Walter Patterson Herald ColumnistIs it just me, but do you ever have the feeling that the world is spinning out of control?  Every time I read the newspaper or listen to radio or watch a news program, I get the strange feeling that something is surreal about our present circumstances.
Over 8 million Americans are unemployed and can’t find work anywhere.  I talked to a “Katrina victim” last week who had once been a TV producer.  He is now a salesman.  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that.  Honest work is still good, but this highly trained individual had been forced to change professions in order to survive.  No one seems to be too upset about the lack of jobs.  
Gas prices are averaging $3.24 per gallon now.  When Obama came into office in 2009, the price of a gallon of gas was $1.84 per gallon.  No one seems to be too upset about the price of gas.  Like I said, it is all surreal to me.
A Harvard professor, Dr. George Church, is seeking an “adventurous” woman to give birth to a Neanderthal cloned baby.  Dr. Church “believes he can reconstruct Neanderthal DNA and resurrect the species which became extinct 33,000 years ago.”  Talk about Jurassic Park.  Tell me that these crazy thoughts are not coursing through the brain of a normal, supposedly intelligent, fellow human being.  Does this not seem a little surreal to you?
Do you remember Thomas Malthus?  If you ever took a course in botany, you will remember that he is the man who did the experiments on peas in order to determine how we inherit our genes.  I can still hear the teacher talking about the red pea blooms, the white blooms and the pink blooms.  It was all pretty interesting to me until Malthus became a little surreal.  He was worried that the earth could no longer support a large population of humans.  He claimed, “The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.”  
Enter that great thinker and profoundly misguided nut, Sir David Attenborough.  “We are a plague on the Earth.  It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so.  It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde.  Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.”
Right on cue, Paul Ehrlick, the doomsday biologist, stepped to the plate.  “Nobody, in my view, has the right to have 12 children or even 3 unless the second pregnancy is twins.”  He went on to say, “Reducing the number of people is still the answer to civilizations woes.”  
After reading this, I concluded that I had entered another dimension and nothing was real.  But the coup de grass was yet to come.
Japan has a culture that has endured for literally thousands of years.  Change was brought about after World War II, but yet the people had customs and traditions that they followed.  One of their traditions was to honor the elderly.  The elderly had lived long enough to gain some wisdom and this wisdom could be passed on to the younger generation.
Taro Aso, Japan’s Prime Minister has declared, “Let elderly people hurry and die.  I would refuse end-of-life care and would feel bad knowing treatment was paid for by government.”
Don’t get upset.  I’m sure it’s just me.  There is probably nothing to worry about.  My brain is probably not functioning at full capacity.  It probably doesn’t matter that all of the people I have mentioned are liberals.
Perhaps I’m just having a “surreal” moment.