Lemmings

So, last night, my kids were asking kid questions (What is this?, What is that?, How does .....?) and the subject of lemmings came up. They were somewhat incredulous that lemmings would be so stupid as to all kill themselves. Then my wife mentioned that sometimes people are guilty of lemming behavior. At first she indicated political lemming behavior, but then we also noted a lot of other lemming type behavior. Whether it be political lemmingness, or if it's fashion, substance abuse, gang behavior, career paths, or any of a large variety of consumerism behaviors, it is far too reminiscent of a bunch of lemmings hurtling down a path with no sense of awareness or concern that they are about to go over a cliff to their deaths.

Really folks, aren't we more capable than that? Are we so perpetually comatose that we don't even think about our actions ahead of time? How about a little more than that, perhaps we could even contemplate the short term consequences for our actions. Ok, and I know this is a stretch, but how about going a little further to mid term consequences. Ok, yeah, I know, pretty painful there, but we are going to stretch you even more. Now we are going to think about long term consequences. Now that is raw agony, isn't it? But wait, can you see that? Most of the stupid things we do in our culture are really dumb in the long term. Better not to do it at all. Man, if we all thought things through, things might get down right nice. But then, think how boring it would be with out all those lemming problems.