Leaders

Thursday June 28, 2007 - 12:59PM EDT

Have I ever seen or experienced what I would consider a competent leader? Maybe my standards are too high but I don't think I have. When people look up to certain leaders with adoring reverence I am baffled. All I see with these "leaders" is some assclown who wanted to be at the head of something or was forced to be at the head. I just keep asking myself question, "are things really that terrible or are people really that stupid?" 

I keep trying to figure out what the ultimate question is.  Like in Hitchhikers Guide.  What is the ultimate question. For humans sometimes I think it could just be survival. But there are so many answers to that. Then I just think seeking such a question is asinine and the product of a fool with a weak mind.

Recently saw some news about Egypt and discovery of a new mummy. Every time I hear about ancient peoples I am amazed. Especially the Egyptians. Their longevity is something the modern age hasn't even approached yet. It amazing to think that the modern age is not even half of recorded human history. I think about all the religions that exist today and make claims to being truth and having the most important history.  When you actually look at what we know, the ancient Egyptians religion lasted far longer than anything we have today and could still retain that record when it is all said an done. Things like that give me pause when I think about human ideas. How they can last so long then vanish. How people of one era can think something to be real and another era does not. I remember my short stints in catholic school growing up. How they taught us about the bible as being the definitive source for knowledge and everything you need to know is in it. We'd watch cartoons about stories and what no. When I think about how and what they taught me then I feel completely deceived and robbed. These assclowns tried to indoctrine and single minded view of things because some other assclowns told them it was the way to go. It is the same way when I think about regular history that I have learned. American history and the things I learned in school. I got half-truths because....  Well I don't even know why. I think about it this way. People today are far more educated than 100 years ago.  But humans physiologically have not changed so much in a hundred years as to have some profound effect on intelligence.  Sure there have been societal changes but if today we can learn far more than we did 100 years ago why is there this artificial limit we impose upon ourselves now. Sometimes I think humans don't give themselves enough credit for how much potential they have to learn.  This is most aparent in schooling. We lament the failure of some of our young people to barely be able read. I lament the failure of every single person on the planet not being able to speak 10 different languages at least.  That is a real goal. I'm taking for granted the ability to read.  But in that context reading to humans needs to be as simple as putting food in your mouth. Peoples expectations and goals are so low that it seems like such a monumental task to just improve our schools to the point where everyone can read. The task is great for sure, but not insurmountable.  We think the effort we put into just  getting our schools to read well is  great. It  is not. It is pathetic. 

I wonder what the world would have been like if the ancient Egyptians had prospered and spread and survivied until today as a global soceity. The mysteries of the pyramids would not be mysteries at all but apart of well-known history.  The middle east may be a different place. Instead of the center of competing beliefs and conflict it would be the center of all society and human stability.  Of course the people's of ancient Egypt didn't disappear. They just changed, but their ancient ideas were lost. Although the past is unchangeable  I can't for one second think  it was predetermined or guided along a prescribed path. So I think would would the world be like if certain things had happened. What would the world have been like if the African slave traded of the colonial period had never happened? What if Chinese society had not been arrogant and closed itself off but spread out and dominated world culture?  Could there have been a present where Africa was the most populous, prosperous and most advanced continent in the world?  And if that was the case would Africa even be considered a continent.  The continental designations were decided by Western society. What is the difference between Europe and Asia besides cultural boundaries, there is nothing physically separating them. Maybe what we know as the continent of Africa would be divided into 5 distinct continents.