“To make light of it, as if the politics were everything, suggests that this is another case of treating law as a resource of mere partisan convenience.”Bill Clinton alluded to it when he said, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is". But Stalin's quip is definitive: "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic".
— Norman Geras
I abstain from the controversy du jour, beloved of politicians, as well as just about anyone who enjoys debating the probability of a camel passing through the eye of a needle. My purpose, rather, is to consider the role of perspective as a governor for mental masturbation.
Politics is not everything; perspective is. The most recent perfect illustration of that truism was the ludicrous attempt by President Obama at misdirection when he called on his Cabinet to search for $100 million in budget cuts from his $3.5 trillion budget! One need only consider this "Cabinet Level" issue in perspective to realize it amounts to a single cup of coffee in a $40,000 budget!
Reality is not in the eye of the needle but in that of the beholder. My particular visual acuity (20/20 if I'm wearing my contacts) perceives it in the relatively efficient utilization of energy, of which, as we are constantly being reminded, there is a finite and dwindling amount.
Consider how much could have been accomplished if the energy expended on eliminating a mere cup of coffee had been put to good use. On the other hand, considering the ineptitude of those cup-of-coffee eliminators, perhaps their busy work was an optimum utilization of their energy from the perspective of the Nation's well being.
Post #727 Reality and Perspective
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