Cheney's Misfire

Last week a joke started to circulate: I’d rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than go driving with Ted Kennedy. It’s funny for all the wrong reasons.

What does it say about our society when all we can talk about is accidental shootings, blue dresses and car accidents, when the real crimes go unnoticed? To think of the broadcast minutes and column inches dedicated to Dick Cheney’s accident with a rifle as compared to his secret activities in the White House bunker on September 11, 2001 is astounding. Why do we neglect the real issues that affect millions of people instead of one unlucky SOB on a quail hunting trip?

It all stems from our inability to understand complex issues. We, as a species, simply can’t handle the notion of high death rates in Africa from AIDS and the declining reserves of fossil fuels. Seventeen years ago these ideas were questioned in a book by Robert Ornstein and Paul Ehrlich, titled: New World New Mind [Doubleday,1989] It tells the story of the human animal from a biological and cultural point of view. It offers readers a chance to understand the consequences of progress while suggesting that our brains are a mismatch for our environment. The human mental system, they say, “is failing to comprehend the modern world.”

Last year Ronald Wright took a similar, anthropological point-of-view in his excellent book, A Short History of Progress [Anansi Press]. In it, he laid out the history of various civilizations from their rise to their fall and eventual extinction. His analysis of the people of Easter Island is particularly stirring because there are very similar trends with our civilization.

So, what are we left with when all we can remember is blue dresses, car crashes and hunting accidents? How do we deal with the rioting over religious cartoons? In the words of Albert Einstein, “only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. “

As long as we can get our coffee in the morning and our next edition of 24 on Monday nights, the rest of the world will simply have to take care of itself.

That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.