A headline in another newspaper screamed out at me Monday, saying scientists have found possible signs of life on Venus.
Aside from the obvious hedging of bets (possible signs of life?), it is an intriguing proposition. What if there’s really life on Venus — or any other planet for that matter? If there is, I want to go there, not just to visit but to live. Permanently.
I hear all this talk about going to Canada or Sweden if Trump or Biden win in November, and while I respect people who feel that way, I just don’t think it’s far enough away. Sadly, in this world, in 2020, you have to watch what you say at all times lest you offend someone, and you have to get your back up and brace yourself lest you get offended by something someone else says.
Who wants to live that way? We are a society full of outraged, intemperate people, and we have no desire to see the other side, try to understand the other side, and — most important — live with the other side.
I know where I stand politically, and I know why. I also know that even in “liberal” Massachusetts, people have different opinions and feel just as strongly about them as I do about mine. I love to argue with them about it, and I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t understand some of them, and why they feel as they do.
But am I supposed to hate them? Pull “not-speakings” to them? I don’t think so, and I don’t see any reason why friendships should end because of political differences.
But that’s the world today. We’ve been taught by the example of our leaders, to seek confrontation and to engage in “in-your-face” communication.
There isn’t an issue out there that hasn’t been polarized to a degree, and there isn’t a person in government whose opinions haven’t, in some way, been twisted like pretzels to suit someone’s narrative. Since my attempt here isn’t to pick a side as much as it is to decry the absolute lack of civility and perspective in today’s world, I will not go any further. Besides, if we’re honest about it, this isn’t a startling revelation.
And for heaven’s sake we’ve all become armchair psychologists and sociologists. Who’s narcissistic? Who’s a sociopath? Who has dementia? Do any of us have the qualifications to make these determinations just by the few — often scripted — words Donald Trump or Joe Biden say? I don’t think so.
Once in a while, someone will trot out a “retired psychologist” or someone who will — from 3,000 miles away — discuss Trump’s “narcissism.” I don’t understand, really. If you don’t like him, do you really need that kind of a reason to validate it? If you didn’t like Hillary Clinton did you need to believe some ridiculous rumor about a child sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor to make you feel more justified in feeling that way?
Yet here we are, with words like that flooding social media, with silly memes, or these “pronouncements” spoken like they’re immutable fact.
If you’re on one side of the coin, you’ll dispute any fact that goes against your narrative, regardless of how solid it is. Ditto the other side. The coronavirus, and all the disagreement and dispute over social distancing, shutdowns, and mask, bears that out.
Folks, we’re in a bad way if we’re arguing over facts that should be beyond dispute.
Yet that’s what we do. And I can only speculate as to why. But whatever the reason, we will never make any progress on the thorny issues of the day if we can’t agree on the obvious.
So if there is indeed life on Venus, I’m there. I’d probably have to dress in chic hazmat fashion, but thanks to this virus we’re about there on Earth anyway.
When’s the next flight out?
