for anything but church, work, and sleep. Again, I'm not saying this is all bad. Some activities outside church where you are in contact with other Christians are important. However, when do you have time to reach the lost? When can you get a break just to breathe? When you do, you run the risk of other Christians looking at you funny and wondering if you're backsliding.

The danger doesn't lie in the activities. It lies in the goal of the activities. The goal of each and every activity needs to be bringing you closer to God so He can draw closer to you, or in reaching the lost, or in providing some fellowship time with other Christians. However, I have to ask, at what point are you in more fellowship with other Christians then when you are in worship on Sunday, praising God together? So the true focus of activities should be getting closer to God and/or reaching the lost. Teenagers smashing their faces in peanut butter, or wrapping themselves in cellophane and pretending to be a worm is great fun and aids in teen fellowship, but when kids come to church to see what activity the youth leaders have dreamed up next, or to see who wins the Guitar Hero competition, you have to start asking where the focus on God is. Suddenly, the focus is me. What am I getting out of it? Am I having fun? Do I like this church? OMG! Of course I do! Look at all the fun we have! OMG! The focus is back on YOU. What YOU like, what YOU get out of it. Again, back to pretending you go to church for God, but really going for what you get out of it.

Oh, and by the way, the more activities you get involved in, the more popular you become. Then the church can use your popularity to grow. More people, more money, more activities, more popularity. This not all the church's fault. The church is put in the position because of people - people like you. You pretend to care about other things, but you really just want to boost yourself and you really only care about yourself at the end of the day. Ask any family with kids why they go to a particular church and somewhere in the conversation, "they have lots of activities for the kids" will be heard. Does the church use activities to attract families, or does the church use God and God's love and message of forgiveness and salvation to attract families? And people fall for it because they want entertainment and the church can babysit their kids, and they feel good about being overwhelmed with activities because they are "church activities". But is the focus entertainment or God? Are you pretending to go to church for God, but you're really going for the entertainment value?

What I'm saying here is quit pretending, actually start caring about other people and figure out why you do what you do. Don't do things for popularity or your entertainment value. Do them because they are good, true, pure and in line with God's TRUTH.

Don't care because it may help you look good. Don't care because you might need your throngs of followers later. Don't care because it helps your stats. Care because you really care.

Narrow down the "circle of friends" and focus on the people you really truly care about. If you're not too much of a hopeless case, you'll find a very small circle of people which mostly encompasses your immediate family. Wait a minute! Maybe that's why God wants us to be good parents, husbands, wives, and children! Because we are supposed to care about OUR family. Other people should care about THEIR families. The Bible is largely composed of stories of families. Maybe that's how God designed it. If our family relationships were 100% the way they should be, we might not need psychiatrists or psychologists or therapists. How many people spend hours on the couch reciting what their moms or dads did to them years ago, or bemoaning their relationship with their siblings.

Focus on your own family and let others focus on theirs. Once you have your house in order you can then be a fill in for your extended family and close circle of friends. Their family may not be what it should be. Maybe they don't know about or have the family relationships God wants. You shouldn't branch out trying to fix the world until your house is in order. Then your selfish, pretending ways will fall by the wayside and you can genuinely help others. You'll also get closer to the truth.

Key Number Eleven: You're stupid because you're a fake pretender.

Chapter Eight - Dinosaurs are Mythical Creatures (aka Shakespeare Never Existed)

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:10:00 +0000

In my high school biology class, my teacher liked to stir controversy by telling us that Shakespeare never existed. He typically only did this when we were begging not to have an exam on a certain day. We always told him that we had other exams scheduled the same day, particularly English. He would defend biology and marginalize English by telling us that Shakespeare was a figment of the feeble English minds.

Much like Mr. Barnett, I want you to effectively understand the topic of this chapter. This is not a debate as to whether dinosaurs existed or not, but an expose' on “science” as science. I do have my doubts as to whether “dinosaurs” really existed, and we will discuss that at some length as well, as the two ideals are intertwined.

My recent trip to the local Museum of Science and History spurred my thinking on this subject, as they were holding a special dinosaur exhibit. As my family wandered the aisles looking at all the models of dinosaurs, I paid attention to the signs. Each dinosaurs' information was posted on a small stand in front of its exhibit. I was amazed at the use of conjecture when it came to describing the dinosaurs. “This dinosaur was thought to have lived....his diet possibly consisted of...scientist speculate that he lived during the...” and on and on the speculation continued. Within the description of one dinosaur I counted ten statements of conjecture! This is accepted as science? This is what your children are being fed as facts?

Let's back up a minute. Was there anyone who is alive today who has a written, pictorial or family legacy account handed down through generations of what the dinosaurs were like? No. But we have fossils! Oh, OK, we have fossils. What does that tell us? Well, scientists can take those fossils and use them to determine the size and shape of animals, as well as how old they are! Really? Are you sure? Yes! Well then why so much conjecture?

The other day I found a rock on the beach. I gathered the kids together and showed them the rock. I explained that in my profession I look at rocks all day and determine their quality, physical properties and origin. I told them this rock was possibly a piece of a great castle that was once thought to have been on the beach and the castle possibly contained a king and a queen and a princess. Was that a fact? No. I was speculating based on my knowledge of rocks that the possibility existed that I was correct. I was really trying to make a point.

