MUSINGS and other writing by Mark Kolke

. . . . . . there is no edge to openness

TODAY'S MUSINGS

FEEDBACK / COMMENTS

MARK SPEAKS

MARK'S SPEAKING TIPS

ARCHIVED COLUMNS

ARCHIVE WINTER 2020-21

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2020

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2020

ARCHIVE SPRING 2020

ARCHIVE WINTER 2019-20

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2019

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2019

ARCHIVE SPRING 2019

ARCHIVE WINTER 2018-19

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2018

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2018

ARCHIVE SPRING 2018

ARCHIVE WINTER 2017-18

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2017

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2017

ARCHIVE SPRING 2017

ARCHIVE WINTER 2016/17

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2016

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2016

ARCHIVE SPRING 2016

ARCHIVE WINTER 2015/16

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2015

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2015

ARCHIVE SPRING 2015

ARCHIVE WINTER 2014/15

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2014

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2014

ARCHIVE SPRING 2014

ARCHIVE WINTER 2013/14

CONTACT

MY REAL ESTATE LIFE

WHY I WRITE MUSINGS

SHORT STORY PROJECT

POETRY PROJECT

SELECTED OTHER WORK

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, MY CONSPIRACY THEORY

Saturday Feb. 23, 2019

Right thinking and wrong doing.

How do we keep them clear, or separate?

And, oh my, look at the time …

I was reading some editorials last weekend – discussing pros and cons of impeachment of Donald Trump. While I find him off-putting and freakishly scary in many ways, I think he might also answer to the term ‘devil we know’. I don’t know Pence, but I know is ‘smooth, slippery and scary’, so my inclination in these times which make Watergate once again look like a third-rate burglary, my hope is that Mueller finds a way to indict or impeach both Trump and Pence/

Trump exemplifies the sad state of what is OK in the world. Seems OK and normal for villains (pick ‘em – Venezuela, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Philippines, China and Russia) to capture headlines much like royalty and rock stars used to. Nobody seems to mind. Pick your news, real or fake, there is nobody in charge at the top of everything in any country – let alone someone you can trust to be both wise, clever, strong and humane all at the same moment …

Which begs this question: was there ever?

History is ‘incomplete and kind’ to most past rulers and despots. Hitler is still reviled, but that’s still recent history. Americans are re-thinking civil war bad guys, Mao is revered and Ho Chi Minh will soon be as revered as Che Guevera. Were Romans, Greeks and Egyptians wise or benevolent? Was Alexander the Great really great, was Catherine the Great actually great, or were they cut from similar cloth as Genghis Khan … etc. etc.

We are in modern times – tip toeing into future times. 5G technology is here and the world can’t decide whether or not to buy technology from China for fear they’ll steal all our data. What makes you think they haven’t already? Or the Russians, the Americans, the Brits …?

Or Google, or Microsoft …

Wittingly or not, our world is being run by data. So it seems to me, whoever is the king of data is king of the world. Long before we know it as everyday fact it will have happened. Meanwhile, politicians and thugs continue to make it about blue states vs. red ones, territorial and ethnic, race and rights – all of it an incredible conspiratorial distraction from everything because data Kings are practicing up-close magic like some Vegas illusionists while we 7.5 billion suckers feed our money and data into the massive machine. And about all of this, our belief in intelligence is purely artificial …


Reader feedback:

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Mark, I know you’re not a millennial nor am I, but I heard on the radio (John Tesh reporting) that more millennials than any other generation enjoy spending time alone. I wondered if it may be some influence of our phones where we can do things alone we never could before, LH, Lethbridge, AB

FORMS OF CONVERSATION

Thanks Mark, that note was pathetically true to life. Many times I've been at a restaurant and kids and parents are glued to their mobile devices, and are not sharing anything together. Sad, but let's rebell and have great face to face conversations again! Best, YH, Calgary, AB


SIGN UP TO GET MUSINGS BY e-mail: CLICK HERE

SIGN UP TO GET MUSINGS BY e-mail: CLICK HERE

sign up to get Musings free daily


Comments are always welcome - please contribute to the discussion.  Reply to: kolke@markkolke.com

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. This site is updated daily, each column is retained in the archive when the next day's column is loaded ...  


Copyright - all rights reserved - Mark Kolke, © 2003-2021