"Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog."
- Mark Twain Speech, Nov. 23, 1900
21st century humans value knowledge but pay little attention to wisdom. We amass more facts each day than we can possibly analyze. We are literally drowning in data, and we are making very few good decisions. We seem to have lost our way.
We build nuclear plants to withstand 7.0 earthquakes and struggle to deal with a 9.0 quake. We fight terrorism in Afghanistan thousands of miles away and seem to pay no attention whatsoever to terrorism on our Mexican border. We have a looming tsunami of underfunded government pensions heading our way, and are doing little to address it. We have an unsustainable social security system and have repeatedly failed to modify it. We face unaddressed challenges to our economic and monetary systems. In most areas of life in 2011 Americans are failing to prepare for the long haul.
For example, with trouble in the Middle East and the world's continuing economic woes and the expanding disaster in Japan, the Congress of the United States is preparing to have hearings on the National Football League. What a misuse of time and energy! I don't know about you, but this makes me angry. We have serious issues desperately begging for attention while Congress fiddles with football. I pray daily for a little sanity.
A little wisdom would be great also.
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