Don't get me wrong, here. I'm not saying “dinosaurs” did not exist. What I am saying is that large creatures that have now gone extinct have been on earth, but scientists, in a quest to prove their viewpoint have shoved many myths down my throat, your throat, and your kids' throats. Conjecture is the rule, particularly when it comes to dinosaurs. The Bible clearly speaks of “behemoths” that walked the earth WITH MAN (Job 40:15-24). Many people read this and think of elephants or rhinos, but neither of these has a tail like a cedar tree. Could this passage indicate a “dinosaur”? Quite possibly, but at least it is a creature unlike any we can describe that is on the earth now. Did they look like the cute little creatures in the museum? I don't know, and neither do “scientists”. They simply take a bone, two bones, or many bones and try to scientifically put together a complete package. Even if they make zero mistakes in reconstruction of the bones, they still have only a skeleton. Then they have to do the scientific conjecture regarding skin, colors, diet, age, habitat and so on.

The next step for science is to tell you these creatures lived millions of years ago and evolved from lizards or chickens or some such nonsense. This way they don't actually have to prove anything. They lure you with the wonder, amazement, and in some cases cuteness and then hit you with the gibbledy gook. You're supposed to believe it because they are scientists and you are not. They possess the knowledge and you don't. They back it up with a lot of smart sounding terms and phrases to keep you confused and make you stop asking questions.

The same thought exists with “global warming”, which is now conveniently called “climate change”. We denied warming enough that they changed the name. No one can deny the climate changes. If you've been paying attention, you'll remember all the data that was not included, all the errors that have been made, and all the lies that have been told that have recently been part of the news.

The simple, easy basic thread of science that we can all agree to gets transformed into something that is so confusing and complex that the average person loses track and doesn't want to bother with it. They accept it as fact because the scientists agree. The scientists are usually backed by funding from a particular group or agency or party and tasked with the job of proving a specific point of view. Add on a few more scientists and some more money and all of a sudden, you have a consortium. If you don't believe, you are an evil denier. Then it gets into your kids' school and curriculum and books. A man made myth is now sold as truth.

Key Number Ten to your stupidity: You're stupid because a scientist said you are.

Chapter Seven - Popularity and Acceptance

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:03:00 +0000

Whether you are fourteen or fifty-four you can relate to popularity. When you were in school were you “popular” or not so popular? Did you despise or loathe the popular kids? Did you want what they had? Did this give you a complex you are still dealing with today?

Well, relax. These days you too can be popular. All you need is a computer and an internet connection. Sign up for FaceSpace or MyFace or one of those “social networking” sites and you can see your popularity grow. How many “friends” do you have? How many old friends and family members have you re-connected with? That is the point of these sites, or at least, I think so.

However, take a close look at your “friends”. How many do you really know? How many are just cool looking people that had thousands of friends on their page? How many are people from your past you really didn't like? How many are the “popular” people from your school. How long ago did you graduate? How many are famous people you don't even actually know?

What's the point? Do you really think you can keep up with 1123 friends? No, you just want to see your FaceSpace popularity numbers go up! You want to be popular, don't you?

Don't think this is an attack on the social networking sites. I'm guilty of this too. Shucks, I want my blogs and books to be seen and read so they can make me popular, famous and wealthy!

The point is “popularity”. We all want some form of popularity, even if it means we are only popular with our dog. The problem is that we allow this desire to guide us in our decision making about other things. We find ourselves taking the view of the majority, the winners, the most popular point of view, the ones who are more popular than we are.

We listen to music because the band is popular. They get radio airplay and we decide that the radio station wouldn't play them if they weren't popular. We want to stay trendy and mainstream, so we listen to the music, recommend it to friends, and put it on our social networking sites. Even if we don't really, deep down inside, like it!

Apply the same idea to actors, movies, television shows, the telephone you carry around, the type of TV you have, the type of pets you choose, the kind of house you buy, the officials you vote for, the church you attend, and so on. Ask yourself, “am I doing this because I really want to or am I doing it out of a need to be part of the mainstream and popular?”

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! (that's me being convicted as well as anyone)

That deep rooted desire to feel part of mainstream – part of a “cause” of some type - is what drives you in many of your decisions. When in doubt, take the popular choice! Yipee! This makes you popular, and makes people like you – they like what you do, what you say, what you have, what you listen to, what you eat, what activities you participate in – they really like you! They feel a kinship with you, and you feel like you are part of something AND a big, popular part of it as well.

Allowing this to happen in your life allows others to think for you. Again, you begin to allow the choices of others become your choices, without much thought given to it. You do it just because it makes you feel popular and “cool”. You quit thinking for yourself and just grab the coattails of the next popular fad.

Not only do you feel like you are popular, you begin to feel “accepted”. With that, you begin to accept the attitudes and ideals of the popular mainstream. Are these ideas so wrong? No, not all of them. Yet, do you even question them at all? After a while, it builds like a snowball rolling downhill and you become “accepting” of others' ideals without so much as a passing thought. You look at something and say “cool!” instead of saying “what is that all about?” With this, you start making excuses for the unacceptable behavior of others.

After excusing it, you then begin defending it. Your mind has already accepted it, through some warped logic, and now you must work to cement the ideas in your head. You make a list of reasons that you begin to recite anytime someone calls you on it.

After enough recitals, you are then converted – for that one item of behavior. However, the slippery slope has begun, and now former inexcusable behaviors can now more easily slip into your life. I challenge you to think of things that are morally, socially, or ethically wrong when compared to real truth that have made their way into your life. Take a hard look. Then pick one thing and ask yourself, if someone questioned me on it, what would I say? You'll begin to see what I mean about your defenses for poor behavior.

