Disneyland Closes At 35

Perhaps We do Live in the Matrix

I vowed to post my comments relative to subjects about which I actually know something; thus, today I am writing about reality. I imagine all who read this post have a notion, and some experience with, the question of what is real?

Many persons believe that reality corresponds exactly to what they can see, touch, taste, hear, or smell. The apple sitting on their dining room table is exactly as it appears to be. It is red, has a certain texture, a certain smell and a certain shape. This particular apple is simply a representative sample of all other apples, although some may be green or yellow or some combination of the two.

Other persons believe that what they experience when they look at the apple is not the apple at all, but simply a representation or picture of the actual apple. The apple, after all, does not jump into our head. We simply experience things like color and shape and smell and our brain does the rest.

Still others believe that we never experience anything in the physical world. What do we experience? We experience our thoughts and nothing more. It seems quite certain that I experience thoughts because I am the sort of entity that thinks. But do I also experience tables and chairs and cows and unicorns or only my thoughts about tables and chairs and cows and unicorns?

We know that we can be deluded by our senses. The mirage appearing on the horizon of a hot desert highway is not a lake, or pond. It is an illusion. I saw the robber as he ran across the road and into the parking lot. He was short, wore a blue flannel shirt, had long hair and was Asian. You saw the same thing, but in your experience he was of medium height, had on a grey sweatshirt and had medium length hair. Eye witness accounts are notroiously unreliable.

So what is real? Is our everyday life lived in a real world? If so, to what extent? Perhaps we are all attached to the Matrix so aptly portrayed in the movie by that title. Don't you ever sense that perhaps things are not really as they seem to you?

I sometimes do, especially when I watch politicians in action, as I did today. I took in perhaps 30 minutes of the Blair House Health Summit from our nations' capitol. I had the distinct impression that the proceedings were staged and unreal. It was a play, carefully staged, full of rhetoric, signifying nothing at all. What was your impression of this play?

Things are Getting Better?

I hear, mostly from various pundits who claim to be expert economists, financial strategists, news analysts etc., that things are getting better. By things, they are referring to the economy, job production, home sales, business upstarts, availability of monies to loan to small business, and so on.

If things are getting better why does it not feel that way? Why does it not look that way? Why aren't more persons in foreclosure able to refinance their loans? Why are so many people out of work, out of health insurance, out of money, and in some cases out of hope? Are things getting better?

I was recently in California visiting my son and daughter. My son owns what has been a profitable business which employed perhaps as many as 20 persons not more that 18 months ago. He established the business 10 years ago and has been very successful up until now. He still gets business. People sign contracts with his company and are then unable to garner the financing they need to move forward with the project. The projects do not materialize and his employees have nothing to do. He has had no choice but to lay them off one after the other and now there are only 5 persons on the payroll. Jobs lost. Insurance coverage lost. We all know where this trail ends.

I have been to California many times over the years and it has never looked less prosperous.

I have been to Oklahoma many times over the years. It never looked particularly prosperous. It now looks poverty stricken. I drove through many small and mid-size towns in Oklahoma not less than a week ago. Most of the old downtown business and residential areas contain vacant businesses, boarded up Movie theatres, broken-down houses, streets in need of repair and schools which need paint, more classrooms, new cafeterias and more.

I had the oil changed in my truck at one of the nationally franchised lube shops that have sprung up over the past 20 years. I asked the owner how business was going. He told me it has never been worse. His cost of business is up, his revenue is down, and most of his regular customers are no longer having their oil changed every 3000 miles but have moved up the oil change schedule to 5000 or 6000 miles. His daughter had to drop out of the state university and come home to community college. He said, "I pray every morning and every night that things will get better. Something has to give."

My wife is a real estate Manager for a large branded company. She shepherds more than 50 agents, many of whom are finding it difficult to remain in the business. Things are not getting better for the real estate industry. The agents have listings in plenty. They do not have sales in plenty. One of the reasons is that prospective buyers cannot procure the financing they need to purchase a home.

Are things getting better?

All I Have Ever Known

I read a number of blogs on a daily basis, and I am amazed by the fact that volumes are written by persons who have zero or very little knowledge about the subjects they choose to write about. I do not want to join the ranks of such bloggers; thus, I feel it incumbent on me to write only about subjects about which I am knowledgeable.

That pledge rules out writing about high fashion, pop culture, bird watching, interior design, ice dancing, carpentry, and a plethora of other subjects. I vow to write about only those topics with which I have a documented history, interest, and level of competentcy that will not draw hoots of derision.

I do know a bit about OPINIONS. I am in fact engaged in responding to many views about OPINIONS at this time, as the subject is a topic on the Discussion Board of one of my online philosophy classes. In general, most of the students have said that one opinion is as good as another, that all opinions should be treated as equal in terms of truth value, etc.

This is of course nonsense. If not, I suggest that the next time you are ill you give equal weight to the views of your plumber and your doctor as to the diagnosis of your problem. It is clear that some opinions are better informed than others. Opinions are not of equal value or weight. That is not to say that one should disrespect persons who hold uninformed opinions. One can disagree without being disagreeable.

People hold millions of opinions. At this moment a huge number of persons hold opinions relevant to the appropriate course of action as regards the United States' involvement in Afghanistan. Many think that we should simply withdraw, acknowledge the fact that our efforts have all resulted in failure, and worse, in the deaths of service men and women as well as the deaths of innocent civilians. What they say is true. The U.S. involvement in Afghanistan has resulted in the deaths of American men and women as well as the death of innocent men, women and children. How can this possibly be justified? I do not know that it can, but if it cannot, what is needed is a total redefinition of the meaning and morality of warfare. 

Warfare is divided into unjustified warfare and justified warfare. The philosophic question is simply what events justifiy the killing of troops on each side of an isssue, what justifies the killing of innocents, what justifies killing at all at any time or any place.

Obviously our government believes that the war in Afghanistan is justified. Is it? I do not really know the answer to that question. Is Afghanistan a hotbed of terrorist activity? It seems to me that the answer to that question is yes. Are the Taliban nice people? I think, no. Are women subjected to horrible treatment under Taliban rule? I think, yes. Are these brutal, repressive, and ignorant people. I would guess, yes.

Is Afghanistan a primary source of heroin production via poppy growth and distribution to those who turn poppies into heroin? I think, yes.

Is it ever permissible or morally correct to kill innocents? I know not. Does it happen? Yes. The United States, in the prosecution of what it believed to be a just war firebombed Germany and let loose the Atomic Bomb on Japan. Harry Truman thought it necessary and utilitarian in a moral sense.

I do think it immoral, and demonstrably so, to risk the lives of our American troops, both men and women, behind the veil of repressive and stupid rules of engagement. I have first hand involvement and knowledge about repressive rules of engagement. I have heard it reported that the same is true in Afghanistan. If so, that is immoral.

Should we simply cut bait and come home? Perhaps. But we should, in the meantime, have rules of engagement that allow our soldiers and marines to fight back with all the intensity that can be mustered.

I know something about this subject, so I acknowledge that I wrote this post and approve of its contents.