I’m just guessing here, but I probably shouldn’t be looking for reality in the op ed section of the NY Times.

I admit it; This is an exercise in nit-picking. I love Tom Friedman. He's well worth reading, and he’s sort of cuddly, but I think he should mount a new picture of himself to accompany his op ed pieces in the NY Times site. The new photo should show him wearing a red-white-and-blue American flag sports shirt and a little green beanie, one with a tiny little windmill on it. Also he should be probably be sucking on a rolled Benjamin as well. But hey, you gotta love his incorrigible go gettum optimism. He truly believes the fiesta should and will continue unabated, except for a few minor glitches here and there. His role in this carnival: He’s always there to show us the indomitable human knack to conjure up bright and shiny objects whose manufacture and distribution will keep us, well some of us anyway, in high cotton forever.

Underlying all of the hype in his latest nearly breathless op ed piece is the assumption that our ways of doing things may alter somewhat, but that the fundamental features of the current world, a reliable global energy and transportation network will continue to function ad infinitum – with a little help from the glowing angels of technology. His worship of whoop-de-doo global capitalism bolsters all of his remarks. Hell, if I had any money and wanted to make some more I might be bet on the great implantable acid reflux device too. I smell the oil and ozone of the Borg collective Moving closer all the time.

Before going any further I should make it plain that I am not opposed to bringing comfort and joy to those folks with acid reflux. Maybe these gadgets and gimmicks can really provide an essential treatment. But I think their actual medical necessity is far overshadowed by their economic and financial allure. As for the economics, it is probably safe to say that the real value in these devices is more likely to lie in the busy-ness they may provide for hundreds of humans making, selling and pushing them around the planet. If successful, it will keep several thousand of them occupied, off the streets, and paying taxes. Ha-cha. But wouldn’t it be sort of uplifting to provide something more along with mucho profits.

In my opinion, the project itself and Friedman’s relentless boosterism illustrates not the resourcefulness of the human spirit, but the smirking, continuous self-congratulation of us uber-apes as cunning tool makers. Given the prevailing dominance of international corporate culture, maybe this is the best we can right now. This slick device could be one of the safest, most benign and creative sideshows to come along in a while, but honestly, there is no art in this, merely cleverness and shrewd promotion in a world that can’t ever seem to get its fill of spectacle and circuses.

Maybe a more systemic approach could be considered. Perhaps the whole of the condition of acid reflux could be addressed by some attention to the influence of the foods we eat and our relationship to toxins in the environment as well as the stresses they inflict on the body and spirit. Perhaps we could re-tool and reconfigure the food system itself. Another device, no matter how nifty, that creates the illusion of health through ‘miracle’ of machinery and ‘modern medicine’ might just be another attempt to avoid looking at the values and validity of our world-view as a whole. Just a thought.