Key Number Nine as to why we get stupid: We fall victim to our desire to be popular and feel accepted.

Chapter Six - Do Nothing and Be Stupid

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:06:00 +0000

“My dad was a Democrat, his dad was a Democrat, so I'm a Democrat!” So, uh, now...why are you a Democrat? Just because someone else was? What, you don't think for yourself? You let others think for you then! Well, I think you're stupid! Not because you are a Democrat, but because you obviously don't care and won't think for yourself. You're a weak, feeble minded follower.

It's easy to subscribe to the “lay down and do nothing” philosophy that pervades our world today. It's easy, requires no effort, and allows us to be “popular” - we can agree with the popular opinion, the latest “poll numbers”, we can vote for who we think will win so we can say we voted for them! When someone asks who your favorite sports team is, you can tell them it was whoever won the last Super Bowl or World Series or NBA Championship – you can side with the winner, adopt the popular view, and do it without any sweat, worry, research, or thought whatsoever. Easy! Yet stupid.

This is the “water philosophy”. Water always takes the path of least resistance. It gently flows downward, and eases its way into cracks, holes, or pathways that offer little or no resistance. When you decide, consciously or not, to follow the crowd without thinking for yourself, you are nothing but stupid.

The Bible says “if the blind lead the blind, do they not both fall into the ditch?” Think about that and let it sink in for a little while. Even if you are not religious, don't believe in God or Jesus, or think that the Bible is just a collection of parables about how to live nicely, consider that statement. Now apply it to you and your life. Put yourself in the place of a “follower”. Now think about all the leaders that you follow in your life – pastors, elders, bishops, popes, your spouse, your parents, your teachers/professors, your doctor, your accountant, your attorney, your boss, your shrink, a mayor, a senator, a president.

Since you follow them, you probably have some confidence in them. Have you ever asked “why?” Have you ever asked “what if they are blind?” What if they are wrong about something? What if they are interpreting something incorrectly? What if they are leading me down the wrong path? They may not know it. They may be convinced that they are 100% right, but couldn't they be wrong? I mean, after all, they are only human.

We rarely question the people we follow unless we just don't like them and are forced to follow them, like a boss you can't stand or a teacher you don't like. We take it on faith that they are leading us in a responsible manner. We give up a lot of trust to them. We look around and see that 54% of the U.S. voted for them, or that our best friend likes them, or the church has 4000 members, or they just won an award, and our confidence in them builds.

We don't critically analyze their motives and what they are teaching, preaching, how they are voting, and where they are leading us. Are we being led into a ditch?

We do nothing and follow them, refusing to question what they do, say, or the example they provide. The path of least resistance, the water philosophy prevails and we accept letting others think for us and becoming more and more stupid.

Key Number Eight as to why we get stupid: We are incredibly lazy.

Chapter Five - Government is Your god

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:04:00 +0000

Religion was not initially to be the primary subject of this book. I set out with the intent to create parody and satire regarding the state the world is in and all the stupid thought out there. However, as I planned and wrote and planned some more, I kept coming to the same conclusions over and over. We are stupid for many reasons, and most of these can be tied back to truth. You see, you have to measure actions and thoughts against rules or laws. You have to have a basis by which to judge or discern. The more I looked at the stupidity around me and drilled it down to the basics, the root, the more I realized the underlying causes were related to religion.

In addition, circumstances in my life have led me to the conclusion that I have to focus a large portion of the book on just that. Religion, whether you consider yourself a party to a “faith”, or whether you don't, is a fact in the world. It is the backdrop to world events. Confusion and disparity in religious beliefs is not only what turns people off about religion, but it is a primary example of stupidity in the world. Not that following a religion is stupid, but the mere confusion of religious principles and development of certain religions is solely based on incorrect assumptions. Too many people become blind followers of blind leaders, and in doing so, end up in the ditch, just like their leader. Many don't claim any religion at all. I'm not just talking about cults or crazies here, either. I could be talking about you or me, or maybe your neighbor, or maybe the person teaching your kids in class.

As I mentioned in the last chapter, Christianity is the only religion that paints man in his true state – total depravity. What is depravity? What does it mean to be depraved? Depraved means morally corrupt, evil, wicked, or perverted. Man is naturally evil. You don't have to teach your children to do wrong, you have to teach them how to do right. Yet a moral code exists inside the child, because they feel guilt. A child who doesn't know wrong or right – hasn't been taught by a parent – will still do things out of guilt when he does something wrong. He may hide, he may lie, he may cover it up, but it's still the same. He may not know exactly what he did wrong, but he senses guilt and a feeling that something he did was shameful.

The world today excuses our depraved condition as a condition of being deprived. Deprived means you lack the necessities of life – food, shelter, clothes, etc. Add to the list what you want. Some are “deprived” of computers, books, cell phones, video games, and other non-necessities. We sympathize with a thief because he didn't have a job, he had no money, and he was hungry. Because he was deprived, his armed robbery is understandable. Never mind the clerk he terrorized.

Next the government gets in the way. Instead of eye for an eye, it becomes buy for an eye. We give him job training, get him employed and put him on probation. We begin to address problems in our society through the lens of people being deprived. Deprivation becomes the key to all societies problems. If everyone has health care, food, clothing, a nice car, a decent house, their kids get bussed to the better schools, crime and hate and inequalities will just vanish. Government makes big promises to make these things happen.

