Speculation is the Thief of Time

Speculation is the thief of time, at least when it comes to our 24/7 news programs. If you haven’t noticed, probably 90% or more of what we are exposed to as “news” is merely rampant speculation. I am truly pleased and happy that the Egyptian people have managed to bring down the Mubarak era, and I wish them well for the future. Most of what we have been seeing and listening to for the past 18 days was speculation about what was likely to happen, or not likely to happen, what Mubarak would do, what the police would do, what the army would do, and so on, until, at last, Mubarak stepped down. Now that has happened we will be in for more and more speculation probably for a very long time. What will happen now? Who is going to be in charge? Will the Vice President be in charge? The army? Will they be able to bring about elections? Will they be fair? Who might emerge as the spokesman? What will happen in other Middle East nations? Will the revolution spread? How far? What is going to happen to Israel? What does it mean for the Palestinians? All of these questions will be addressed over and over again ad nauseam. This is because the MSM has to fill up time, and what they cannot offer in just plain “infotainment,” they will take up with this kind of endless speculation. Perhaps this is unavoidable, I don’t know, but sometimes I think we received better news years ago when it used to appear weekly before the local movie. The sad fact is, I guess, it is far cheaper to pay a few talking heads to speculate endlessly than it is to pay genuine reporters to travel the world to gather and report on what is actually happening here and there. And quite frankly, there probably wouldn’t be enough happening to soak up all 24 hours all 7 days a week.

What is going to make this worse is that campaigning for 2012 has already started. This is going to result in non-stop speculation from now until the elections. Will Obama face a Democratic challenger? If so, who? Who will the Republicans pick? Will it be Huckabee? Maybe Palin? Perhaps Romney? Then there is Pawlenty, to say nothing of Barber, Thune, Allen, Santorum, and certainly Ron Paul. Perhaps even Michelle Bachmann will try the waters? And don’t overlook the Bush lurking among the Bushes. There is enough grist here for the speculation mill to last probably a thousand years, too bad it’s only a couple of years until the election. The one thing you can be certain about is that no one will have the patience to wait and see who the candidate is, and we will have to just go on wasting valuable time in idle speculation. This could be avoided if, for example, campaigning was only allowed for a month or two before the election, or if candidates were allowed only limited amounts of public funding, or even if our elections were in any way sensible and not mostly a charade. Of course the major virtue of our current virtually never-ending elections, with their endless speculations, is that they keep us from having to actually worry about what is truly happening in the world or here at home. I mean, why should we worry our pretty little heads about “wars,” or debt, or jobs, or decaying infrastructure, Social Security, health care, and stuff like that, when those things are being taken care of behind the scenes by those very people who control the “news,” and offer us daily the pithy observations of Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and those who decry global warming and environmentalism in favor of instant cash.

Oprah Winfrey is concerned that President Obama is not getting the respect he deserves as President. Others, too, have been concerned that O’Reilly and others have not treated him with sufficient respect, especially those of Fox “News.” I will tell you why, but you will want to deny it. He is being treated disrespectfully because he is Black. It doesn’t matter how good a job he is doing as President, how inspirational he might be, how much he tries to cross the aisle or get along with business, or even if he makes wonderful speeches, denies prejudice, and eats at the lunch counter with Biden, he’s still Black in the eyes of those who cannot give up their long-standing prejudices. However unconsciously on the part of many, and even consciously on the part of a few, they simply cannot believe a Black man can be as good as they are, or even better. Don’t expect them to admit it, they can’t, it would be denying their most deeply held and cherished beliefs, their enculturation, part of their very being. In two or three more generations these “survivals” will have passed away and things will no doubt be different. President Obama is unexpectedly before his time and suffers for it. History has already spit on George W. Bush, I guarantee it will not do the same to Barack Hussein Obama.