A Couple of Observations for a Sunday Evening

A couple of years ago I bought a rowing machine on which I like to log 4 kilometers in the evening, which takes about half an hour, mostly while watching the game show “Jeopardy” which I really do enjoy. Sunday nights, however, I’m reduced to watching half of CBS’s ever-popular 60 Minutes.

The problem with the show, ironically, is the reason that it’s popular, which I would summarize as this: its creators know what works, and are willing to do that, even (or especially?) at the expense of the truth.

Tonight’s presentation on Elon Musk’s ScienceX would have us believe that space exploration:

a) Is likely to flourish in the near-term in the private sector
b) Needs to be available for the common man to enjoy, and
c) Is the best answer for the survival of the human species, given the problems we face on our home planet.

All three are patently absurd, but 60 Minutes pounds home its support; again, the truth doesn’t matter. If, for whatever reason, its producers had wanted you to believe the precise opposite, they could have done so with equal grace and ease.

For the record, yes, you can book a ticket for a short ride into space if you have a spare $200,000 to spend on the experience. And yes, you can believe that, since our lack of wisdom here on Earth has brought us to the brink of ecological disaster, expanding our quality of thinking into space seems like a viable concept. But how reasonable do either of those ideas seem, really?

I also noticed this, during tonight’s 4KM rowing challenge. There were no fewer than six direct-to-consumer commercials for prescription drugs. Wow, either there’s a huge population out there with male erectile dysfunction, or there’s a LOT of money to be made in offering drugs to treat it.  I suspect it’s the latter.

Btw, the US is one of only two countries in the world in which this promotional tactic is legal; 99% of the sovereign countries on Earth have outlawed this abusive practice.

For what it’s worth, I love the United States. But these are a few of my least-favorite things.