Suddenly, the government is the salvation. The government will save you. Rely on the government and they will take care of you. Why should you rely on the local church to help you out when your family has a hard time? Why should you ask God to take care of you and trust him to provide for you? God has his hands busy with all that global warming stuff, he doesn't need to worry about little old me. The government will take care of me and provide my every need. Shucks, why do I need God anyway?

The government becomes your god. Don't believe it? Look at European nations. Europe is in a “post-Christian era”. The socialist countries have figured out to provide for the needs of the people to a certain degree, so Christianity and religion has fallen by the wayside.

Key Number Seven as to why we get stupid? We think we are deprived, not depraved.

Chapter Four – Segmental and Tangential Realities

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:42:00 +0000

Whoa, what happened? Did we just delve into a mathematics book? Are we studying quantum physics? No, dear reader, let me explain the chapter title.

I recently saw a billboard, in fact, it's been there for a while - and I may not remember it perfectly. The billboard shows a picture of a sun, and then has several lines coming from the sun, to different types of lights – candles, stars, bulbs, etc. Under the sun is the caption, “God”. Under each of the other lights is caption naming a different “religious” figure – Allah, Buddha, etc. The billboard states, “One Light, Many Lamps”.

Segments, like the line segments leading from the sun on the billboard, are what people are following. People have escaped the thought of one truth. They have manipulated truth for the sake of their own “feelings” and to validate their actions and attitudes. People get off on tangents, thus the title of this chapter.

Acceptance is an erroneous attitude. Acceptance and tolerance are wrong. If that sounds preposterous to you, stop reading. I'm not talking about race or equal rights here. I'm talking about accepting those things which are, and can be proven wrong against truth.

Let me give you some examples. Suppose a teacher instructs students that there is a law that says A + B = C. This law is true in every circumstance. Little Billy turns in his test and for the question, “What does A + B equal?”, Billy writes 'D'. Measured against the truth, Billy's answer is wrong. However, Billy really wants D to be the answer. He gets upset. He gets offended. For Billy, the right answer is D. He is convinced and convicted of it. What does the teacher do? Mark it incorrect, or understand Billy's perspective and only deduct half the points possible?

When I was young, my older brother was obsessed with his hair. He had almost an OCD over whether his hair was falling out. Everyone he met, he would ask, “Is my hair falling out? Do I look like I'm going bald? Am I getting thin on top?” He would drive you crazy, leaning over in your face, asking you ten times a day about his follicular challenges. All he was looking for was someone to tell him he was alright – you are not going bald! Looking for acceptance, he sought it until he found it.

You decide going to church is a good thing to do. You pick one, based on some random reason, and start going. They tell you that you have to stand on your head four times a day to pray. You have neck problems, so you decide that this church is not for you. You seek out a church where part of the prayer routine is to get a neck massage. Stupid example, I'll admit, but a parallel one, nonetheless. Substitute any issue you want – baptism requirements, music styles, preaching style, definitions of sin, and you see the point. You seek out like-minded people to be around.

It is all a matter of you seeking validation and acceptance for your feelings and your definition of who you think you are. It is not about you measuring yourself against standards or laws or rules and conforming where necessary. Our worldview has become one of “different things are acceptable for different people”. Yes, people are different, but there are some minimum standards all people must follow. Does this mean a “moral code” exists that all people should follow? I think it does. You decide for yourself.

Christianity is the only religion that views man as a sinful, fallen and lost creation, for which redemption is needed. When you begin to view the world through that filter, whether you are Christian or not, a lot of things begin to make sense. If we take the opposite view and say that the only law is the law of the country where you live, and that man is inherently good, then you contradict yourself. If man is inherently good, he would not need laws. Man is inherently bad and needs laws.

Where do laws come from? Who first said it was wrong to murder? Who says it is wrong for me to murder someone? The law? Where did the law in the U.S. come from? Let's take religion out of the picture. Let's say that the idea that murder was wrong did not come from any religious teaching. Where did it come from? There had to be an existing majority opinion that murder was wrong. This opinion was held by a majority of the population. Where did that opinion come from? Are you beginning to see that there was a pre-programmed moral code inherent within the majority?

Where did this come from? Do monkeys have a moral code? Do single celled amoebas? Did we get this through evolution? How about rocks out in space that collide together and explode into the universe we know today? Once again, I digress. I will present the arguments for creation in a later chapter. However, I hope you see the point of this discussion. Our moral fiber provides us with a right/wrong sense that is built into us. Religions and national laws build upon that sense.

What we have seen in society is that we have gravitated away from the idea of one truth, and have come to believe there are many truths. This idea within society has begun to affect the laws within our countries and states. When did this happen? Many people point to the free love of the sixties, but the seeds were planted before then. I can't and won't pinpoint the origins, as I am only commenting on the effect. Whenever it started, the idea is to get away from casting blame and guilt on someone for breaking a law (national example) or sinning (religious example). We no longer blame the responsible person. We blame things. Yes the thief stole some food, but he shouldn't be accountable, since he lost his job. We should blame the housing market, the stock market, the company he works for, his circumstances – anything but him! Stealing, for him, in that circumstance, was not immoral or wrong.

Do you see where this takes us? Little Billy may not know how to spell correctly, but the teacher understood what he was trying to convey, so he got an A+. After all, an F may offend him.

Key Number Five as to why we get stupid: We do not allow ourselves to be judged by a solid truth.

Key Number Six as to why we get stupid: We no longer accept responsibility for our actions.

