{"id":317,"date":"2020-01-27T18:59:18","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T23:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/?p=317"},"modified":"2020-01-27T19:11:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T00:11:13","slug":"a-blinding-flash-of-the-obvious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/?p=317","title":{"rendered":"A Blinding Flash of the Obvious"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Today&#8217;s musing is short and sweet: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">We cannot begin to do what we want to do until we stop doing what we are doing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">So what do we want to do and what are we doing that keeps us from what we want to do? <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Let&#8217;s list some things we want to do.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Provide security<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Improve healthcare<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Improve living standards<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Provide more jobs with good working conditions<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Improve education<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Improve our infrastructure<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Provide a cleaner and healthier environment<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Protect against global warming<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Provide safe foods and drinking water<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Protect our privacy<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Provide freedom from oppression<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Are we doing these things? Most people will answer a with a simple no. Others will answer that we are doing some but we should be doing much more than we are. So, why aren&#8217;t we doing more? What&#8217;s stopping us?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">To find out what&#8217;s stopping us, we have to look at what we are doing. So, let&#8217;s look at some of the things we are doing.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Squandering money on weapons and war<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Giving huge tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Providing subsidies to those who don&#8217;t need them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Allowing corporations to dictate public policy<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Increasing surveillance everywhere in every form<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Privatizing public services<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"western\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Cutting regulations and regulatory enforcement <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">Are any of the things we are doing contributing to what we want to do? I hardly think so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">The problems are twofold. First, we allow our public officials to be sold to the highest bidder so they no longer represent their constituents (us), but represent their patrons instead. Second, the things we want to do all require money. As it is, our government is borrowing over $1 trillion each year just to cover its expenses, so there&#8217;s no money left to pay for what we want to do. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">So it would appear obvious. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">We have to stop what we are doing in order to do what we want to do.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman, serif;\">In the forthcoming elections, be sure to ask the candidates what they will do to stop what we are doing and what they will do to start doing what we want.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s musing is short and sweet: We cannot begin to do what we want to do until we stop doing what we are doing. So what do we want to do and what are we doing that keeps us from what we want to do? Let&#8217;s list some things we want to do. Provide security &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/?p=317\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A Blinding Flash of the Obvious<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musingsofamaverick.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}