Thoughts on last week

Last week, our government invited us to a very well choreographed dance recital. It lasted for days and days, it involved intricate dips, lifts, spins, and twirls. And in the end, the outcome was what everyone expected it to be.

The sides claimed to be hashing it out, compromising, not giving too much, but giving just enough to keep things going for now. In reality, I feel, we all witnessed political posturing at its best. We saw the two sides dance with each other, dragging it on, knowing exactly how it would turn out.

The media outlets and facebook status' jumped to all sorts of conclusions. Re-post messages about making sure soldiers received their pay popped up like movie theater popcorn all over the place. The knee-jerk reactions of people, assuming our brave boys and girls would be fighting for nothing manifested themselves everywhere. Twitter, the media, blog sites, facebook, probably myspace (although I'm not there so I don't actually know that) when in reality it was never an issue.

Our society loves the knee-jerk. Whether it be for the latest techno-fad or news, we must have it now. And that attitude is dangerous. We begin to make decisions without thinking things through. We pour money into i-thingies only to find the first generation is crap and we must have the next one, the better one that's only 2 months younger then the first one we absolutely had to have. We form our opinions of the news based on 10 second sound bites instead of listening to the speech.

And we have knee-jerk reactions.

People, stop and think once in a while. Don't be lured into a false sense of knowledge based on the two second sound bite. Do the research, form an opinion after having given whatever it is some thought.

And don't forget that every single step taken, breath drawn, word spoken, look given, etc, in Washington is pre-planned, orchestrated and choreographed.