I deeply appreciate all the comments on my last post about factory farmed confinement dairy cows being fitted with VR goggles playing a loop of sunny green pastures to make them happy and therefore more productive.

             Several of you were already ahead of me by pointing out that a short test like this showing a massive increase in milk production (from 5 gallons a day to 7) does not a long-term trend indicate.  Thank you for pointing out that we have no idea what this will do to the cows' skeletons and livability over time.  You all may remember rBGH several years ago.  It increased milk production but caused much more long-term damage, from calcium cannibalism (destroyed bones) to infertility.

             The biological time clock is not mechanical.  You can test a machine like a wheel bearing and get a pretty good indication of performance in a short time.  But biology is all about adaption to new circumstances.  In other words, when something happens, the entire organism reacts to try to survive.  Machines don't do that.  Your Subaru will never respond to you no matter how many times you hug the hood and tell it "I love you."  It couldn't care less, and therein lies one of the most profound differences between biology and mechanics.

             On another note, when I said I was a bit conflicted about this, I didn't mean that I could be persuaded that VR goggles on dairy cows in factory farms could ever be a good thing.  I was just musing that if a cow is indeed stuck in an exploitive situation, perhaps it's better for her to live out her life enjoying an alternative reality.  That's assuming nothing worse happens.

             Hence, the question at the end was not bizarre; it was meant to tease out the kind of thoughtful comments I received.  So thank you.  After reading the comments, I realized what an astute audience I have, that so many of you immediately connected this idea with the goggles most people have on regarding our own political, social, economic, and spiritual reality.

            Perhaps these dairy cow goggles indicate, viscerally, the extent to which exploitive dominion (what I call a Conquistador mentality) can go to manipulate the thinking of beings.  Applied to humans, of course, this mentality comes through all sorts of media.  Are we not all wearing goggles to a certain extent?  Which begs the question "which goggles are we choosing for ourselves?"

             I remember extremely well in my brief life as an investigative journalist on the local newspaper that all the other reporters had a policy about enigmatic goings-on in the halls of our local government:  "If I don't understand it, it didn't happen."  My mentality was opposite.  I said "If I don't understand it, I assume someone is trying to pull a fast one and orchestrating a confusing narrative to make truth-finding too difficult to pursue."  Anyone who thinks my fellow journalists' paradigm is gone from news gathering today is not living in reality.

             This is why John Stuart Mill's "Marketplace of Ideas" is foundational to societal integrity.  Most things have a false narrative side; in order to discover truth we must preserve freedom to express alternative narratives.  If you need a cry room when you hear something you don't like, fine.  This is why Joe Rogan is a champion and I hope his show doubles as a result of this cancel crusade. 

             Denmark has just lifted all mandates, vaccine passports, everything pretty much.  Hopefully other countries including ours will realize the emperor has no clothes and follow suit.  Oprah Winfrey was wrong about the Nazis, but I would hate a country that wouldn't let her views be voiced.  This is why my bookshelf is full of both conservative and extremely liberal narratives, and why I created the mantra "Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer."

             I grew up memorizing "Manifest Destiny" for the American story.  I now believe that was a fraudulent narrative of American history.

             Have you ever changed your mind about something when you allowed yourself to be exposed to an alternative idea, like putting on a different set of VR goggles?