The  Unobvious Obvious

March 02, 2022
LookThe Dick Tracy watch made its debut in 1946 in Chester Gould's strip of the same name. Gould's employer, the Chicago Tribune, turned down the idea of Dick Tracy wearing the watch because it gave Dick Tracy the ability to rescue himself from impossible situations.  The watch actually was in existence at the time and was invented by a futuristic inventor named Al Gross. To Gould, some things which are not obvious to many, are actually completely obvious when you see them, like the Apple watch, or the mouse, or computers that show an exact replica of what you see on paper, called What You See Is What You Get or "WYSIWYG" interfaces.

The mouse and WYSIWYG computing were invented by XEROX in their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and years later licensed by Steve Jobs for Apple. I saw both years before Jobs licensed them, while at XEROX PARC with HP trying to see if there was a way to make Ethernet cards, which were the size of a breadbox, for those of you old enough to remember having one on your kitchen counter, to something a lot smaller that could fit inside compact spaces.  I immediately understood the mouse and WYSIWYG were the future because of their ability to allow common people, you and I, to be immediately productive without being a computer nerd. The first computer I bought for working day to day was actually an Apple Lisa 7/7which used a mouse and the WYSIWYG interface, which at the time cost 5 times more than PCs offered by IBM. The IBM PCs simply made no sense when you consider the value of your time. 

Throughout history there have been people and situations that needed obvious, practical solutions to problems. You don't have to use them, but if you want to understand why you should, get an old CP/M or DOS computer with Wordstar and try to whip off a letter or make a brochure.

We are now at a stage in history where there are some obvious choices and solutions.  They are pretty easy to see if you look.  One is the system of governance the colonists created for America, and not the mess those that are corrupting it are doing with it.  The colonial idea was simply this in a nutshell:
1. No kings or permanent rulers
2. The people are the most powerful force in the nation, they get to pick the temporary help they need.  The temporary help were described as functionaries.
3. The functionaries answer to the people.
4. The people must always be armed to protect themselves, their country, and if the functionaries tried to steal anything or corrupt the system the colonists set up, protect the people from them too.
5. The nation can trade with whoever it wants and offers the best deal.
6. All people are equal with equal rights.
7. The majority can rule, subject to the absolute rights of the minority being protected.
8. Everyone shall be free to worship as they see fit.
9. The governing bodies answer to the people, and the three divisions of the government are set up to hold each other in check.

The behavior of the government is to facilitate the people's will, not the other way around, and based on their fear and hatred of what British rule attempted to do with the colonies, the colonies were to trade everywhere, but not adventure overseas as acquisitive warriors to build the equivalent of empires.  The colonies could assemble armies to defend their land, and reduce them to a standby force of militias when not needed.

The colonists also recognized deviousness of the people and functionaries and put rules in place to deal with them, the simplest being to try and straighten them out, and if that did not work, shoot them.

They also recognized the fact that the colonies were different, and not like the British who had a structure of nobility that the people accepted and were subject to.  In Europe that system has spread to bureaucrats who are as phony and worthless now as they were at the founding of the colonies.  Worse yet, so called free countries around the world are trying to follow that example, including the United States.  They have an absolute disdain for the peons, who lived outside the castle walls which were protected by moats to keep enemies and the riffraff out.

The interesting thing to observe is how the idea of entitlement infects the minds of the deluded functionaries today.  What they are missing however, is there are now peer competitors, Russia and China, the largest being China, and neither Russia nor China are weaklings you can just bully around, although the functionaries are trying.  What it will do however is drive Russia and China together, necessity being the mother of unintended consequences, but even more importantly expose their behavior to emerging countries who can see what is happening.  The entire world criticizes North Korea, but if there is a lesson in survival, it is to never give up your weapons to a larger bully.

The fact is we now live in an age where it is possible very quickly to figure out what is going on.  Many years ago you had to go to a public library or a school, college or University to figure it out.  Those institutions offered knowledge, but could also filter it so that the information you got fitted a narrative.  That system has been replaced with one in which all kinds of differing viewpoints can be considered.  The  functionaries are desperately trying to undermine that system, and that undermining is failing.  The public is wise to it, as you can see from surveys on trust in the news, trust in government, trust in the institutions set up to serve us.  That colossal drop in trust is deserved, correct, and must be amplified. 

What is interesting is there are many nations that are ruled by dictatorial policies.  The functionaries trying to pass themselves off as nobility in America like to boast that America is not like that.  But in fact they are.  You can lock your people up with police and armies, horrible legal systems, and policies that destroy independence.  America has now implemented all of these things supported by an old line press infrastructure that is nothing but a propaganda rag and will never come back. 

Here are some observable realities to look at:

1. Look at a map.  See where all of the land, and therefore the valuable resources are.  It is pretty clear the majority of land is not in the United States. punji
2. Look where all the people are.  The sheer number of people in the world are not in the United States and Europe, which points to the fact that the largest markets in the world are emerging elsewhere. China is proving there are many paths to growth.
3. Look where knowledge is capable of accumulating.  What happens when the masses of people get better educated?  Where do all of the things that come from smart talented people come from? They will come from educated, thinking people.  Ninety some odd percent of the people live elsewhere.  Many of them work hard and actually want to get smarter.
4. What happens when it occurs to people charged with making people smarter figure out that in a competitive situation you need millions of inventors like Gross, Jobs and so on.  China and Russia as well as every other nation on earth has them.  In a war for the future, stimulating that thinking is the future,  Here is a list to get you started, from as far back as the CroMagnons, the Aztecs, the pyramid builders, the list is endless. 

More importantly, when Gould met Gross, the Dick Tracy watch was advanced.  When the Germans developed rockets the copy cats spread.  China invented rockets long before that.  Innovation spurs innovation. Read the history of guys like Edison, or George Washington Carver to get what that means. Political whores calling the average person deplorable have no idea the damage they are doing to the competitiveness of the nation.  The picture to the right shows punji stick weapons in pitfalls in Vietnam.  You do not need billions in labs to invent anything, just necessity - the "Mother of Invention." 

The bottom line is this.  The functionaries are overfed, over indulged, lying, completely corrupt, arrogant, ignorant, liars and connivers.  They are destroying the world and its future.  No matter where they are and who they represent, the people of the earth will have to get rid of them completely and start over. You don't have to spend a lot of time to figure that out.

The bad news good news obvious is this.  The people described as enemies can kill us too.  Nations that compete with us financially are not enemies, but competitors.  You compete by doing better and let the customers decide. The American model is now to kill them.  If you want to watch football, no matter what flavor, killing the opposing team is not going to improve the game.  The various leagues prevent the influence of money from stacking the team with the best players to make the game more watchable. 

While it may be horrible to contemplate it may take a nuclear war to bring about some ugly change.  Hopefully the enemies targeting systems are good enough to take out the places where our functionaries and their generals congregate.  That is where we the people need to focus our cleanup operations, since they are responsible for the situation the world is in.  They can be no future worth living with them in charge.