Often, I recall all those promises passed along to us through international expositions, magazines, movies, and black and white television shows. Most of those information transfer methods passed along great expectations that seemed outlandish then, and after a half-century, outlandish now.
I specifically recall space-age kitchens with dispensers spitting out pharmaceutical-style capsules which were supposed to help us ingest the appropriate amount of vitamins and minerals, as well as carbohydrates, cholesterol, and calories.
My memory serves me well when I recall automobiles being transformed into personal airplanes by attaching overhead wings, powered by an engine in the rear. Promises included being able to avoid traffic jams thereby permitting expedited methods to travel to and from work.
Then there were those special,
secret carburetors for cars that would make driving nearly free. According to the stories, some guy in
There were trains that would
travel from
Of course along the way there many speed bumps that popped up. And most of those speed bumps were discovered to be nothing short of lies and/or pipe dreams that proved these wonderful inventions and paths to idyllic to be products of overactive imaginations.
Space-age kitchens were a big bust inasmuch as food manufacturers seemed too busy reinventing frozen pizzas to move forward to change the way we eat.
Those flying cars also flew out of Popular Science magazines just as quickly as they were printed therein. Imagine all those people who can’t get out of the left highway lane clogging up the skies. Crashes and mayhem would likely resemble Bloody April Air Battle of Arras in WWI, hardly the much desired expeditious trip to the office one would hope for.
And that magic carburetor that promised to put the House of Saud out of business was another tale. It was said General Motors bought it so that they didn’t have to retool their vehicles. Another story had a similar bent with Esso – now Exxon Mobil – purchasing the blueprints and patent rights. Sure.
Lastly, those 150 MPH trains we were promised would up being another fabrication from everyone in cahoots with the railroad, the funding government officials, and local government types who felt they could easily snooker taxpayers for another means of ineffective interstate travel.
But along the way, a new cottage industry popped up and quickly spread to our dilapidated schools systems nationwide. It was the ecological movement that has since evolved into the Green Movement.
That movement, not unlike the previously hyped promises, offered hope for a crisis created by the “solution.” In other words, the tail wagging the dog.
The ecological movement identified weaknesses in life such as too much wasted paper, over-flowing landfills, as well as land and water pollution.
Of course they found hot-button topics which no one in the world could balk at identifying as serious and genuine goals for which to strive. Unfortunately, the do-good politicians who hold the checkbooks to taxpayer monies quickly realized that those checks translated into future votes, and thereby political career longevity.
One of the lies that bother me the most is the wasted paper crisis. Although I seem to be perfect, I have a big fault. That fault is paper. Keeping paper, sorting paper, and finding important papers, are the banes in my life, and things at which I don’t excel. The biggest flaw is that pesky “finding important papers” thing I mentioned.
It seems as though I never need run-of-the-mill receipts, lame brochures, or “important” phone numbers. Rather, it is the documentation I need for my taxes and such. The rest of that paperwork, to me, is extraneous trash that winds-up in the critical landfills.
But speaking of extraneous, here’s a quick, informal survey: Who in your immediate vicinity is unaware driving your car using gasoline is connected to “climate change?”
“Climate change” is the catchy phrase
that the Green Movement uses to sting the masses into life-altering
legislation, such as solar-powered airplanes and electric vehicles. It doesn’t matter those electric vehicles
need to be recharged with coal and gas plants.
The good news is
One more sticker will help the planet
These critical thinkers feel the need to require each and every gas pump be emblazoned with yellow stickers that will dutifully notify you that filling up your vehicle with gas will cause climate change.
Imagine the number of discarded
cars and trucks at service stations in
More useless paper from greedy politicians.
