Archives July 19, 2012 in Normal entries

In approximately nine hours from now, that is what I am typing this moment, it will be another day. For business purposes it will be the same another day all over the world, even accounting for various and sundry time zones, different stock trackers and the Greenwich mean prime meridian. On a more personal note it will be a different sort of day for different people. For some it will be “one of those days” for others it will be the last day and for some the first, for the latter two minutes become important, perhaps not for them specifically but for those around them who will carry the memory of it. Though the day will be significant for those whose first day it is, they’ll carry no memory. It is suggested they lose the memory of where they were before. There are a lot of theories on whether or not the last day is significant to it’s owner. I don’t want to state an opinion one way or the other, just note that it will be a significant day to those around them.

To the vast majority of people on the planet it will be a day much like the last one, marginally and peripherally affected by business and birth and death and without enough nuisance or trauma to be “one of those days”. Although Calendars are created some times years in advance, or at least they could be if one doesn’t account for which popular cartoon will be on them or the picture of a particularly cute kitten or puppy has not be taken yet, perhaps the animal has yet to meet his or her first day, they are not predictive. Calendars. They don’t predict the sort of day it will be or the events that might occur just as a watch doesn’t predict when the bus will arrive. In a general sort of way one can predict that there will be shitty days, birthdays and last days. Calendars and watches are either too specific or not specific enough; like dreams one can assign a variety of meaning to watches or Calendars, some of which are imbued with predictive powers, or dismiss them as absorbed with only their own function. Again I’m unwilling to put forth my own opinion on such things.

There’s no great heroism, no sacrifice of a grand scale in not stating an opinion; there’s no cowardice either. A great many opinions, most I’d venture, but will hover at a significant number, have little to no effect on events. That is the opinions of an individual. Opinions shared in some way by a large number of people probably have a huge effect on events. In this respect opinions are both meaningless and the only thing of any significant meaning at all. Facts have already had all the effect they are going to, even the ones that lead to other facts. Gravity, for instance, isn’t subject to change based on opinion, however, on one level there are wars being fought right now on whether or not Muhammad’s Dad or Jesus’ Dad created the circumstances by which gravity became a necessity. For those whose last day will be tomorrow they will have lived their entire life in world where even immovable and unarguable facts have been tainted enough by opinion to cause grief and suffering among opinion bearers.

I have no opinion on Jesus, Muhammad or gravity. I do have an opinion or war. I think it’s a bad idea. I don’t mean some wars; I don’t mean an unfortunate event, or a poor decision. I mean war is a bad idea. An opinion is formulated or manufactured and purposely spread and fostered, insisted upon, pushed through with intelligent sounding rhetoric, charismatic speeches or deliberate intimidation until a great number of people either share the opinion or concede to it and then an opinion is an idea, a plan of action, fueled by more ideas, more actions, more opinions and some facts twisted to suit opinion. Often this does not turn out well. How often I’m not sure, but it’s the how not well that’s more of a concern. Really not well makes once too often.

I’m not saying anything profound here, I am making very simple observations of very obvious daily occurrences, you could even call my conclusions opinion instead of observation and I would not argue with you. You could certainly say that ‘War is a bad idea’ is an opinion. Yes, I suppose it is. So is ‘War is a good idea’ or ‘It’s complicated’. In a bit closer to eight hours the first day of some people’s life will begin. If they come of age sharing my opinion perhaps it will lead one day to predictive Calendars, one’s that will perhaps say “Wednesday, October seventh, 2145, today there will be Peace.” Unfortunately I think the bus will probably get here when it gets here, watches will likely still only predict time not events or lack of events. A smart ass might point out that Mussolini made the trains run on time. Not only was Mussolini a player in a worldwide bad idea but he is also among the number who have had their last day come and gone. Just Saying.