America Has No Idiot Lights-- Only Gauges

These two topics might seem odd, and even unrelated, but there is a very important connection.

Not too long ago I visited someone in the hospital. I was asked to turn on the television. So I grabbed the remote and noticed there was one button, "TV." No on or off button. No channel changer. No sound control.

Just one stupid button. How do you control a television with one button?

Second, not too long ago I went to school. Of course I fought it, but I was taught the classics. I read poetry. I learned of civics, of government, of geography. I learned how to compose a coherent thought and string them together to make a point.

So it comes to a point when even a movie like Star Wars is based on an understanding of the classics: of complex cultures, wild history, and a thousand civilizations. Star Wars came directly from the likes of Homer, Aristotle, Hitler and Napoleon. Time has collected for us an array of the good, and of the bad, all centered around the difficult and complex questions of human existence.

And so it amazes me to see and read of simpletons who think, "Why can't we all just get along?"

The answer is you can only try. There is nothing in your world-- the "today" you are enduring right this moment-- that can be distilled down to just one "happy button" like that hospital television. Frustration over one's powerlessness over lack of choice will erupt, just as surely erupted my ire. It is better to trust the individual to control themselves, although some will not, rather than to take away any possibility of choice.

Mankind is not a one-button one-size-fits-all kind of person.

So this Fourth of July give a little thought to those who fought (and fight) to solve the complex issues of life. Our country was born by complex men having learned difficult lessons from the turmoils of France, of England, of Greece, and of Rome. They did not try to simplify life, but to understand it-- and deal with it.

So deal with it.

Cheers!