Fool Me Once . . .

"There's a bluebird on my shoulder. It's the truth. It's actual. Everything is satisfactual." Okay, unlike Uncle Remus in Disney's Song of the South, the bluebirds aren't sitting on my shoulder but they are sitting right outside my door on our bird feeders. Bright blue with peachy-red breasts. Like Uncle Remus said, "It's the truth. It's actual."
But in another area - the lack of truth is astounding me. The way the global warming "science" is falling apart. I'll admit I've always been skeptical about it. That's just the way my politics leans and I thought there were too many educated naysayers to not take a second look, yet taking a second look was thought to be blasphemous. Got to admit, anytime I'm told NOT to take a second look - I'm suspicious.
But what has shocked me is that the scientists - folks with degrees upon degrees who put their name and reputation on the line are being found to not have been fooled or misled in their research, but to have decided the cause was greater than the need for truth or hard data. (The quotes are out there, just google "climategate" and you'll get all you need.)
We're constantly told we are such a cynical, suspicious society - and yet obviously we're not cynical enough. Think of the life changes we made because of the Scientific Truths we were sold. One friend said to me last year about choosing paper over plastic grocery bags. "I know the research shows paper does as much damage as plastic, but I don't care. It makes me feel better."
Does it make us feel better to think we have more control in this world than we really do?
Are we more apt to believe what someone is selling when it give us power? Even when the power in question is such a colossal super power as the ability to control the planet's temperature?
Where in my life am I choosing power over truth? Where in my life am I more concerned with being right than seeing truth? I need to make sure truth invades every part of my life so I don't lead others astray in my desires.
Big thoughts for a Tuesday, but ones I know I need to keep in mind. You see - I really like power.