Chapter Three - Going Green When It Makes You Green

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:22:00 +0000

You hear it all the time and see it all the time. “Going Green” is the thing to do. You have to ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” Are you doing it because you want a warm, fuzzy feeling? Is it because of pressure from friends and family? Does the company you work for push the idea? Does the overwhelming coverage in the media make you feel guilty, or convince you it is the right thing to do? Are you honestly trying to save the planet and be a good steward of the earth’s resources?

There are three typical responses to “Going Green”. You can buy into it full throttle and make every decision of your life based on its impact on the environment. You can care less, and not think about it at all, or you can fall somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. The media will try to paint the “Green Movement” as a war. The folks on one side are trying to save the world; the folks on the other side are destroying it. They make it sound like the ones destroying it are evil, money-hungry corporations.

Along comes regulation. The people trying to save the world convince the government that we have to act NOW. They take a panic stricken agenda to Washington and eventually Congress adds more regulations to companies. Granted, some regulation is needed, but it is not the final answer.

Look at your personal life. Do you recycle the cardboard, glass and plastic that you use? When you have to replace an appliance, do you buy one with an Energy Star rating? Have you upgraded your air conditioning system to a more efficient model? Have you switched out your bulbs to compact fluorescent?

If you’ve done any of these, I’m sure you’ve done them pretty much voluntarily, without regulations requiring you to do so. Did you notice that these improvements seem to cost more? Have you asked “Why?” Oftentimes these improvements are worth it. A compact fluorescent bulb lasts much longer than an incandescent, so you actually save a little money by switching. However, these bulbs contain mercury. The mercury is in vapor form while the light is burning. Mercury is a hazardous material that needs special handling and disposal techniques. How many people that swap out all their light bulbs know this?

Many of the people who are trying to save the world own companies. They get their agenda written as law and in doing so they guarantee profits. They raise the price of their “green” products and provide the consumer with a guilty feeling if they don’t buy “green”. You reluctantly pay extra for a “green” product, but you are alright with that since you are helping to “save the planet.”

Regulation is not the full answer in any respect. Regulation should be limited to providing sensible “bare minimum” limits and standards. Excess regulation forces companies and people to choose the minimum by which they can get by with anyway, so why not just provide sensible minimums?

The answer to getting more people involved is to first make sure the alternative “green” choice actually makes sense. The second step is to work to drive DOWN the cost of green alternatives.

There are many green choices that do not make much sense at all. They almost contradict themselves. So make sure the Green Choice does not hurt the planet more than the non-green choice. We’ll cover some of these poor choices, beyond compact florescent lights, in a future chapter.

If you live in an area where you can utilize solar power for electricity in your home, you first need to analyze the cost. An average whole home solar system in Florida costs $37,000. If your electricity bill is $200 per month that means your payback time is 185 months, or about fifteen and a half years. This doesn’t include any energy you may ‘sell’ to your local power company, nor does it include any maintenance or repair on the system, including potential removal if you have to re-roof your home. These, by all estimates, will reasonably offset each other. The next question is, do I get any rebates. Depending on existing federal and state laws, you may be eligible for rebates. In Florida, you currently have to get on a waiting list. When the money arrives in the coffers, they go down the list and payout the rebates. What does this mean? You’ll be fronting the cost yourself for a while. If you plan to keep your house for fifteen years, it will pay off for you. Maybe in less time, considering energy rates keep going up.

Does that make sense for you? Maybe and maybe not – it depends on your situation. If your situation doesn’t work out to where it pays off, are you a bad guy? Are you destroying the planet? The left-leaning “tree huggers” could lay a guilt trip on you that makes you say, “What the heck, install the panels!” Then you lose your job next year and owe $34,000 on the panels that are attached to a house that just lost 34% of its value over the last three years.

The point is? Go green if and when it makes sense and saves or makes money for you. Don’t buy into a guilt trip philosophy. Don’t allow the government to require you to save the planet. If you are a God-fearing person, you know saving the planet is fruitless. God is going to destroy it with fire when he returns. From this conclusion, we can draw Key Number Four as to why we get stupid: we do things out of a false sense of moral guilt, even things that don't make sense.

Chapter Two - Technology Has Made You Stupid; or, Can You Handle It?

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:04:00 +0000

The world used to be simple. Think about life if you were a cave-dweller. Life pretty much consisted of finding food, cooking food (if you figured out that whole fire thing), eating food, grooming, sleeping, building a fire, and finding a new cave if T-Rex or his buddies decided they liked your cave. No TV, no internet, not even a job to go to! No money to worry over, no bills to pay, and no ATM’s to run to.

Fast-forward to the late 1800’s. The world was limited. No TV, no internet, no radio, no telephone, no daily mail. You were limited. Imagine a small western whistle-stop. You could be a hotel worker, a saloon worker, a blacksmith, a farmer, a general store worker, a banker, a doctor, a cowboy, a lawyer, or a lawman. That was about it. Life was ‘narrow’.

In the waning years of the 1800’s to the early years of the 1900’s, technology pushed society in new directions. The telephone (Bell), common household electricity (Tesla/Watson), radio (Tesla/Marconi) and electric motors (Tesla) were the seeds for the industrial revolution. There is no doubt that these discoveries and inventions brought about the means by which factories sprung up and other inventions were founded. Ford was able to build automobiles, the metal/steel industry flourished, autos needed roads, etc. Then you could set your sights on being an automobile designer, an electrician, a radio personality, a service station owner. The world was changing, but was still simpler than today. Life got ‘wider’.

