Great Blogs of Fire!

Well well well, isn’t this a nice thing. Quick ramblings that go from my head to the front page. Does Tim know what danger lurks in giving us writers so much power?

Well, I will try my best to be responsible with this gift. Hopefully, such absolute power will not corrupt myself absolutely.

I think I will take this opportunity to discuss “Silence.” Silence is not found in nature, It is entirely man-made. Usually it is found in a man-made building, where it is possible to lock out the sounds of nature. It then comes about from one of two things, either isolation or cooperation. In isolation we are alone. In cooperation, we work together to be silent to hear the performance of an individual.

The web, and blogs and forums in particular, provide a third realm, where it is possible to cooperate while in isolation. To share and to learn from each other is a great thing. The performance is usually written, not spoken, but that is rapidly changing with animations, video and audio.

We will all be alive for too short a time to experience everything ourselves firsthand. The ability to share and learn from each other is the best thing we have.

I am sure that I speak for all the writers here when I say that we welcome your feedback, comments, and contributions.

Recently I got a complimentary e-mail that said mymac.com was a New Yorker magazine for the common man. I always thought the New Yorker was for the common man, since my late Uncle Jimmy used to read it.

Uncle Jimmy was born in Italy, and worked hard all his life. A blue-collar guy if there ever was one. I remember visting him once and he was covered in flour. He was in his eighties and still working as a baker. He would rail against FDR like the New Deal was written yesterday. He said “you cannot pay people to do nothing.” It was, interestingly, both a moral and an economic view. Idle hands being the devil’s workshop and all.

When I view my own writings, it is easy to see that the my apples don’t fall far from my family tree. Of course, I think I know something that he didn’t: The Interest Mechanism. Interest is the ultimate way of getting paid for doing nothing.

Idleness can occur at both ends of the wealth spectrum. What makes societies strong is the middle-class, and people like Uncle Jimmy. America is losing its strength, and one only needs to look at Brazil and central America and around the world to see our children’s future. The murders today in a gated community in Brazil of Shell Oil employees shows that money cannot buy everything.

The new American Dream to become a millionaire and/or retire early based on investments (rather than savings) is not one Uncle Jimmy held. This new dream appears to save us from our isolation, but it is destroying us at the same time. It is not a simple problem to solve, but it is solvable. All it takes is cooperation.

On this topic, I will never be silent.