Mostly Empty Space

I do a lot of thinking. I named my blog, "One Man's Thoughts". You'd think that after all of these years of thinking that I would have figured everything out. I'm afraid not. There are still so many things, about which, I just don't understand - and some that I can't figure out no matter how much I think about them. There are some thoughts that have me in a tizzy, because I know that I will never know. Let me share some of those with you.

One of the classes I taught to IBM engineers was General Systems Theory. The objective was to help those who might be stuck in only one way of thinking about things. Our discussions were about the way our Point-of-View affects our minds. I had a personal experience that was a perfect example of what I used to teach.

As a boy, like many of you, I used to love looking up at the clouds. You know the routine, I'd see the various shapes of things. Looking up to admire their beauty was always a joy. When I took my first commercial flight, it allowed me to take a completely new point of view. I gained many insights.

                                   Point of View
                       Flying above the billowy clouds,
                             I now look down to see;
                     Their lovely softness, as I float by,
                         And they gaze skyward to me.

So, I got to thinking about how I might look at some things in a different way, things I have always wondered about. My Physics professor, Dr. Rosengarten placed his hand on a lab table and asked me to tell him what it was. I answered, "A lab table, sir". No, no, no, Gene - it's mostly nothing! Excuse me? He reminded me of how much space there is between the molecules of the wood, between the atoms of the molecule and the enormous space between the electrons and the nucleus of each atom - so, there it is - mostly nothing. Huh? Now that's a very small world to look at - and it requires a different point of view.

Looking at the night skies, I had to take an opposite P-O-V. No small world out there - but, an immensely large universe. Lots of stars, planets, meteors, moons, asteroids, black holes, comets and galaxies and, oh-oh, mostly empty space. Hmmm.

I look at the distant Andromeda galaxy, somewhat similar in shape to our own Milky Way. The light that I'm seeing has taken over two million years to reach my eyes - what? Light travels at 186,000 miles per second - and it took two million years to get here? Wow! My P-O-V allows me to look up and see that galaxy, but how about this - If the light took that long to get here, I may be "seeing" a galaxy that may no longer be there - it could be gone. I'm seeing something that doesn't even exist. Hmmm. 

But, there is a whole lot of other stuff I can see, right?

                     That's our really big Sun. It keeps
                              little ol' Earth alive.

Further out - Where's Earth?

Further out - Where's the sun?

 

If I lived on Antares, my P-O-V might

just be - there's no such place as earth.

It's mostly empty space!

What's in a Name?

Today we regularly hear from individuals who are "offended" by one thing or another. That's weird enough, but for some reason, they choose not to grow up and get over it. In addition, they want the rest of us to change our language, our attitudes and our behavior. Fat chance! How difficult is it to change someone's behavior? Just ask any teacher, parent, minister or physical therapist - it ain't easy. Also, if it's going to happen at all, it will require some discomfort and/or pain. So, what's going on with this, "I'm offended" stuff?

We are deluged daily with new things to worry about. We have to watch what we eat, what we think and even the words we use. Social issues that had disappeared years ago are now at the forefront again. In South Philly, we called each other names and thought nothing of it. Nobody took it so personally and there was no offense taken. What's in a name? It would only have been a problem if the word was accompanied by an adjective and a threat - and it rarely was that way. We all got along just fine. Using words like that in the PC world of today might get you put in jail.

The problems are being caused by PC - the politically correct nonsense. Where did this PC stuff come from? Well, here's the bad news. It is an essential part of Marxism. It's the same Marxist song that they have been singing since WWI. Really - that long. They managed to get PC into a few countries over the years (China, Russia, Italy, Germany) with pretty bad results. Their methods on how to deconstruct, or as they would say, "fundamentally change", a capitalist society are clearly stated in the Communist Manifesto. Marx and Lenin actually used the phrase, "politically correct" on each other! That's where it came from. Up till now, the PC method hasn't worked too well, but it seems to have gained ground here in the good ol' USA.

The main goal of communism is the destruction and replacement of the capitalist economic model. That happens to be our system, and they are busy trying to bring it down using the same time-worn methods that they have always used. And, PC is one of them. Here's how it works for communists.

Marxist-Leninist principles don't mesh at all with the American system. They especially dislike our being "exceptional". They must first create a Godless state and atheism to begin their transformation of a nation. Recognize any of that? Using PC, they will pit groups against one another, those they call, the "classes". Being anti-conservative, they see advantages in class conflict.

In America, we were designed to be "classless", but we hear our leaders now referring to the "middle class" - a purely socialist label. With no God to influence American society, our God-given rights are put in jeopardy. Leaders then have the power to affect those rights. We've watched as our universities became populated with far-left (think Marxist) professors. They have had no problem creating a PC climate on the campuses, so a constant flow of conditioned students enters society every year.

 Pitting the people against each other, and the ensuing chaos is a useful environment for them. Have we not heard certain politicians say, "Never let a good crisis go to waste"? Marx would call that progress. We realize that we must now be careful not to offend any of the groups who have been categorized as victims. It is just not PC to do that! Those groups, Hispanics, blacks, homosexuals, feminists, global warming enthusiasts, et al, would be seen as capitalist slaves by Marx, and ironically, he would call them his "Useful Idiots".

