The Greenhouse Effect

This isn't about the environment. It's about a different syndrome. I call it the "Greenhouse Effect" because it's about people who live in a greenhouse. They are sheltered from any ill effects of the outside world. They live in a climate-controlled, comfortable place so that they can grow and live with as little inconvenience or discomfort as possible. They do not go outside of their comfort zone and have little or no knowledge of what outside the greenhouse consists. They use devices which convey information about events of the outside world though those sources of news may or may not be accurate.

As a result of this Greenhouse Effect they have no concept of what it's like to fight a war in the desert, or hunt down and arrest criminals. Their little myopic world cannot imagine what it's like to guard a detainment camp and have the detainees spit at you, throw feces at you, or threaten to kill your family. They do not or cannot picture themselves perhaps facing a situation where the enemy does not dress as a combatant and who cowardly hides behind a civilian facade in order to kill indiscriminately, yet having to abide by codes of conduct in warfare which puts you at a disadavantage.

The Greenhouse Effect People love to pretend that they take the high road by defending the "rights" of barbaric murderers, yet they are quick to condemn and vilify those who protect them from those murderers. They call policemen "pigs" yet who do they call when an intruder breaks into their homes or steals their SUVs?

The Greenhouse Effect People love protests. They love to carry signs and call the President a "butcher", yet they say nothing about Saddam Hussein, who murdered tens of thousands of his own people. They stage "peace protests" at which they peacefully throw rocks and bottles at the police. They despise Christians and think nothing of insulting them when a crucifix is put in a toilet as "art" but cry "foul play" when a (phoney) story about the Koran being flushed down the toilet might offend the sensibilities of Muslims.

The Greenhouse Effect People decry the liberation of Iraq, yet sport bumperstickers which say "Free Tibet". They despise military veterans and support the burning of the Flag as "freedom of expression" yet they won't allow prayer in public places.

The Greenhouse Effect People support killing the unborn, the brain-damaged, the elderly and the seriously ill. But they want to protect insects, owls, and trees. They consider capital punishment of hardened criminals as "cruel", but the insertion of a sharp object into the brain of a partially born human baby in order to kill him is permissable.

The Greenhouse Effect People are so removed from objectivity, so insulated from the real world, so deluded by the narrowness of their own lives that they have become diseased in their minds and souls. They can no longer distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, reality from illusion.

What's it going to take to wake up? Will we need another catastrophe, greater than 9/11, to shake them from their complacency? What's going to shatter the glass house in which they live?