Gas Pains

Tom grew up in Milwaukee, bartended in Wauwatosa in the '70s and moved here in 1984.

Commentary, observations and musings about the outdoors, life in general and maybe Tosa politics and personalities will be the order of the day. He savors a lively debate as much as terrific cooking.

Thelma and Louise, the Road to Greece and the Titanic - Part 3

The Titanic Effect

I might possibly be the only person on the planet to have never watched the 1997 movie that featured Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

You know Gas you are a real philistine.  A cultural low-life.  Everyone should watch that movie.  It should be required watching in school!

Actually I read the book as a lad so I already know how the story ends.  The ship sinks.

Allow me to explain what the sinking of the Titanic has to do with Thelma and Louise and the Road to Greece.

We all know the story.  A hundred years-ago, on its maiden voyage, the largest and most luxurious of ships of the time struck an iceberg and sank.  More than 1500 passengers perished ranking this tragedy in fifth place on the top ten list of shipwrecks

And it was largely preventable.

Do you know why the loss of life was so high? 

Not enough lifeboats. 

The builders of the Titanic were so convinced that the ship would never sink that they failed to equip it with a sufficient number of lifeboats.

This leads me to something known as The Titanic Effect.  The definition of which goes like this: 

The greater the enormity of the potential disaster the less people want to know about it, prepare for it or be reminded of it. 

The human mind is constructed in such a fashion that it has a tendency to push unpleasantness and difficult challenges out of the way.  So, why be bothered by lifeboats?  The ship can't possibly sink. 

This has everything to do with where our nation stands today.

There is heavy lifting to be done to get our fiscal house in order.  We are a nation that understands the value of hard work and challenges.  For the present time our collateral is good.  Our dollar remains the reserve currency for the world.  And people from all-over think nothing of loaning us money.

Nevertheless, our present trajectory is not sustainable.

Decades ago President Reagan achieved major tax reforms and shored-up the social security system with the help of Congressional Democrats.  Big things were accomplished with a divided government.  Nowadays, everyone in Congress spends all of their energy trying to make the other guy look bad.  Democrats refuse to go along with anything the Republicans want to do and Republicans do the same.

I think the problem is the extreme polarization of today's politics. 

Ask yourself this...

 Is anybody in Congress having a serious discussion with the other side about the lifeboats?

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