Saturday, November 23, 2013

Devil's Advocate

In an earlier post I mentioned my youth and how a group of us would spend the evenings discussing and solving all the world's problems. Quite obviously no one paid heed. I doubt our parents had a clue what we were doing, but they were pretty sure we were not causing trouble. For us it was an enjoyable way to blow off steam, enjoy ourselves, at no cost and to learn from each other all at the same time. 

We didn't quibble over the issue, we didn't care. Nor did we always stay aligned the same. Sometimes we would switch points of view mid-stream. It was a fairly important lesson to learn, that there usually more than one or two answers to each question and that most issues intertwined like nests of vipers.

When I enlisted into the Navy the experience of being among guys that thought differently was not a big deal. I had been practicing before. School, work, social we will all be dumbstruck by the quantity of disagreeable folks out there. If only they would listen to me...

Of all the rights assigned to us, the freedom of speech is the one I find the most easily defended. But, I sure wish that the freedom of the press wasn't attached to it. Defending the "rights" of paid media rabble rousers, that pay lip service to the truth  offends me deeply. Sound bites, innuendo and disregard for content or truth can not be the intent of our forefathers when they wrote and instituted the Bill of Rights. It's like watching the news as seen by Orwell! Only it isn't "Big Brother" it's big business. Money for nothing...MTV! Oh well, "That's Entertainment!"

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