Karl Marx actually defined the steps to be used to destroy a capitalist nation. If you consider what is happening in our country right now, those steps are recognizable. Have we not seen government efforts to take personal property away from citizens? That's a Marxist principle, while personal property rights remain an important part of America's foundation.

All of this sat very comfortably with the rebellious hippies of the 60's. They were happy when God and religion were diminished as a positive social standard. They were thrilled with the idea of not being judged by a moral society. They found it easy to take oaths that they had no intention of keeping. Marriage, families and patriotism suffered immediately. They particularly enjoyed rioting in the streets and using labels to devalue the moral people they disliked. Those rebels played a major role in the advance of Marx's PC agenda - He had always seen Western Culture as the enemy.

Here in the USA, the Communist Party couldn't win an election in the 30's and 40's, so they changed their name to the Progressive Party. In the 50's they were found to have infiltrated the media, Hollywood, the universities, the military and government itself. With that much attention, they decided to not call themselves Communist or Progressive anymore. They disappeared from the public scene. They went underground. They're still out there, all right, but where do you think they might be hiding? In all the same places, the media, Hollywood, the universities, the military and government itself. Oh yes, you'll find many of them in the unions and the Democrat Party, who now call themselves the Progressive Party again. Excuse me? They are calling themselves Progressive again?

But then, what's in a name?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give Me Peace!

As I look at the world situation there are many reasons to be concerned. There are international incidents just waiting to happen, plus ongoing wars and those about to happen. We see threats by the leaders of China, Korea and Russia. Then there are the never-ending conflicts in the Middle-East. I see millions of people whose lives are being threatened daily by some adversary. And that includes us here in the USA. It's insanity to be at war with an enemy sworn to destroy us, and decide to merely tolerate the deaths and inconveniences. Here in America, we hear that it is because we are "war-weary". Well, tell that to soldiers in a foxhole under attack - again. Tell it to the policemen and firemen who must be really tired of risking their lives to save others. Tell that to the doctors who have become weary of seeing the pain and the blood. And try telling that to the Israeli people.

That brave nation has had over 65 years to become weary of war. Yes, they long for peace, but they can never achieve it with neighbors who don't even accept their existence. So, Israel will fight again - weary or not.

But, they know how to win a war. As awful as war is, it's the only way to restore the peace. (Give me peace, or I'll blow your head off!) They will do the only realistic thing - eliminate the enemy. In this case, it is the group of terrorists called, Hamas. I suspect that they will probably take back some of the Gaza strip to give themselves more of a buffer zone.

War is hell; war is painful; war is a conflict that has to be won, if it is ever to end - weary or not.

Playing the Ace

I was at the Publix market this morning to buy some lunch meat at the Deli counter. Mike, the older experienced worker was there, but he was training a young man, Bob, to use the slicing machine. When my turn came, it was Bob who waited on me. It wasn't easy for him to do the various steps involved with his new job. Take the order, ask how much, remember the amount, find the right meat, before slicing ask how thick, remember the response, slice the meat, weigh it, wrap it, place a price sticker on the package and give it to me. I got more than the half pound of Turkey Breast I ordered (there was a pound); the slices were much thicker than I wanted and the slices were wrapped in a weird twisted fashion. Let's face it - before we know how to do something well, we have to do it several times. And during those times, we make lots of mistakes, but, in the end, LOJ works (learning on the job).

A pilot friend told me that most of the time, his plane is being directed by a trainee in the control tower. There are always new people who are learning the ropes and need actual live experiences. Of course, there is an experienced worker who is supervising the trainee - most of the time. I really can relate to Bob and the Air Traffic Controller trainee. I'll bet you can too. It got me to thinking about when I was with IBM and had to learn something new.

I was in the Education Department and was responsible for Curriculum Development. A customer had requested their need for a course to be designed. I was given the project along with any assistance I might require. The State Tax Agency, needed to have their agents trained on how to do their audits in a computer environment.

OK, I knew about education and teaching, but what was an audit? Really, I had no idea. What did it mean that they wanted to do it in a computer environment? The only thing I knew to do was to create an acronym for the new course, "ACE" - Auditing in a Computer Environment. Now what do I do? I soon learned what an audit was. It was required by the customer that I submit to an audit of my taxes if I was going to work with them.

I needed a more experienced person to help me, so I asked two colleagues to work with me on the project. They lasted about ten minutes - just long enough for them to learn that they had to be audited to work on Gene's project. Bye, fellas.

So, I would have to do the whole thing myself. In effect, I was like Bob learning how to slice those lunch meats at Publix. First, I had to learn what it was these Tax Auditors did. I worked with them for about two weeks as they went about their business. Hmmm, I learned more than I wanted to know.

When I asked how they decided who would be audited, one agent answered. He said that he had a perfect method of finding money that could be recovered by the State. He would look around for any very attractive young girl who might be driving an expensive car. Was that his target? No! He said he would audit the returns of her doctor, her boss and her dentist. Are you kidding? No, he wasn't kidding me.

OK, I had to write the course alone, present it for approval, then sell it to the State Tax Agency, but it all worked out. I passed the audit of my tax return, we got the order and I taught the first classes. ACE was a big success and I was no longer a trainee. Was that a pound you ordered, sir?