I see the prospects for anarchy, for widespread disruption, accelarating by the day. Just swine flu on its own is a credible threat to the ordinary social fabric. Just our current economic circumstances (the US deficit recently surpassed $1 trillion for the first time) will create enough unemployment to strain our civil systems. And then there's energy, and food, and the climate. Get some more background on the economic implications here.
But I'm not going to talk about that right now. I talk about this stuff pretty much all the time, and yet each day I notice the most searched for items on this blog, consistently, are searches for the Italian Chandelier sex position, and pictures of a 12 year old kid that impregnated a 15 year old. That's what the vast majority really want to occupy their minds with. So if you are fishing around for a reason why the first paragraph can even exist, the answer lies in this paragraph. Minds in the gutter. Sometimes being spoilt for choice is not good for anyone, especially when there is no longer a sense of discipline to do what is sensible [as opposed to what feels good]. But nature has a solution for this. It starts to strip away our choices.
Now, to a topic I am passionate about. The Tour de France. Although around 190 riders turn up, there are really only about a dozen riders who have a chance of winning it, and of those dozen, only about 5 or 6 have a real shot. So even though you have 190 riders, it;s really only a race between 5 or 6 men {and, of course, their teams).
If you didn't have this psychology, this insight, you might put yourself through a heck of a lot of hard work and misery trying to win. However, having this insight makes all the difference. Tactics, strategy, is crucial in cycling, and particularly in the Tour. While there are 20 stages, 20 days to cycle almost 4000 kilometres, the race is won {or lost} in only 6 of these stages, or fewer. Arguably, in the Team Time Trial, half the contenders fell away. Lance Armstrong, Contador, Leipheimer and the other contenders made all of their gaps so far during stage 1, stage 2, stage 4 and stage 7. There are unlikely to be any further changes until 22 July, Stage 17. And stages 18 (the last time trial) and the legendary Ventoux, stage 20 are where the race will be won. It's possible that stage 20 alone could be decisive. The point is, while there are 20 stages, the race is only really on at certain key moments, and these moments are outnumbered by the stages that don't really matter.
In my opinion, our sense of the world is a lot like the Tour de France. We think we're very smart. We have all the information at our fingertips. The distances, the profiles, the formulas. The problem is, we lack insight. We lack the ability to listen. We lack the ability to function in groups, in echelons, as communities. We're 190 individuals all expecting to win. In the Tour there are really just a dozen teams working for a dozen leaders. There are a dozen communities, all of them allies at certain sometimes, sometimes competing. In the real world, we all think we can win the Tour. With that mentality, of course, no one will. In fact, it's hard to imagine anyone finishing who doesn't have the support for what is an incredibly arduous road. But I suppose you already knew that.
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