Author: Gary Beck Source: https://www.polseguera.com/writers/writing-760_molecular-distortion.html Molecular Distortion Gary Beck/Molecular Distortion   Dumbing Down The rush of technology in the Information Age has left many behind. The switch from horse and buggy to the automobile separated those who couldn't catch up to the new ride and eager drivers. The challenge to transition is an intelligence test that so many fail because they can't accept the shock of the new, the terrible afflictions that prevent evolving to different conditions that alter our daily lives, at least those of us smart enough to adjust.     Human Nature It defies understanding, that many people prefer violent confrontations to peaceful coexistence, regardless of the cost in lives and treasure lost. Yet we repeat the pattern over and over again, when it's always easier to destroy then preserve our children, homes, countries in the need to kill enemies. In the lust for power and our greatest foe, greed, we are always willing to resort to bloody war, for at best fleeting gains that temporarily sate bloated appetites.     Diminished Ability It gets more difficult to get up each morning, do my hygiene, do my exercise, make my breakfast, shop for necessities, rest on the way home, hope I don't get mugged by a vicious predator taking advantage of infirm elders no longer capable of self defense, a growing problem in a chaotic land of declining values that make the aged easy pickings.     Ebbing Resource I watch the tide go in and out at the East River estuary. I do not think the river knows how or why we polluted it, but as any work of nature it responds to assault, so as we kill the river it kills its dependents in the water, in the air and as the fish die out the birds that feed on them no longer have a choice and must beg for food from people.   More and more bodies of water have become so tainted that our rivers, seas, oceans are no longer blue. We do not understand that life is connected to our frail water supply, while the limited minds who determine policies, too dumb to allow repair of unsafe bridges, unsafe roads, do not protect our water, like they don't protect our air and seem to be oblivious to our diminishing future.     News There was no media when Athens lost the Peloponnesian War, at the fall of Rome, the battle of Hastings, Charles I lost his head. Only word of mouth, parchment, tablets, (not the IPad, dodo) public opinion formed by those in power, for no one else mattered. Today we have world wide news from BBC, CNN, China Daily and national sources, all spewing misinformation, I mean information that may or may not be true. I don't have enough facts to decide what's fake news and it doesn't help that reporters majored in deception, most not understanding they dance to the tune of puppeteers, who unlike most of us will do anything to get what they want, guiding the media liberally, conservatively, to prepare the public mind to dutifully believe the news of the day.   Molecular Distortion is an unpublished collection that looks at the breaking down of function in a complex society, going through difficult sociological changes: 'Dumbing Down', 'Human Nature', 'Diminished Ability', 'Ebbing Resource', 'News'.