Wisdom and Anarchy

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Greece, Israel and now the UK. Demonstrations and anarchy are spreading into the developed countries, where economic reality rapidly erodes the standard of living – taken for granted by the population. The US behaves as if it's economic policy has nothing to do with social order; as if it is immune. The wise learn from others' experience. Show me wisdom before reality catches up.

Twenty below freezing

 (image by  Shirley Cason)

It's ten degrees outside. Fahrenheit. Heavy icicles are hanging from the roof and window sills threatening to fall and crash the wooden veranda underneath. The pond has turned into a solid block of ice, thick enough for an adults to stand on. It's as quiet as only a land covered with snow can be. Silent, save the sound of trickling water.

If you followed the sound, so unnatural to this frozen world, you would find that it came from the roof. Tick, tick, tick, the snow on the roof is melting drop after drop, in a regular pace of an ancient clock.

It's not a special house. Just like all neighboring houses it emits heat to the outside world. Enough heat to raise the temperature by more than 20 degrees; enough to melt ice.

While heat is escaping, cold is penetrating the house. Yet, as the heaters are working non-stop, the house is warm and pleasant, and the sudden chill I feel whenever I see my heating bill is soothed by the love that the energy company bestows upon me. They love me. They love my neighbors. They love all of us who subscribe to the American dream: cheap houses that cost a lot to run.

It's only the environment that screams at me whenever I step out. But I don't have time to listen. I am too busy complaining about the trains that do not run in this weather; about the increase of oil price and about the council that does not clean the snow off the roads fast enough.

I hate being confused by hard thinking, when I can solve my problems by simple installments. Why should I build doors that seal if I can heat the house? Why should I build proper slopes if I can pumps out the access water. As long as my credit line is good why should I care if the Johns don't.

American ads, what do they say, what do they mean?

(image http://glowstickaurora.deviantart.com/)

Being continuously attacked by aggressive advertising is quite overwhelming when you first arrive in the US. What’s even more amazing is the fact that spinning reality does seem to work. There are dozens of such examples. Here I bring a few:

The first is a true copy of a note I saw in one of the government offices in Connecticut. I just wonder what crossed the mind of the person who ordered this notice:

Fraudulent activity is illegal. 

I saw the second ad on the train. It was euphemistic, so like the new version of the bible, I allowed myself to rewrite the ad in everyday words, while keeping the meaning unchanged. Personally, I don't find the idea very attractive, but it does seem to work:

Call us if you want to turn your injured child into a cash cow. 

Medical advertising is unfathomable for those who come from a more socially conscious world, where such practice does not exist. Here, I kept the spirit of the original ad unchanged:

Get your lobotomy done here, and get the second one free 

Such advertising is both amusing and alarming, and I wonder if I ever yield to it myself, and let it determine my thinking and actions. Is it as mind-boggling for those who have lived here long, or is it really the way should be?