I just removed a rather pointy post about my unhappiness with the condition of my airline’s domestic US fleet.
I showed it to my wife. “Ouff. You’re pretty harsh here. You know, we’ve got all our miles here, and that’s our vacation. You don’t want to hurt their business, then they start to decline and it just gets worse.”
I’m touched that my wife would think that what I write here could be noticed beyond my own family. Or, maybe she’s being sweet and going along with the pretense.
Regardless, she makes a very good point.
With Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. the freedom to express one’s thoughts has gotten so much easier. For many, the ability–and responsibility–to consider their public statements has not kept pace with the tools that help them share their thoughts.
Empowered Idiots From 1862 to 1914, the California Powder Works produced gunpowder and blasting powder from a factory along the San Lorenzo River, 4 miles upstream from where it flows into the Monterey Bay, in Santa Cruz.
Before digital process control systems, mixing chemicals en-masse was science mixed with a bit of luck and human skill. Variance in gunpowder could have nasty consequences. Imagine what would happen if your cannons, behind your front line of infantry, are suddenly loaded with shells that have an unexpectedly weaker batch of gunpowder. You might wind up dropping those rounds on the heads of your own guys.
At the California Powder Works, they had four big guns that they would shoot into nets in order to measure the strength and ensure consistency of their gunpowder. When I first learned about this, my natural male reaction was, “Cool! Just think of what kind of fun you could have with live artillery.” Apparently, a couple of the workers had the same thought. So, one August afternoon in 1899, they pointed the 8 inch guns away from the nets and up the river valley, just into the forest, and nowhere in particular.
One 100 lb cannonball landed near a Toll House, and another near Hihn’s Mill. Fortunately no one was killed.
I just hope that the mindless rage I see spewing from Tea Partiers and Occupiers through the social power tools winds up being as benign as these amateur gunners of Santa Cruz. We need deliberate, thoughtful action. Even from regular people on the street. Not primal reactions to 11 years of pathetic national leadership. On matters of the greatest consequence, where we seem to be seriously broken, like the US healthcare system which is destroying our global competitiveness on its march become 40% of GDP, cooperation and compromise has given way to brinksmanship and subjugation. Even if our congress and president(s) behave like this–we need to fight thousands of years of instinctive behaviour and learn how to be citizens of the 21st century. With power comes responsibility. If our leaders are childish, partisan and obstructionist, it’s more important than ever that the rest of us are not. And when we speak, we’re thoughtful, articulate and constructive.
‘Tis an Ill Bird That Fouls Its Own Nest In the heat of the moment, it feels good to vent. But when, in my anger, I’m knocking another down I may be taking myself down. In the future, when I open my mouth, it will be to create something of value.
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