Fast forward through the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s and look at all the changes in the technology over the decades that you may have been born in or grew up in. Cell phones, personal computers, video games, email, the internet, cable TV, satellite TV, and the list goes on and on. Life became very ‘broad’, but the world got smaller. Think of the unlimited opportunities for young people today. How many want to grow up and become a blacksmith? And the changes and opportunity keep on coming. Who knows what 2020 will bring?

As wide and broad as life is now, we can get lost in all the choices out there. Still, as a society, we yearn for a “simple life”, so we pick and choose what we want out of everything out there and shape and cultivate a life for ourselves, because it is too overwhelming to try to be involved in everything. We decide how much of a technology we want to use. We want to make our life simple and we want life to be more ‘narrow’. How many times have you sat at a restaurant and couldn’t decide what to order because there are too many choices? That’s how life can be. And it will continue to get worse.

This is one of the keys to why we have become stupid. There is too much out there to see, do, get involved in, choose from, help out with, research, think about, read, email, buy, save for, and understand. Think about your life. Take five minutes to jot down everything you do in a day. Then everything you do in a week, and everything you are involved in. I’ll bet you think your life is simple, but when you look at everything you try to do, it seems overwhelming.

Worse, spend a few minutes writing down what you’d like to do. Things you’ve heard about but haven’t done, websites you’d like to check out, classes you’d like to take, people you’d like to talk to, lessons you’d like to take for that instrument you’ve always wanted to play, things you want to do with your kids, and things you want to do with your spouse.

Do you feel your heartbeat getting quicker? Do you feel stressed? Did you think about how old you are and how you may not have time to do it all?

Overwhelmed? What do most people do when they are overwhelmed? They close the doors!

Now focus only on one thing – computers. This is a technology that only became available to most people in the early ‘80’s. Technology grew at such a rapid pace that within twenty years, a high percentage of people have a personal computer – many families own two, three, or more. Plus, you probably have one at work.

How has the technology changed from the time you first “went on the internet” to now? Think of everything you can do with the computer. Think of the “phases” that the computer has gone through – news, gaming, social networking, etc. Now everyone has to have a blog or an online journal. It’s a done deal. As of this writing, Twittering is the next big thing. You can be a Twitter twit. A twitter is just a small snippet of what you are doing; intended to fill in between blog posts or MySpace/Facebook updates.

All kidding aside, there is just too much to do! You cannot keep up with all your emails, blogs, social network sites, Twitters, favorite sites, news updates, RSS feeds, Torrents, YouTube videos, online movies, online bill pay, podcasts, music downloads, checkbook/budget management, do your ancestry, keep up with old classmates and live your life at the same time! Something falls by the wayside.

That’s just the computer! Layer on top all the iPods, game systems, smart phones, GPS systems, boats, motorcycles, and other recent technological marvels and think of how much there is to do.

That is Key Number Two as to why we get stupid: there is just too much to do. This also impacts Key Number One. When there is too much to do, we don't want to spend time researching issues and drawing conclusions for ourselves. We find someone we like and we believe whatever they say.

Again, what do we do when we are overwhelmed? We close doors. What this means is we let some of the stuff fall by the wayside and ignore it until it becomes critical. A year ago I had my hand in about a dozen different things besides living my life. Living my life was working, keeping up the house, keeping my family relationships going, and paying the bills - the simple (sometimes not, and by simple, not always easy) stuff. On top of that I was blogging, writing two books, researching how to get published, enrolled in a degree program at a local college, selling on eBay, compiling ideas for a third book, publishing content for websites and trying to sell my writing, working on an invention idea I had, following the Presidential election, and practicing guitar.

What happened? The really important stuff trumps the stuff that is not so important. Some of it fell by the wayside and died off. Some of it went into the land of “it will have to wait until later”. When you bite off more than you can chew, you have to spit some of it out. That’s a vile visual representation, but the other way to look at it is that we close doors. The problem and Key Number Three is: we tend to close the wrong doors.

Technology is fun! It’s cool! It’s the “in” thing to do! So we hold onto that. Our personal relationships with our friends and family that used to include a personal visit, a handwritten card or note, or a phone call are all condensed to forwarding a cute “don’t break the chain!” email. Instead of taking grandma a couple new pictures of the kids that she can hang on the wall, we post them online and she logs on to see them. Instead of calling our brother and telling him we got a promotion, we post a “John is Happy today, because he got a promotion” blurb on our MySpace page. We hold on to the technology because it’s easy, quick and cool. We let the “real” stuff fall away. Stupid? You tell me. In my opinion it is.

Beyond our personal relationships, the same happens with our quest for truth. We let our religious and political convictions fall by the wayside. We will get into the quest for truth in an upcoming chapter.

Chapter One - Nothing Means Nothing Anymore

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:26:00 +0000

Believe it or not, it's true. Nothing in this world means anything. It all adds up to nothing. Why? Well, there are many reasons, but in the spirit of showing you how full of stupidity people are, I will stick to one or two simple reasons. Let's use an easy example. Global warming. No matter which side of the fence you fall on in the debate as to whether the planet is heating up or not, you can prove, with the aide of a computer hooked to the internet, that your point of view is correct and backed up by "science". Science is used to prove people's points. If I want you to buy my protein supplement, I'll include in my ad or infomercial a doctor or clinical physician who has done 'extensive research' that shows my supplement works. If a competitor is trying to outsell me, he'll do research showing that his works better than mine.

