“He can’t see the forest for the trees”.
We are all familiar with this expression. We’ve probably all used it- I’ve personally used it more than once to describe my own well-meaning yet overly cautious mother. What worries me right now is that it seems like everyone around me in the USA has fallen into this trap and up to a point I have myself as well.
What are the top news stories right now? Among them are “Snowden still in Russian airport”, “Same Sex Marriage legal in 2 more states” and “Anthony Weiner is a still dumbass” (I’m paraphrasing a little on that one). Not that these aren’t worthy of some coverage, but when polled, over and over again the majority of US citizens say their top concerns are the economy, the deficit, and foreign conflicts/ wars. Yet there are less headlines on these topics than there are on whatever the Kardashians are wearing this week.
Why is that? There are several theories, but the one I think is the most correct is that these things are smokescreens for the powers that be. Let’s face it- no one on either side of the aisle has any real idea how to fix the US economy. The ideals that worked 50, 30, even 15 years ago don’t work as well if at all in the present day globally connected world we live in yet politicians still cling to the platforms and platitudes that haven’t changed very much since Nixon was in office. If anyone really DID have the magic bullet don’t you think we’d be talking about that instead of what Will and Kate named their baby or whether or not Plan B should be sold over the counter or not?
I’m not a conspiracy theorist. One of the biggest reasons I’m not is because quite frankly I don’t think my government is capable of any really big cover ups. I believe we did go to the moon and that UFO sightings almost always have logical, non-extraterrestrial explanations. I’ll go even further- I don’t think Joe Schmo should have access to every national secret- there are still a lot of bad people out there who would like to kill us after all and one thing government is supposed to do is protect us from them.
However, I also believe that the powers that be are smart enough to know that if the masses are too busy reading about Honey Boo Boo and debating exactly how many weeks into a pregnancy should abortion be allowed they won’t spend as much time asking their elected officials for real answers on real problems. And that’s a shame.
Why is that? There are several theories, but the one I think is the most correct is that these things are smokescreens for the powers that be. Let’s face it- no one on either side of the aisle has any real idea how to fix the US economy. The ideals that worked 50, 30, even 15 years ago don’t work as well if at all in the present day globally connected world we live in yet politicians still cling to the platforms and platitudes that haven’t changed very much since Nixon was in office. If anyone really DID have the magic bullet don’t you think we’d be talking about that instead of what Will and Kate named their baby or whether or not Plan B should be sold over the counter or not?
I’m not a conspiracy theorist. One of the biggest reasons I’m not is because quite frankly I don’t think my government is capable of any really big cover ups. I believe we did go to the moon and that UFO sightings almost always have logical, non-extraterrestrial explanations. I’ll go even further- I don’t think Joe Schmo should have access to every national secret- there are still a lot of bad people out there who would like to kill us after all and one thing government is supposed to do is protect us from them.
However, I also believe that the powers that be are smart enough to know that if the masses are too busy reading about Honey Boo Boo and debating exactly how many weeks into a pregnancy should abortion be allowed they won’t spend as much time asking their elected officials for real answers on real problems. And that’s a shame.