A life non-political...

My principal just announced a new get-tough-on-drugs policy she's adopting...an issue on which I am completely, without a shadow-of-a-doubt clear getting tough is unequivocably counterproductive for all the things that people say that care about...

And I'm thinking about maybe choosing a non-political life, of some kind...

Teaching is definitely one of the more political careers I've been a part of...

And I'm thinking that maybe I should get into a scientific career of some kind...something meaningful but more low-key... I just get tired of the disappointment in watching us constantly taking backward steps on issues...without much thought about what takes us forward...

I have much to write on important policy issues...but I'm just not all that convinced that anyone agrees or is terribly interested...and there's just not much use in being an obscure academic if you're wrong...it only makes sense to do that kind of work if you're right...if you know what you're doing...I think I do...but if it's all just for naught because we stubbornly cling to policies no matter how counterproductive they might be or if somehow someone has some persuasive arguments for why they are productive that I've just not heard yet, then I begin to think that it might be better to just do something where I can be more productive...

I'm tired...it's been a long week...

And I'm tired of fighting battles where no meaningful discussion takes place...where the constant refrain is "Getting tough is good because it's not soft" or "not naive" or whatever stupid fuckin' new excuse people have for why it hasn't worked up till this point...

I'm tired of having a discussion where people can't be honest about the failures of their policies because the policy has become more of a sacred cow than the solution to the problems the policy was meant to create...

Maybe I can find something cerebral where I can stay away from people...who really kind of fuck up their own and each others' lives plenty enough to need my help, I think, most of the time...

I've got to get some sleep...

Have a good week, everyone...

Ben