An existential something.

I wrote this awhile ago and now think it worth posting.

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Technology has progressed ridiculously far in my own lifetime. I was born in 1992, when the old Apple Centris computers were top of the line (and cost around $2500) and the Internet was a casual toy. What’s e-mail? My father had a central bulletin board in his office where fellow doctors would pin stuff of interest. Or of course, face to face conversations would work too. Cell phones were little boxes of plastic carried by rich businessmen who thought they needed them, and no one was going home on Monday night (in their practical little hybrid car) to watch the big football game on a 54” LCD TV in HD provided by Fios. And now just sixteen years later – a mere blip on the grand scale of American history – the Internet is a versatile tool that evades definition, having application in all pursuits of our life; cell phones are ubiquitous and any kid without one is considered abnormal (or his parents don’t trust him) (personal note: five years ago, I was in sixth grade. There were about twenty people in my class of 70 who had cell phones. My brother is in sixth grade now. Of his class of 74, over 60 have cell phones). We e-mail – or instant message – anything. I admit openly to having shared music files over instant messengers. Hybrids, still a very imperfect technology, are nevertheless the latest craze, and you’ll be hard pressed to walk a college campus without seeing one of those distinctive little Priuses, decked out in Obama stickers and with one of those Christmas-tree shaped air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror. Big-screen TVs – plasma, LCD, DLP – are present in more households than seems entirely necessary. Fiber optics continue to make “fast” even more illogically faster. And, by the way, I still use my Apple Centris – and would not part with it for $2500.

Henry David Thoreau did not believe that technology would accomplish anything. In his time, the biggest technological boom was railroads, and things to travel on railroads, and things to make travel via railroad even faster. The 1840s were a long time ago. In Thoreau’s writings, one can certainly see that he would prefer a cabin in the woods to anything else; he was an isolationist. He never even married. It’s the year 2008 now, and I happen to own a cabin in the woods. It’s backed up by a lake and has thick woods separating it from the lot next door. It’s up in the Pocono mountains – a little bit of solitude and escape only two hours away. And I’m not married,…nor am I an isolationist, nor do I believe it possible. And yet I feel comfortable being alone up there. But there’s no denying the influx of technology even there. We have to have electricity. So the cabin is wired. We have to be warm and we have to cook, so we have a big ol’ propane tank outside. And of course, there’s a community center that’s got a high-speed WAN (that’s “wide-area network” – or just plain Internet). But even in this fast-paced, un-Thoreau society, I feel at peace up there.

That’s my idea of isolation (I don’t use the internet up there). The benefits of advancing technology are undeniable. The downsides, though, seem to evade our grasp. How many child nutrition specialists have been on Fox and Friends, or in Parents magazine, scaring the general public into strictly regulating their children’s diets and forcing them to exercise because of their hitherto unrestricted access to video games, computers, and generally physically unfit activities? How many preteen girls have been abducted through stupidity using the Internet? How many people need to be in fatal car accidents – hybrid or not - because they’re texting while driving?

A lot of crotchety old “experts” will probably have you believe that all this technological invasion of our otherwise bland lifestyles is a terrible thing that is corrupting modern society. Unfortunately for them, they fail to realize that modern society is shaped by technology such as this, not corrupted by it. Take it all away – and what are we left with? Would it be a society like the isolationist, contemplative one that Thoreau imagined? Or would we find that our dependence on modern entities is more than skin-deep?

Epic Fail.

I am ashamed of my country.

On Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, Americans proved yet again that credentials don’t matter. Americans proved yet again that style matters over substance. And most of all, they proved that this is a nation of blind followers. By electing Barack Hussein Obama, the single most inexperienced candidate ever, to the most powerful position of the most powerful country in the world, Americans have helped this nation lose even more favor with those who once had faith in her.

It is a mystery to any rational mind why Obama gained such huge popularity with the American majority to begin with. It stands to reason that he had won the black vote and the liberal vote before he was even the nominee, just like it stands to reason McCain won Texas before he announced he was running. What is more of a mystery is the American people’s apparent lack of appreciation for rationality. Style over substance – that has become a norm for a nation that watches Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. Admittedly, the days of Republicans like Reagan are gone. When he ran for re-election, Mondale won Minnesota and Reagan took the other 49. On election day 2008, Obama won all the states that John McCain should have. Pennsylvania, a red state until 2004, went overwhelmingly to Obama. Virginia, a major battleground state, was in McCain’s favor until the big city precincts starting reporting in and tilted it in Obama’s favor. All we can say now is “What happened?”

John McCain made several mistakes during his campaign. Among them were the selection of Sarah Palin as a VP candidate and his endorsement of Bush’s $700 billion government bailout of private firms (which he later retracted). However, this isn’t why he lost. The American people have already proven that they don’t care about facts. Why did Obama win? To the casual observer, he is just an eloquent speaker, a rare far-left Christian, an ideologue, and also a black man. To those who look beyond the skin-deep curb appeal of his speeches, Obama is the holder of a voting record more liberal than a self-avowed Socialist, a master of pork-barrel spending, a young and inexperienced ideologue, and a Senator who has never had his name attached to a passed Bill.

I cannot imagine how the next four years are going to progress. By any account, Obama’s plans should help people like me. I have already had some people say “But Jimmy, since you have a low income, why aren’t you glad for his tax cuts?” My income over the next four years will be so low I’ll barely pay taxes anyway. I am more concerned for people like my parents, high tax bracket individuals sending four kids to elite private schools and promising they’ll send one to college in the scarily near future. Obama has said he wants to return taxes to where they were under Reagan. The highest tax bracket under Reagan was 39%. Under Bush it’s been 35%. So that’s an increase of $15,000. $15,000 that we earn for ourselves. $15,000 that we need.

But according to Obama, it’s okay. Because in his acceptance speech, he told America that all his big lofty plans for America aren’t likely to get done within one term. So you know what, America? It’s not his fault he has no idea how to go about pushing a liberal agenda through a liberal Congress, and it’s not his fault he can’t deliver on the promises he made you. It’s your fault, America. It’s your fault for not seeing the plans behind the man and it’s your fault for placing no value on experience and policy. It’s your fault I have lost my faith in this country.