On both sides of the global warming issue, there are loads of scientific evidence. This is true with many issues that impact our lives every day. Sometimes it is the science that confuses us and we just throw it all out and believe what we feel like believing. No matter what is really true. Then we become a sheep - merrily, stupidly following some leader.

I noticed this in my industry. If I want to demonstrate a scientific fact about how asphalt behaves, I can easily do it by looking up research about the subject. However, if you disagree, within a few clicks of the mouse, you can provide research papers and studies that prove exactly the opposite. You don't even have to know the first thing about asphalt! Just type in the opposite of my statement and your search engine will return plenty of supporting documents.

What industry do you work in? Air conditioning, water treatment, teaching, customer service, retail? Try it. Type in a search for research on a subject in your chosen field. Perhaps a new "controversial" teaching method, or a new type of refrigerant, or theories on customer service. Then type in the opposite. Now you begin to see what I mean when I say "nothing means nothing anymore". This is even true with religion! Why do you think there are so many denominations of Christianity? Because there are plenty of folks out there with theology degrees who interpret Christ's teachings and words in different ways. Why do you think some people are turned off by religion?

THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH

"Anymore" is the biggest word in my axiom. The word means "in today's culture and climate". Although nowadays nothing means nothing, the truth IS OUT THERE. Whoa, this is looking like a book about the X-Files or Star Trek. Sorry to disappoint, but it's not. The real, unclouded truth is what we should all be seeking. You see, science can get clouded. It gets clouded by who funds the study, who sponsors the research, who is trying to get grants from whatever institute or agency. You see, if I want to study global warming, and I need funding, I'm going to find someone who can grant me the money to operate. If I have no position whatsoever on global warming, and want to study it unbiasedly, then I develop some unbiased postulates to test out. I develop a research plan and then I seek some cash to help set up the lab, the computers and to pay myself during this time. I should seek out unbiased sponsors. However, on a subject as divisive as global warming, unbiased sponsors are hard to find. It is much easier to cash in quickly on the money pot on either side of the issue. If I take funds from a source that has X position, then they will expect my paper to conclude on the X side of things. If my paper comes out taking up Y position, do you think they will continue to fund further study? This my friends, is one of the most concerning issues of our day and age.

A CLOSER LOOK

As you read this, you may think I'm anti-planet, anti-global warming, anti-environment. You probably won't think I am pro-global warming. However, take the time to understand what I say and you'll see that even though I'm not quoting Al Gore, I'm not strictly anti-planet. What I am is a realist. Let's look at global warming from a real standpoint. One that looks at science on both sides, but uses common sense as the filter and comes out with real practical answers.

Let's take a look at some of the ridiculous things we are fed about global warming. First, when you think about global warming, who comes to mind? Are you one of those who says "what can I do?" Then you probably think of yourself. If you haven't been under a log for the last several years, Al Gore is synonymous with global warming (I gave you a hint in the last paragraph). Al Gore did a movie - "An Inconvenient Truth" - where he stood on stage, sometimes on a man-lift, showing graphs and charts and pretty little displays about the deadly path we are on.

How does Al travel? On one of those little battery operated people movers? No. In a nice little enviro-friendly Toyota Prius? No. He flys on a jet. Is it solar powered? No. Is it wind driven? No; well sort of, but it's main source of power is a jet engine. Oh, this is not the big airliner you might get on with 300 other people - this is a private jet. The engines use jet fuel. How do you think he traveled to the Nobel prize ceremony?

How about good ol' Mr. Save the Planet's house? He has recently completed several energy conserving remodels around his house, but at the time of his Oscar winning movie, his 10,000 square foot mansion outside Nashville consumed as much energy in one MONTH as the average American household does in one YEAR! {source:Tennessee Center for Policy Research}

In addition, he states that because of who he is, he does have to fly around the world in a private jet, but that he is "carbon neutral". What does that mean, you ask. This means he buys "carbon credits" from his own company. What is a "carbon credit" and where can you buy one? Just type that in your search engine and see. A carbon credit is essentially a guilt tax. You pollute the environment driving your SUV, so you can offset your pollution by buying a carbon credit from a company like Gore's. The company will take your money and translate it into "earth friendly" activities like planting trees, investing in alternative energy, etc. However, I digress. This is not just an attack on Al Gore. It's an attack on the stupidity of making money by exploiting a difficult to understand science (most average folks don't understand the science fully) and making people feel guilty and scared.

If you've noticed, the terminology has recently switched from “Global Warming” to “Climate Change”. Why? For one, the same exact indicators that have shown a minor increase in global temperatures over the last several years have begun to show a minor decline in temperature. Secondly, I think the “change” part of the phrase coincides well with President Obama's mantra. However, according to the doomsayers, climate change is not change we need.

What do you do? Who do you believe? Do you just listen to someone who seems to be smart and follow them? No. This is Key Number One as to why we've become stupid: We let other people think for us.

Personally, I've studied both sides of the issue until I'm tired. I'm not a meteorologist or a climatologist. However, I've gained a layman's understanding of the issues and I see the greed on both sides. Scientific data is easy to manipulate to paint the picture you want to see. What research I've done points to a few facts. First, the climate has and always will change. It will go through periods of heating and cooling cycles. Second, the sun and particularly sunspot activity plays a larger part in our climate than you can imagine. Solar activity goes in cycles as well. Why have we seen a minor decline in global temperature? The sun has recently entered a cycle of lowered sunspot activity. Third, man's contribution to harmful gases in the atmosphere is still miniscule when compared to the overall percentage of harmful gases. Equatable to a drop in a bucket, our impact is not that great.

