Monday night provided another fine example of how the so-called blind lead the blind. Or rather, in this case, how an illogical buffoon leads the equally dim-witted sheeple.
This story starts in my proverbial backyard. It's 10:00 pm when my buddy returns to his home in Lebanon from his trip down to the Whitestown Lowe's which closed at 9:00pm. The reason for the extended duration of an otherwise sub-quarter hour trip -- another crash on the stretch of 1-65 from around the Whitestown/Brownsburg exit to the South side of Lebanon. It's a notorious stretch of road that is likely the straightest and flattest five miles in Boone County.
So my buddy announces that he sat through the crawling procession on vehicles on I-65 approaching the carnage. He then proceeds to turn on the television to catch the newscast. Sure enough Fox59 News is leading straight away with this story. It seems that the driver of a car lost control of the vehicle, bounced off a guardrail or two ended up facing the wrong direction and was struck by a tractor-trailer rig which pushed the car into another guardrail. The driver of the car was killed.
As can be expected this time of year, when Indiana roadways regularly get covered by snowfall, you can depend upon a certain class of drivers to fail to maintain control of their vehicles. Equally, it can be expected for other members of this class and illogical buffoons like the news director of Fox59 to blame-shift.
Sure enough a banner appeared across the bottom of the idiot box proclaiming that snowfall causes deadly crash in Boone County. The news anchors regurgitated the same ill-conceived assessment without any hesitation. I sprung from my seat and hostilely denounced the blathering talking heads for being so stupid as to even make such a claim. There is a reason that I do not have television reception in my house.
Fox 59's claim can be reduced to a mathematical equation just as everything in the universe can. So here we will assume that all passenger cars function in a similar manner; four rotating wheels of which the front two pivot from side to side and are the drive wheels, the center of gravity is in the passenger compartment, and they are equipped with fore-facing components used to illuminate the roadway in front of the vehicle. Let's next assume that the roadway remained constant and did not suffer some catastrophic failure such as a collapse over one of the culverts in that area. I am sure that the visual inspection that I make within the next 24 hours will confirm this. Finally, I believe we can confidently assume that the snowfall encountered by all vehicles on that roadway was the same snowfall and that there wasn't a specialized snowfall for that vehicle only such as the meteorological phenomenon that the Munsters encountered. Therefore we have the equation for that news banner being VRs=C where V, a variable, is the number of passenger vehicles passing through that stretch of roadway while snow covered, R, a constant, is that stretch of roadway, s, a constant, is the snow and C, with a value of one, is the resulting crash.
This equation is incomplete though and cannot be proven. If we go back and reduce the traffic flow by half, but still include the crashing vehicle, then C's value remains one while V is now half. To prove this statement C would have to equal 1/2 which it can't. It's like being pregnant -- you either are or are not.
Let's analyze another sentence; car driven by X crashes on snow covered interstate. So here we have VxRs=C where V, a variable, is the number of passenger vehicles passing through that stretch of roadway while snow covered, x, a variable, is that driver, R, a constant, is that stretch of roadway, s, a constant, is the snow and C, with a value of one, is the resulting crash.
Now we will try to prove this equation. The value of x is one if we find it safe to assume that only one person was driving the particular car that crashed. So x and C have the same value. Anyone from around here knows that it is impossible that the crashing vehicle was the only car to pass through that stretch of road while snow covered today. I-65 is three lanes in each direction and it is not unusual for it to become so congested as to result in slowing traffic. To keep x and C constant let's make x be drivers who cannot maintain control of their vehicle on this snow covered roadway. If we assign the value five to x, that is we have five drivers who cannot maintain control of their vehicle while passing over this snow covered roadway then we will have five crashes and, thus, C will equal five. We have now proven this equation.
For the Fox59 news equation to be true, V, the number of vehicles, and C, the number of crashes, would have to be equal based upon R, the roadway, and s, the snow, being constants. If the snow caused the crash then mathematics and logic would tell us that every similar vehicle that passed over that stretch of roadway would have crashed. But they didn't. There was one crash which was caused by the variable in the proven equation -- drivers who cannot maintain control of their vehicle on this snow covered roadway. Contrary to what was stated during the newscast the Fox59 website provides this closing statement about the collision -- "Deputies said they can't say for sure whether or not the accident was weather-related."
In a culture where personal responsibility is being shunned in favour of blame shifting it is then no surprise that Fox 59's news director would engage in such a farce. Societal wishes and norms cannot abnegate the reality of universal truths.
We are seeing the effects of blame-shifting on an increasing basis. Children aren't responsible for their actions -- ADD or ADHD is. Criminals aren't responsible for their actions -- poverty is. People intentionally inhaling carcinogens aren't responsible for their chronic poor health -- marketing campaigns using animated characters are. Home purchasers aren't responsible for foreclosures - bankers are. Parents aren't responsible for their children's failure in school - school are. People shoving Big Macs, fries and sodas into their engorged bodies that would have been freak show exhibits 100 years ago aren't responsible for turning themselves into something that appears set to be harpooned -- fast food restaurants are.
In counseling 100's of people over the years I have found one common thread among them. Those who accept certain universal truths, accept responsibility for their actions and the resulting consequences are happier and enjoy a greater sense of well-being than those who blame shift and feel that the direction of their lives are beyond their control.
I hold no particular bias against Fox59 News. It just happened to be the channel that my buddy turned on. I am quite confident that news directors at other broadcasters would make the same mistake. It is unlikely that accepting universal truths, such as mathematics, nor being able to think logically are required qualifications to be a news director. As I have demonstrated though it should be. Otherwise the propensity to propagate false information is increased.
If you would like assistance in understanding and accepting certain universal truths so that you may enjoy a happier and healthier life then please visit my website.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Make a suggestion for me to write about.
Parents who would like to achieve the best outcome for their children in a contested child custody case should visit my website and contact my scheduler to make an appointment to meet with me. Attorneys may request a free consultation to learn how I can maximize their advocacy for their clients.
Connect with me for the latest Indiana child custody related policy considerations, findings, court rulings and discussions. 
No comments:
Post a Comment