Dumb, Stupid Time (DST): We Can Either Fight (Human) Nature - Or Go With It
In the wee, small hours of Sunday morning, most of the United States engaged in the semi-annual idiocy known as Daylight Saving Time (DST):
“The typical implementation of DST is to set clocks forward by one hour in spring or late winter, and to set clocks back by one hour to standard time in the autumn….”
To which I semi-annually respond with the anecdote of the old Navajo’s reaction to this idiocy:
“Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket.”
My objection to DST is a part of my broader objection to humans fighting against nature and human nature. We think we can alter these things. We really can’t.
The climate change morons have spent the last several decades fighting nature: Pretending carbon dioxide (CO2) is a pollutant. And they have greatly limited our freedom and wasted tens of trillions of dollars trying to limit it, offset it, and bury it.
Except CO2 isn’t pollution - it’s what plants inhale. And then they exhale oxygen. Meanwhile, we animals inhale oxygen - and exhale CO2. It’s one of God’s perfect symbiotic relationships. If you want to be green? Don’t hate - respirate.
Oh: And CO2’s percentage in the atmosphere? Is 0.04%. And the man-made portion thereof? Is 3% of that 0.04%. Which means man-made CO2 - is 0.0012% of the atmosphere.
Hard to say that infinitesimal percentage of an infinitesimal percentage of anything actually affects the planet. Let alone something as fundamentally important to the planet as CO2. The real threat? Is too little CO2.
Stop fighting nature. Take a deep breath - and then let it out. Flora everywhere will thank you.
Fighting human nature is no less stupid. We creatures do certain things well - and don’t do other things well. Best to maximize the former - and minimize the latter.
Government is antithetical to human nature. (Which is why we less government types want less government.) The Donald Trump Administration and its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are certainly hyper-exposing this reality.
Government violates my Wallet Rule:
“You go out on Friday night with your wallet. You go out the following Friday night with my wallet. On which Friday night are you going to have more fun?
“Obviously you will have more fun with my wallet - because at the end of the evening you care what your wallet looks like. My wallet? You don’t care quite so much.
“Well, government is always using other peoples’ wallets. And the Friday night never, ever ends.”
DOGE has examined less than 1% of the federal government’s budget. And already identified hundreds of billions of dollars of per annum waste and fraud. The Wallet Rule is immutable. Because human nature is immutable.
Collectivism is antithetical to human nature. Call it socialism, communism, fascism,…whatever. First of all, collectivism requires a whole lot more government to execute. Which, as just demonstrated, violates human nature.
But the idea behind collectivism is just as antithetical. Humans care more about their families than their next door neighbors. More about their next door neighbors than their neighbors in the next town. More about the next town neighbors than their next city neighbors. And their caring continues to decrease along with the proximity.
It’s why we should emphasize local government emphasizing local issues. WAY more than a distant government handing hundreds of billions of dollars to even-more-distant governments.
Another shocker: Humans make decisions that are best for themselves, their families and those most closely around them. You can call that selfish if you want. What you can’t do is eradicate it from human nature.
Except collectivism spent the 20th Century trying to do exactly that. And ended up murdering 100+ million people - and enslaving billions - in the attempt.
The US has spent its entire history ratcheting up its collectivism. And things have gone exactly as anyone paying any attention at all would have expected.
DC has built a nearly $10-trillion-per-annum (in spending and regulations) government altar to collectivist idiocy. With ALL the corrupt cronyism you’ve come to expect from government of that titanic size.
It’s what DOGE is exposing - and beginning to dismantle. And as I’ve said forever when it comes to this or that government idiocy: End it - because it is impossible to mend it. Because (human) nature.
DOGE impresario Elon Musk has at least once said the exact same:
“I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leaving a lot of them behind. If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”
Unfortunately, Secretary Of State Marco Rubio isn’t adhering to the End It philosophy:
“‘After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID,’ Rubio said in a post on X.…”
But…it’s government. That 17% - will inexorably become 117%. Then 217%. Then…. Because that is the nature of government.
Musk and DOGE ended the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Not 83% of it. 100% of it. Because Musk knows you can’t multiply by zero - and get anything but zero.
Zero should be the Administration’s objective across the board.
Because (human) nature says so.
100% this 👆🏻 Thanks, Seton.