The problem with the current Republican fantasy world thinking is that it discourages people from taking the future seriously. When they deny that global warming is real, and deny that the world is over 10,000 years old, and deny that we we lied into a debacle of a war - the GOP is denying that reality and working hard for a goal really matters. Where Americans once had a long term, results based, national focus - we now have short term magical thinking.
Everybody thinks they can take the "American Idol" route to quick stardom. Everyone thinks, like Don Rumsfeld, that thier wars should take no more than 6 months. "Win a quick war, then kick back and let the oil money roll in." Why be a sap working for something like a long term energy policy when it is easier to win some oil fields? The Republican motto for the past 10 years might as well be -
If life presents you with a difficult problem, you are thinking too hard. Pray it away or bomb the crap out of it. We have turned into a country where being a "prayer" and a "player" is valued over being a contributor.
Experts at S.D. meeting cite other nations' advancesThe future of U.S. competitiveness in science and technology is in the hands of young people, but too few of them want to build careers in those fields, a high-profile panel of government, academic and aerospace experts said yesterday in San Diego.
Central to the crisis is a popular culture that doesn't value math and science, a public education system that doesn't pay teachers enough to attract the best instructors, and a national economy that doesn't offer young people the financial incentives to pursue intellectually rigorous jobs that require years of expensive education, the panel said.