no shortage of sand
Two extracts from the latest, typically brilliant, post on Simon Munnery's blog. As funny as you'd expect, and thought provoking too.
1) "There's something about the recycling symbol; those three green arrows chasing each others tails; I had a vision of a vast rally, with thousands saluting and huge banners sporting the symbol and a word by each of the arrows - Create! Destroy! Transport! The insanity of it. Take the recycling of bottles for example; these must be left in special baskets outside your house from where they are collected by a van - using fuel - driven to a central location - perhaps Peru, if the whims of the economy so dictate - where they are smashed and melted - using more fuel - before being recast into bottles and then transported again - using fuel - and then they burn some extra fuel just for a laugh. And why recycle glass anyway? There's no shortage of sand. Recycle? Reuse surely, like we used to a hundred years ago. The symbol itself is a lie; it implies some perfect cycle; infinitely repeatable - but every stage of the process uses fuel; a spiral would be more accurate; but that would attract few followers."
2) "Countries such as North Korea are oft condemned for being 'one party states'. But is that so much worse than the USA which as far as I can see is a two party state - with those two parties more or less exactly the same; large corporations funding both. Still at least you get the illusion of choice, which is better than nothing I suppose."
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3 comments:
America's 'Two party State' is, I think ineffectual and on closer inspection doesn’t even muster the illusion of choice. The confusing situation is made worse by Right Wing Democrats being overall more to the right than left leaning Republicans and vice versa.
Its this blurring of the boundaries and only slight differences between two vague groupings that give lobby groups in the US such power and leverage. So we hear often of (sometimes sinister sounding) groups such as the Jewish lobby, Gun lobby, Anti / Pro Abortion lobby, Irish (!?!) lobby, Christian lobby, Creationist lobby, all of who throw masses of cash at these parties in the hope of influencing them. This is often how American policy is decided. There is no talk of a cap on party spending there, one glance at the razzamatazz of a US party conference demonstrates that debate and policy formation comes a distant second to balloons, loud music and ticker tape.
Yeah, this is true. Although I think, doubtless in order to beef up your argument, that you're significantly playing down just how cool balloons and loud music actually are.
BORING! :)
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