Everything In Between

Often, when a new government privacy invasion is revealed, you will hear an apologist respond "Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about." That statement is all well and good but it's not quite accurate. You should say, "Well, if you're not doing anything the government doesn't like, you have nothing to worry about."

There, isn't that better?

I'll be the first to admit that I lead a comfortable life and I suspect that if you are reading this, you too are among the fortunate few. Do you ever stop to think about just how fortunate you really are? Those of us living in industrialized contries today are without doubt the most fortunate human beings who have ever lived. Most of us are healthy, well-fed, clothed and sheltered. Think about that for a moment. Throughout human history, most people lived in some form of misery and yet they endured to bring us to where we are today.

I've heard a lot of complaints in my life and I've done my fair share of complaining. Everything from rotten bosses to cheating spouses, but when you think about it, things could be a lot worse. Here is a simple test to see if you have a right to complain:

Have you...

• suffered from cancer?
• or a loved one been the victim of a violent crime?
• lost a child?
• been destitute?
• had your home destroyed by a natural disaster?
• been homeless?
• lost a limb?
• become blind?
• been paralyzed?
• fought in a war?

If you answered yes to any of the above, my heartfelt sympathies go out to you. If not, you really ought to quit your bitching.

Ever wonder why there is never anything good to watch on TV? I remember it growing up when I only had a few broadcast channels, but here in the 21st century with hundreds of channels, there is still nothing to watch. Why is that? Well, to be fair, sometimes there are things to watch but the proliferation of channels has not really increased the number of good things on TV.

The quality of TV is a constant. It is the same whether you have five channels or five hundred. The more channels you add, the less quality there is per channel.

This makes sense because the size of the advertising market does not grow when you add channels. Adding channels does not increase the number of viewers, it simply divides the existing audience into smaller and smaller chunks and along with it the quality of what you watch.

When I was working on the DRUGFIRE contract for the FBI a few years ago, the experience really taught me a lot about the sometimes upside-down world of government contracting. In that world, for example, you make more money by going slower and hiring more people, just the opposite of the real world.

But besides learning to sarcastically refer to each new workday as "another chance to excel," the most important lesson I took away was what I call "The Golden Rule."

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we most often think of the Golden Rule as some variation on "Do unto others...", but in this new world it was "How will that sound in court?"

Words to live by.