I’ve spent a lot of time giving people more credit than they were due.  The philosophy I developed worked well for quite some time, but nowadays I realize that it’s flawed.  You see, I have always felt that people were born with relatively similar brains.  That is, they are about the same size and weight, barring any abnormalities of course.  And based on everything I’ve ever read, we have far more brain cells than we could ever use.  Of course neither I nor any other person really knows how the brain functions, but it has become obvious that certain ones function better than others.

    I thought that, given we are born with a normal brain, the general population should be about equal in the ability to be “smart”.   If a person applies themselves they should be able to achieve pretty much anything they desire.  Of course I realize some people like Albert Einstein and Stephan Hawking are exceptional, but on the whole if you want to be a doctor, you can be a doctor.  If you want to be a lawyer, you could become a lawyer.  You could do whatever you wanted and at least be average at it.  All you needed to do was apply yourself.  This philosophy worked perfectly for me but I had a sample of one, so obviously my results were skewed.

    So here’s what made me realize my philosophy was wrong.  Lately I’ve been giving a good bit of thought to what we’re doing to our environment.  I’ve got to tell you that discussing global warming with some folks is like “staring into the eye of a chicken” (to quote Jay Leno).  When you suggest buying a small economy car or driving less, you quickly learn that in America, burning fossil fuel is not only a God given right, it’s an obligation.  You’ll find out that it’s somebody else’s fault that fuel cost $3.00+ a gallon.  Also, global warming is a plot to make Al Gore money and/or get him elected president.   My favorite response was when I suggested that “...you wouldn’t want to buy a truck that gets 15 mpg today and gas goes up to $10 a gallon next year”.  The person I was talking to quickly informed me, “I WILL IF I WANT TO!”  Honestly, I couldn’t argue with that.  That person would wrestle a grizzly bear while wearing a meat shirt and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t talk them out of it.  But to put it in perspective, this same person thinks “the reason our weather is so messed up is because of all the shuttle launches.”  So if I’ve got this right, 118 space shuttle missions can mess up the atmosphere but 800 million cars running everyday won’t.

    An incredible number of people that are generally considered intelligent just don’t want to think about it.  Somebody else will figure it out and solve the problem.  “If God wants to end the world, he’ll end the world.”  But what if he wants us to figure out how to save the world instead?  Does that mean that your part in solving the problem is ignoring it?

    Personally, I’ve dramatically cut back on my fuel consumption in the past couple of years.  I mentioned in a previous post that I do own 16 internal combustion engines.  I only use them one at a time and some I use maybe once a year.  I also drive a small car that gets 37 miles per gallon.  If it were any smaller it would be a suppository.  I don’t do as much for the environment as I could, but at least I’m trying.  It is incredibly difficult to maintain status as a redneck while hugging a tree.