Paranoia Online

The first entry in a new blog. My motto has always been, "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you". I've been noticing a lot of bad things lately - and I don't just mean people getting their heads chopped off on Greyhound buses, high-school shootings and Mother Nature throwing a Hurricane to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of Katrina. No-one likes a showoff upstaging an anniversary. I don't think the Tragically Hip intended New Orleans is sinking to be prophecy....

No... I'm talking about the world coming apart at the seams. Ethnic groups rising up, bush wars all over the place, rogue states and a general atmosphere of danger and incompetence. Where are all the giants of yesteryear....

I think that one day, historians will look back on the early 21st Century as when the great collapse started. Think about it - celebrity is more important than actually having talent. People of dubious character and talent named Brittany, Paris and Nicole among others are famous for no particular reason except that they're famous. People are hedonistic and don't care about the rest of the world.

Our moral compass, strength, sense of right and wrong, determination and clarity of purpose are gone. Right now our civilisation is like an old man with Cheyne-Stokes respiration - the end is in sight and we don't know it. We replaced our beliefs with extremism and fundamentalism - we don't think, consider or challenge - we stand on dogma and prejudice. We don't discuss rationally, we shout down, insult and belittle anyone who disagrees with us.

We watch reality shows just so we can see people that are more screwed up and in more pain than we are. Our youth don't want to learn real skills to get things done like engineers, doctors, mathematicians or physicists - no they want to be lawyers, marketers, clothing designers, administrators, brokers - anything except a skill that actually generates wealth.

At what point did we decide that sending all our industrial capacity offshore was a good idea? Eventually we'll end up with a total service economy with no ability to make anything. We will be totally dependent on foreign factories and technologies. We will be vulnerable to threats and strong arming.

If you think I'm wrong, when was the last time a new oil refinery was built? Why do companies look overseas for technical talent because they can't find in North America? The US spends $720 MILLION PER DAY ($500,000/minute) in Iraq - yet balks on spending for schools, Medicare or social reform. How much good could be done with just a fraction of that money. Your tax dollars in action. Sure in Canada, people may feel morally superior but the Canadian Medicare is falling apart, transportation systems are wearing out and people seem more interested in telling everyone else how to live than doing it themselves.

This could get depressing. Show me I'm wrong and PROVE it - please.