Todd 3:16

Today, I realized that the best things in life are indeed free. Everything else, however, costs much more than it is usually worth.

I hate money.

I'm worried. I'm more than just a little fearful. Not about the economy, mind you. Not about nukes, health care, abortion, or taxes. I'm worried about ignorance and zealotism. Partisanism scares me to death. Why? Well, let me start with ignorance.

The perennial dictum is that knowledge is power. In Mormon circles, the phrase "no man can be saved in ignorance" reflects a bedrock tenet of our faith. Take a look around you. Unless you're sitting in a field full of dead grass, odds are that everything you see, hear, and touch is the result of some clever guy acquiring knowledge, putting it to good use, and creating something wonderful. Knowledge will eternally be the most invaluable necessity for human survival and advancement. That being said, knowledge has the tremendous potential to be used for good, and can have devastating effects if faulty. I truly believe that the most dangerous threat to our species is the man who claims to know something that is, in fact, not true. I watched video this morning of a protester at one of the so-called "tea parties" held yesterday across the nation to protest taxes. He went on an on-camera tirade about how President Lincoln believed in "liberty" and how everyone had a right to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Rabid grandstanding of this sort scares me. First off, does this guy even know what "liberty" means? It's such a relative word that his definition probably differs greatly from mine, and chances are that he defines it in a way that's most advantageous to him because, after all, that's human nature--we all do it. And what does it mean to enjoy the fruits of your labor? Did Lincoln say that? I don't recall him saying that. Considering the context of a government protest against taxes and government spending, is he saying that Lincoln would somehow be against all this government spending and taxation and such? Because I seem to recall that his legacy involved exercising federal authority to compel the states to do something pretty important (read: abolition). Sounds like the big government you're trying to protest, sir. I'm not going to begrudge him his beliefs, however. If anything, I'm sympathetic to his cause. But I do wish I could hear something a little more measured and thought out.

I don't know if I'm driving the point home as clearly as I want to. Honestly, I'm just ranting on the Internet and I realize this, so I'm probably not as clear and concise as I would otherwise be. My point is this--too many people think they know it all these days because they rely on the oversimplifications of history and science that they were taught since grade school, when in fact life is much more complicated, too complicated to adequately explain in the course of a school year. When you learn in generalities like most of us have, that gives you the luxury of marshalling those principles into whatever ideological mold you wish. The upshot is that the same general principles are used to promote opposite views. Then we all get confused and I'm brought to ask "does anybody even know what they're talking about?" Not to mention the fact that most people invariably wind up looking stupid for it.

On to partisanism. This dovetails well with what I was just saying about marshalling generalities into particular ideological molds. My big problem with partisanism is that it tends to put the cart before the horse, in a sense. The idea behind joining or upholding a social group of any kind (religion, political party, canasta group, whatever) is that you have your personal beliefs first. Then you find a group that feels the same way, so you join them. Partisanism, however, occurs when you believe something because your group does. Instead of believing something for yourself, you now base your beliefs on what others tell you to believe.

But Todd! You're Mormon! Don't you believe what you do because your church told you to? Actually, no, I don't. I don't avoid alcohol because my church told me to. I avoid it because I believe that it is what God would have me do at this point. I believe that a man can talk to God and voice His will to the people. But it's still incumbent upon me to get on my knees and ask God for myself whether it is true. Brigham Young once said "My greatest fear is that the people of this church will take what I say to be the word and will of the Lord without going back and obtaining a witness of the same for themselves." So there's that.

Back to partisanism. I defy anybody to tell me we don't live in a society of political zealots and partisans. Find me one Congressman who's more concerned with his constituency than by furthering his own image within his political party. These tea parties are great examples of partisanism as well. What you have is a bunch of working-class Republicans who probably don't know all the intricacies behind this recession (I don't either) most of whom have succumbed to populist rage because they heard something about taxes going up somewhere, somehow. I'll save the debate about the wisdom of the bailout for another day. My point is, these tea parties are great examples of what partisan opinion leaders can do with the sway they hold. The same formula was on display during that whole ridiculous "Impaeach Bush" campaign. That was nothing more than partisan opinion leaders using populist sentiment to suggest ridiculous, baseless measures in order to make themselves look more progressive or revolutionary or what not. These tea parties are the same thing. As if that weren't enough, the CNN correspondent in the video I mentioned clearly had a pro-government agenda, using her reporter's platform to tout the supposed benefits of all this government spending. In brief, it was one of the more shoddy, poorly done reporting jobs that I've ever seen, and reeks of the CNN/Democrat/big government zealotry that CNN has come to be known for. They're far from fair and balanced, although I guess it's not as bad as Fox News using "fair and balanced" as their slogan (how ridiculous is that).

And here I thought change was coming to America. Maybe when we all start thinking for ourselves, change will come.

"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." --Matthew 15:14

"Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind."--Katha Upanishad, sacred Hindu treatise