Shoulders

Despite incessant, stifling, vampiric jibberjabber and grabberstabber antics of politicians and clergy, humankind's ability to clamber up onto the shoulders of our predecessors to innovate and achieve ever-increasing levels of prowess astounds and invigorates in ways no mere campaign speech or pulpit pounding sermon ever has. The shoulders of such dedicated researchers and makers are broad and stout. Those of social influencers, sloped and mushy.

The architecture of human progress rests upon distinct foundations of responsibility. The shoulders of researchers, innovators, and makers are broad and stout because they bear the tangible weight of empirical reality. Determining and leveraging facts and truths about the universe which are verifiable through direct sensory experience, systemic observation and repeatable scientific measurement is how their shoulders have become so supportive of future generations. These are the individuals who lift civilization, anchored in reality and accountable to the laws of physics and nature, no matter how wonky it all gets on quantum levels. They eagerly, frequently obsessively, pursue solutions—curing disease, building infrastructure, and crafting tools that advance human capability. Their achievemants are a direct, measurable contribution to survival and advancement of the condition our species, forging a strength born of continuous, practical effort and unwavering commitment to what is real.

In stark contrast, the shoulders of politicians and clergy are inherently sloped and mushy, butressed less by tangible creation and more by abstract maintenance of power and tradition. Their efforts are primarily rhetorical, dedicated to complex, shifting sands of governance and spiritual adherence. Their authority is positional rather than productive, concerned with the management and manipulation of social structures rather than the arduous, risky tasks of invention and innovation. When the focus shifts from creation to control, the supportive strength required for true progress atrophies then putrifies, leaving behind a form of authority that is ultimately transient and unsupported by foundational truths that sustain a flourishing world.

I fully expected to witness humankind casting off its chains of magical thinking by now. But our capacity for belief over knowledge is apparently. unfathomable. Ah well, live and learn continuously is the best approach to avoid ill effects from mumbojumbo still being peddled.