The Pessimists Are Wrong
link Giant shrimp raises big concern as it invades the Gulf – Houston Chronicle.
A little while back, I wrote about a similar circumstance regarding the proliferation of king crabs in the Antarctica, http://asiftimes.com/2011/04/30/head-to-the-nearest-red-lobster/ Now, a bountiful bevy of jumbo shrimp has appeared in the Gulf of Mexico and people are wringing their hands over it. These people have obviously never had juicy jumbo shrimp served in a spicy garlic sauce. Why do people look pessimistically on everything? In the old days, if a farmer had a bumper crop of something, it would be a reason to celebrate. If a fisherman had a bounteous haul from the sea, he’d be thrilled. Even monkeys would be excited to find excess bananas.
But not certain humans these days. Anything out of the ‘normal’ means just another sign of the apocalypse. It seems to me that pessimism has become high art in our present culture. Even as man has evolved to the point that there really is no shortage of food anywhere in the world, especially not in western cultures, the professional doomsayers always have some spin on making eating a thing of angst. These people would complain that water is not as wet as it used to be before industrialization. They warn against eating too much of this, or drinking too much of that. This is all fine if they kept to themselves, except that these professional pessimists find their way into government and their moaning finds its way into laws that affect the rest of us.
Just today, in the New York Times, an article was published warning of the dangers of excessive sodium intake. The article goes on to champion the idea of legislating sodium inputs for food makers and providers. Unless there are those who need birdcage liner, I attach the link here so no one has to spend money on buying the paper, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/health/high-sodium-to-potassium-ratio-in-diet-is-a-major-heart-risk.html?_r=1
No one sees the irony of people pushing to make drugs like marijuana legal, which has little redeeming value and lots of socially undesirable ones, versus trying to regulate salt which does have redeeming social value, ie; making food taste good.
So here’s some advice to the pessimists and those that heed them as we wind up the end of 2011. There’s a good chance we’re all going to die, eventually. You may as well enjoy the time you have here in case the next place is not so fun. I close with a quote sent to me by a friend, author unknown, which summarizes this best:
“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate and wine in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride!!”
Take the plastic off the couch, live a little.