A Dead Horse Chat

 In the early 1990s, the Air Force decided that they'd 'retrain' me a third time (you'd think two were enough in a 22-year period).  I was to become an IT-jack-of-all-trades (enough to be dangerous....enough to make a system work....enough to recognize failures or issues).  Over the next five years, I came to encounter a number of people who knew marginally more than me and were just 'jacks' as well.  

One day, in the midst of a system failure....a contractor (more than just a 'jack') looked over a particular problem and ended with the quote: 'It's a dead horse....we could do a hundred things here, but they all came to a definite end-point...it was a dead horse'.  

It was one of those moments that you kinda remember from 22 years.  Once you reach a stage with something....it doesn't matter what you do from this point on....it's a dead horse, and you won't get much of anything out of it.  

This past couple of days (since the 6th), I've sat and pondered over a number of things....politically speaking....news speaking....cultural speaking....and future speaking.

I would suggest we've approached some sunset, and there lays a dead horse issue in the landscape.

You bring up the Boy Scouts, their politicization over the past decade....it's a dead horse now.

You bring up transgender issues in schools over the past decade....total politicization of the topic.....it's a dead horse now.

You bring up MAGA hats....total politicization of the topic...it's a dead horse now.

You bring up NFL football or NBA action....total politicization of the topics....it's a dead horse now.

You bring up local TV news.....total politicization of topics....it's a dead horse now.

It's hard to find any normal situation still existing....that hasn't been politicized, and it's laying there like a dead horse.

Covid-19, mask-wearing, ban-rules, bars and restaurants shut down....all politicized and lays there as a dead horse.

The thing about this whole 'dead horse' discussion....it doesn't matter what you do from this point on, you can't resolve the dead horse problem and all matters after that point are muted and useless to discuss.

Generally, societies all try to motivate themselves and try to stay on the positive-thinking side.  But once you stand back a bit, and you just see dead horse after dead horse, there's not much motivation left.  It's going to be curious how you proceed now....if there's zero confidence.  Nobody rides dead horses much.