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---=-bY-Jon
Hill
WHYNOT
IGNORE THE FACTS?
T
he sky is falling! The sky is falling!" said
Chicken Little. What with hydrocarbons, aero–
sols and plummeting Cosmos satellites, little did
we
realize how accurate the little "turkey" would
prove to be. But, obviously. this prattle of di re global
problems must be ignored. After al!. this old world has
been around for millennia while prophets of doom
have been predicting its imminent end.
And more minor problems a re best ignored as well.
Maybe the problems will go away if we ignore them.
Here is an exercise in how to ignore the problems.
Ignore the problem in Southeast Asia. There is no
such thing as the domino effect. Ignore the fact that
Sou th Vietnam. Laos. Cambodia have been taken over
by Communist governments. Ignore the fact tha t in–
cursions are being made into Thailand. Indonesia,
Weather upsets? Drought? F looding?
Severe winters? Those are all
cyclical. They come and go. Not to worry.
India and sorne other countries we don't even know
the names of, much less where they a re located.
Africa is no problem. Cuban troops in Angola and
Ethiopia-along with Soviet pilots ftying sophisticated
modern jet fighters-are only there to staff hospitals,
help with the general welfare, build roads. Really,
what has the Horn of Africa got todo with us?
Concentrate on South Africa where real wrongs are
being committed. What does Capetown mean to you
when the rights of certain groups are being abridged?
Ignore Uganda and Idi Amin- or any similar African
situation. Ignore the fact that more blacks have died at
his hand in just a few yea rs than during the entire
fiasco of over two centuries of colonialism.
ltaly and France may vote a majority of commu–
nists into their governments? Ignore that fact. Italy
(which in the memory of sorne of us was Fascist not
too long ago) and France have always been in the
Western camp.
The
PLAIN TRUTH May 1978
The sky is falling? Ridiculous! Take with a grain of
SALT that bi t of news. We will reach an accord. a
détente. The fact that the Soviets have hun ter-killcr
satellites capable of destroying our mi litary communi–
cations system established in space should be ignored!
The sky is falling? Take with a
grain of SALT that bit of news.
We'll promise not to make any space weapons. and
they will promise to destroy all those they have al–
ready made.
T he Panama Canal? Who needs it? We really never
had sovereignty over that piece of real estate in the
first place. In an age of supertankers and ICBM mis–
siles. the Canal is obsolete and archaic in any case.
Ignore the facts. Who should really own the Canal
anyway? The Panamanians? The Colombians? The
Spaniards? Sasquatch?
Population explosion? Just a myth. Ignore the fact
that the world will have more than seven billion souls
before thc year 2000.
Famine? On a worldwide scale?
It
will never hap–
pen! Ignore the fact that today more people die every
day of starvation than at any time in recorded history.
Pollution bringing us to the brink of catastrophe?
No way! Whole river systems are being cleaned up;
new environmenta l laws are in effect. Ignore the fact
that one-third of all sea life has been destroyed in your
lifetime- and forget that one-third of the food for
mankind comes from the sea.
Weather upsets? Drought? F looding? Severe win–
ters? Those a re all cyclical. They come and go. Not to
worry- ignore the facts.
Nuclear proliferation? The possibility that mankind
might yet destroy his own and all other species from
off this planet? Ignore the fact that for the first time in
history it is entirely possible. It hasn't happened yet!
Why not ignore the facts- it's more comfortable that
way!
O
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