What is a fool?
To my mind it can be anyone of many things - aside from just occasionally being foolish which affects all. A fool can be the person who feels the need to shout, just when others realise the right thing is to be quiet. A fool can be the person who drives at 100mph, when all evidence says that is dangerous. A fool can be someone who does not realise that the process of growing up includes learning - if you haven't done one, you probably haven't done the other. And a fool can be someone who is determined to lead their life selfishly, even if it flies in the face of all sensible evidence.
People who qualify in this last category?
People who think we didn't go to the moon
Pro Smokers
People who think seatbelt law is wrong
Users of mobile phones while driving
Celebs who think that because you are famous, you know everything
Most bloggers (oops, that's me then)
You get the idea.
The nice thing about this internet thingy is that I can pick and choose my fights. I posted a bit about FOREST below and was immediately hit by a couple of daft pro-smokers. (Apparently one of them has TWO degrees - and that means?)
I published their first post and put a reply. Then I got a couple of additional posts from the two of them. And you know, I suddenly realised that they bored me. I realised I did not want to argue with a couple of selfish individuals who believe that their self interest is more important than my health. I didn't feel the need to justify myself to people who huddle together in lobby groups and reject any research that doesn't conveniently fit their arguments (that would be almost all research then.)
I thought, if I want to argue with people I can do it quite happily when I meet people who I know, who know who I really am, who don't make me justtify myself in the same way that I don't ask them to justify them selves. People who don't spend hour after hour feverishly building up a case for a cause that the vast number of people think of as dated and crazy.
To my mind, arguing the case FOR smoking or even the right to smoke is about as justifyable as arguing for slavery. The argument is 200 years too late.
So, I just deleted the comments, so I didn't need to reply to them, and went back to writing some music for a commission. And didn't think any more about it exept, "What am I cooking for dinner?" Chicken pie as it happens, and I have a pile of hungry, smoke free mouths to feed, so I better get on with it.
Nobody
PS: Probably a few typos and spellos above - think I will ignore those too!
