The circus

You will have to forgive me if I haven’t allowed my knickers to become entirely twisted at the hands of all the recent doomsday talk of global warming. I don’t believe that it’s all some massive, environmentalist, attention-seeking fabrication. I do however think it has been grossly blown out of proportion. Anyone above the age of 15 and with an attention span above that of the average blueberry muffin, must have at some point noticed that there has always a been current hot issue, which is reported on and then re-reported on over and over until it reaches the point where it is no longer possible to distinguish fact from speculation, and the only thing anyone knows for certain, is that they really don’t give a crap anymore. With the morning paper claiming a pending ice age is imminent and the evening news warning you to expect the blazing heat to make everything south of the arctic-circle dryer than a alcoholics anonymous meeting. It’s hard to know what (if anything) to take seriously anymore.

I don’t mean to poop on anyones publicity parade, but I seem to remember hearing most of the inconvenient truths back in the late 1990’s. I remember everyone being terrified for a while, then everybody became sickeningly smug (like they actually knew the truth all along), and then a few months later, we were all pointing our fingers, with a ridiculous sense of judgmental self-satisfaction at the content of Bill Clinton’s undergarments.

Since the turn of the century we have gorged ourselves into to a frenzy on fixed elections, terrorist attacks, alleged terrorist attacks/ government conspiracies, wars on terror as a result of terrorist attacks which may or may not have been government conspiracies, tsunamis, hurricane katrinas, global warming and last but not least the up and coming highly anticipated US recession. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried we’ve happily stuffed our faces to our hearts content, and then, in the true spirit of western civilization, we rolled over and fell asleep.

Cheating is still immoral, the great wheels of war continue to turn, cities are still destroyed and peoples homes and livelihoods still lay in ruins. We however have moved on to greener, fresher and more entertaining pastures, so there’s no point in dwelling on the present.

Sometimes we forget to remind ourselves that the news is a part of the entertainment industry. They do bring us the real facts for the most part, but which facts to report and which ones to omit are carefully chosen in order to shock, confuse and excite us enough to keep paying attention. Just because the television stops talking about something, it doesn’t mean that the problems caused by that something have all been solved. It simply means that the peoples’ interest has faded. In a world where the customer is always right, it is our own responsibility to make sure we keep our priorities straight. We and we alone have the power make the world a better place for ourselves and for future generations. I however do not intend to hold my breath awaiting the great awakening of the human race. So if you’re looking for safer basket in which to store your eggs. I recommend entertaining the idea of investing in Alaskan beach front property.