On the Nature of Human Limitations

You see, the very first thing you've got to figure out in this life is who the good guys and the bad guys really, truly are. You've got to do your very own homework. You've got to study all the relevant facts that you can possibly accumulate, and then, and only then, can you make reasoned and informed choices for very own individual self. I mean, everybody knows that, right? Or do they?

Well, we all know that there are always a veritable bevy of people who may not be terribly bright, so seem to have nothing better to do than spew slanderous, dishonest, self-serving venom, propaganda, and pure, unadulterated lies from every conceivable side of any issue.

Worse yet, most people simply cannot sort through all that mental, verbal and societal subterfuge. So most folks just end up becoming part of the cacophony of conflicting information, half-truths and outright disinformation.

But that's not the only reason why so many people tend to traffic in pure, unadulterated malarkey. No, quite often, they do it for "business," to make as much money almighty as humanly possible.

Even more troubling, some individuals greedily soak up, and then willfully disseminate, outright falsehoods because they're just plain bored. Or they may simply pass misinformation along for the sake of entertainment - which is at the true heart of most wacky conspiracy theories to begin with anyway, you know.

Simply put, it's awfully, awfully entertaining to fancy oneself "smart," with all sorts of harebrained notions about how the Earth is supposedly flat, or that NASA and the entire government of the United States somehow managed to fake the moon landing. Yeah right. Gullible much?

The fact of the matter is that a whole lot of people simply obfuscate the truth for all sorts of self-serving (and often clearly delusional) reasons. They do it for mass media ratings. They do it for fame, which usually goes hand in hand with fortune - or so we are all led to believe anyway.

But perhaps most shameful of all, people engage in lies and deception for shamelessly political reasons, all designed to get power and control over the masses. Because ideology (religious zeal, etc) is often what gets most people worked up and/or motivated to specific ends. That's also where race baiting comes in, unfortunately.

In other words, many many otherwise well-meaning folks simply get inadvertently swallowed up in wholesale mass-media generated deception because they're outright misinformed. But also, unfortunately, because many people are simply naive, or at the very least, tend to be easily swept up in the vicious mob mentality that has often caused the very worst crimes in the long, often sad annals of human history.

Worst of all, the masses are susceptible to misinformation and outright lies, because as limited human beings, we're all more than capable of being shortsighted (or just temporarily blinded) enough to not even see the big picture in the first place. And all of the above, unfortunately, is just part of Life. It's the way most people simply are: limited.

A Thing is a Thing is a Thing is a Thing

A drug is a drug is a drug is a drug. Some drugs are herbal, some mineral, some chemical. You want this or that drug "legalized," for this, that or the other personal reason, that's fine, I guess, but legalization of any potent, behavior and/or mind altering substance doesn't make it any less of a drug. Likewise, the failure of Prohibition doesn't mean that alcohol was never a drug. The mere fact that Prohibition was implemented in the United States in the first place, shows that alcohol is very often a very harmful socially acceptable drug.

It also strongly suggests that most human beings don't exercise self control very well. That's people for ya!  If no one abused chemical or herbal substances, like nicotine, marijuana and alcohol, every damn thing would be totally legal!  Like shooting little kids and teachers.... Uh-huh. That would be legal, too, but... thank God, it isn't! Because, likewise, a gun is a gun is a gun is a gun. Though, sure... some guns are bigger or smaller than others. And some drugs are less beneficial or more harmful than others.

Either way, the sudden entry into the human body of a small lead projectile pretty much has the same effect on all human beings, see. Regardless of age, race, sex, nationality, etc, etc, ALL. Yes, the sudden introduction of a high velocity lead (or even rubber) projectile into the human body either seriously harms or even... kills the host. Bullets don't discriminate when entering human flesh, and neither do drugs. But at least drugs don't kill ya, right? Uh... some do. Sorry! Okay, but at least most drugs don't enter the human body at high velocity, right? And that's a plus, right? Yes, and... no.  The effects of some more or even less potent "recreational" drugs take literally years to fully manifest in the human body. Look it up! I'll wait.

But that's the world we live in, kids. Human beings do bad things with otherwise harmless stuff sometimes. Yes, as sad as it may in fact be, many people simply do not use things (and themselves, or even other people) in a very responsible way. Hence, the need for governmental regulation and sometimes, even the outright ban of certain things that people tend to so often misuse. And it's not good fodder for conspiracy theories, or anyone trying to poop your party. It's just bad old human beings doing things they really shouldn't do, with otherwise beneficial stuff.

Like rocks, for example. Rocks are just rocks. A rock is a rock is a rock is a rock. People build sturdy, beneficial things with rocks. Rocks are good for all mankind! That is, until... some nasty, emotional human or primate ('cause they have opposable thumbs, too) picks up a rock and uses it to suddenly and quite gruesomely and violently bludgeon someone else to death. Then... the freedom to use and abuse rocks suddenly becomes, not a rock problem, but a behavioral problem.

And I really wish all this talk about the abuse and misuse of otherwise good stuff, was a lot more conspiracy theory style entertaining, or damning of authority figures in general, than it honestly really is. But... sorry, it honestly really just... isn't.

And legal or illegal, alcohol and other potentially fun things that people really love to use and abuse, don't really cause any problems (as the age old argument goes). The people who consume large (or even sometimes small quantities of them - because the effect of ANY drug, including caffeine varies, based on individual body chemistry) is what gives any potentially beneficial drug a very bad name.  And likewise, yes, every single time some bad human shoots up (yes, shoots up - a little drug pun for ya there) a school full of little (or even big) kids, a lot of people are gonna seriously think real, real hard, yet again, about taking everyone's "rights" away from them. Go figure.

So I guess the moral of the story is: Control thyself, young man (or woman)! Or somebody else will.  And you can count on that.