I don't want you to believe me or to follow me. I just want you to quit letting others think for you. Become educated about the issues and draw your own conclusions.

First Installment - aka Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:36:00 +0000

The point here is not to downgrade your intellect or make you feel insulted or stupid, although the title of "You're Stupid, I'm Not" is a little presumptuous and egotistical. That's just a surface view and a budding author's way of getting your attention with a creative title. My first working title was "Nothing means Nothing Anymore". Although the book could still be titled that, it doesn't have the shock value of "You're Stupid, I'm Not." The reality is we are all (me included) ignorant of many things in and around our lives, including things that directly affect us every day.

In the information age, you would think that people actually get smarter. We don't. All the information leads to confusion and misinformation (which is just a nice way of saying 'lies'). So, we get dumber and dumber. A good portion of the population gets numb. There is so much out there that we simply get dulled to it. Kind of like the philosophy of children and violent video games - they become desensitized to violence. We become desensitized to all the information out there. We then decide who we will believe and who we don't listen to.

You may not believe in ghosts, so you don't watch Ghost Hunters or paranormal programs. You may not like the President, so you just don't listen to his speeches. You may not believe in a certain religion, so you just ignore it and don't try to learn about it. What's more dangerous, beyond this is that you then begin letting other people think for you.

This is actually what happens. Once you have a view on a subject, anything that agrees with that view, you support, and anything that disagrees with your view, you condemn. This happens regardless of the truth. If you dislike the current President, any news that comes out about him or his policy or his ideas or his vetoing of legislation that is painted negative by the media, you agree with the news, file it away, and use it in conversation or on your website, or in your associations. You slowly become a sheep and don't even know it. Over time, you become a follower of anyone and everyone who sees things your way and publishes it - either in the news, in books, online, through speeches or anywhere on television. You follow certain news groups, visit certain favorite Internet sites and your own free-thinking vanishes.

Now this is starting to sound like a book about free-thinking, independence, and some weird new pseudo-science. But it's not. What this book is about is teaching you how to think and think correctly. You will see how to glean what you can from the news and the information out there and make wise decisions in your thinking, and thus, your beliefs.

Our founding fathers set up the country to be free-thinking, independent, willing and able to share all their views, ideas and ideologies. The fact is, when a society is free-thinking, there is only one conclusion out there - the truth. The truth is singular. It is not plural. Too often we hear about differing truths. "What's true for me is not necessarily true for you." "You have your truth, and I have mine, and that's OK." NO, it's not! There is one truth. Our founding fathers set up a free society so that the society could find the truth.

This book is about the quest for the truth. We will take a look at many topics, some new, some old, some current events, some past history. We will see how stupidly people act, talk, and believe. We will learn how we fall victim to stupidity.

Getting Started

noreply@blogger.com (Docasphalt) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:10:00 +0000

Welcome to my little chunk of cyberspace. This is my first blog and the first thing I've ever written on the web.

I am an aspiring author who is in the middle of writing my first novel. It's a little discouraging, since, being a work of fiction, you basically need to finish the entire thing before marketing and trying to find an agent and/or publisher. Instead of all that fun, you have to write. And write. And write some more. Not that I don't like writing.

Thus, the idea of a blog: I can get my name out there; I can write on different subjects; I can test ideas to see what works; I can get feedback on my writing. Hopefully writing a blog will give me the opportunity to overcome the writer's block I get from time to time during the course of writing the novel.

Recently, during one writing delay for the novel, I came up with an idea for a non-fiction, humorous, and satirical book. I wanted to write a book entitled "You're Stupid, I'm Not".

The book was going to cover topics such as politics, religion, global warming, money, health, - pretty much anything you can imagine. I was going to cover these subjects from my own unique perspective - a normal person with normal or slightly better intelligence, who thinks logically and sees so much stupidity going on in the world around him.

This idea was perfect in many ways. First, it would give me a break from the novel when I needed it. Second, it was non-fiction, which meant I could write just a little and jump into all the excitement of shopping my work to an agent or publisher. Third, it would give me an outlet to rave and vent over all the idiotic, ridiculous, mind-numbing stupidity going on around us. Therapeutic - that's what you would call it. Last of all, I hoped it would supplement my income.

Well, next thing you know, eBay, my job, and life in general got in the way. I only wrote a few pages and hit a block wall. I went back to the novel and that wall was still there.

After thinking about it, pondering it, and spending time bouncing between fiction and non, I started questioning my motivation. What it boiled down to was that I love to write and I want to make extra money. I read a lot of books and know that I can write as well as anyone I've read. I know I can make money from writing, but I've been writing different things for years (except for novels and blogs) with no compensation, other than what my employer gives me. Most things I have written just 'are part of the job'. I've done technical manuals and bulletins, safety briefings, technical reports and analytical papers and tons of letters to customers and clients.

I decided for the time being, this 'Stupid' book may be best done in small segments - one chapter or section at a time. What better method to 1. get my name out there 2. generate some interest and 3. write the book in the smaller segments that my busy life allows. Hopefully, I can generate a little extra income along the way.

All good writers want feedback. We write to be read. Let me know what you think.

The next post will start the first installment of "You're Stupid, I'm Not"