The End of Our Nose

Have you ever wondered why people so often seem incapable of seeing further than the end of their nose? Why they so seldom give any thought whatever to long-term consequences if they can see short term advantages? If chopping down all the world's rain forests will bring millions in profit today, who cares what will happen 50 years from now? They'll worry about that when the time comes.

And when the time does come, as it has with the problems of global warming, we all wring our hands and blame everyone and everything but ourselves.

Of course, it is impossible for humans to know for sure what the future holds but come on...when there is everything but flashing arrows pointing "This Way!!", why do we insist on looking at each other in total befuddlement and say, "Gee, I wonder which way we should go" or, worse, pointing off in an entirely different direction and saying "Let's go that way."

I've frequently stormed against the stupidity of politicians in putting their own selfish interests before the public good, and not only refusing to see the obvious but to devote all of their energies to and forestall it. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is a prime example. It is wrong. Everyone, including the politicians, know it is wrong. "The American People," whose name politicians routinely and with little or no justification invoke while in fact largely ignoring, know it is wrong. But the politicians, mostly Republicans drunk with power, will do everything in their power to assure that the egregious denial of the rights of American men and women willing to defend and possibly die for their country are denied. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is doomed. The politicians know it is doomed, but they don't care. They will fight to the last breath to drag it out as long as they possibly can. And within five years of its inevitable repeal...however far down the road they have been able to push it, those same politicians up for reelection will be blatantly courting gay and lesbian voters by claiming they had almost singlehandedly been responsible for its repeal and had been against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" from the beginning.

Health issues are also strongly affected by people's inability to see beyond the end of their nose. Smoking kills. There is absolutely no doubt about that fact whatsoever. (I'll refrain a digression into why the tobacco industry is still raking in billions of dollars in profit every year.) Yet the simple (in every sense of the word) response among those who smoke is "Well, it hasn't hurt me yet." This is partly based on the astonishingly wrong-headed belief that "it'll never happen to me," a blatantly erroneous opinion almost universal among the young.

The concept of saving money for the future also seems to be almost universally ignored--including, far too often in the past, by me. The more money one manages to save, the more tempting it is to spend. ("Oh, I can afford it! And I'll put it back." Uh huh. Even if you do put it back, eventually, you're only treading water, not getting anywhere.)

Credit card companies depend upon the unwillingness of consumers to realize that debts incurred must be repaid, and that the profit to be made from interest rates (again, another factor never considered) and not altruism is the driving factor behind their willingness to give you as much money as you need. And while bankruptcy seems increasingly to be seen as a way around this fact, it generally doesn't work more than once.

The assumption that what is will always be is, again, almost universal, and unfortunately, it is the young and healthy who are most prone to this "End of our Nose" syndrome. They consider their good health and physical abilities--if they ever give them a single thought, which is unlikely--simply as a given, and as a result too often squander those precious gifts.

All of us, no matter where we are along the path of life, would do well to pay heed to a couple of well-known and usually ignored adages/cliches: "Act in haste, repent at leisure" and "Too soon old, too late smart." Not that we will pay them any more heed now than we ever have. But it would really be nice if, every now and then, we really made an effort to see beyond the end of our nose.

New entries are posted by 10 a.m. Central time every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Please come back...and bring a friend. Your comments are always welcome. And you're invited to stop by my website at http://www.doriengrey.com, or drop me a note at doriengrey@gmail.com.