Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Changing attitudes

When I was younger I often pondered in a cynical undertone why things happened. For instance I was amazed how Tony Blair got re-elected in 2005. I couldn't understand why everybody drove/still drives around in cars using oil when biofuels exist. I wondered innocently why we need Identity Cards when all the September 11th terrorists entered the US on legal documents. I also questioned why people in Africa regularly die from starvation when over a billion people are now obese and there is clearly no food shortage. I was despondent when Blair decided he would close lots more post offices and when Brown and Livingstone decided the best (and only) solution to a rising population is to build lots more "affordable housing" when the good old tenements should have scared everyone away from building "cheap" housing. The war in Iraq never made sense to me and neither did the way the BBC made stories from nothing: "We now go to reporter (x) to tell us what we can do in this time of crisis... "Thanks (y), as you know the shortage of news has hit the BBC hardest.." or something like that.

My conclusion at the time was that everybody was apathetic and stupid. However I decided that merely highlighting the flaws is only going halfway and I began proposing solutions to the problems such as dealing with terrorism. Why do terrorists strike? Because they hold a "false" belief? Surely therefore to solve terrorism requires that terrorists are better educated/enlightened? The Labour government think surveillance/oppression is the answer. Also their solution to congestion/pollution is road charging and the congestion charge. My answer is cheap, fast, efficient public transport, road widening/redesigning, renewable fuels and more appropriate speed limits, amongst other things.

I believed it was simply the case that I had come up with far better answers and all I had to do was let the government know my ideas and they would change. So I sent them some letters and awaited their replies. Sadly all I got back was the message "Thank you for getting in touch, but we are going to continue doing our own (wrong) action anyway."

So if I can't reason with people (because they are too inept/apathetic to appreciate my ideas) then the only other course of action is to force my ideas on people.

Unfortunately at this point I am reminded of Tony Blair, so I think it better to go back to the previous stages of coming up with a superior idea, making sure it is actually a good idea and convincing other people to support it.

Therefore if anybody disagrees with my ideas, please post a comment below (nothing offensive or it will be deleted), otherwise, presumably 100% of the population agrees with me. :)

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