(no subject)
*EDIT* I apologize in advance for the length.
*EDIT #2* No Harry, this isn't about King Kong. Sorry.
Is anyone else scared?
I quote Marc Perkel: "If you don't wake up in the middle of the night screaming, you're not paying attention to what's going on in the world!"
I promise to refrain from political sides in this discussion/rant, majority of people that know me, especially well, easily know my political views but for the sake of a more important messege, I shall try and stay impartial.
Our country was founded on some amazing ideas. Brilliant ideas. Since it's inception, America has traveled down an honorable path. We've had blots of ink on our history, such as civil rights taking forever but the idea behind our Constitution and the Bill of Rights is absolutely beautiful. To be honest, I'm more of a socialist. (which should point to my political views! =P ) However, I'm also realistic, and I think the idea of socialism is the ultimate ideal for a society. Since it'll be a long time before that could even theoretically happen due to the magnitude of change required in our world and there are plenty of reasons stacked against a socialist world working, I'm not really holding my breath. BUT, Americas democracy, is most definitely the best working system of government on a large scale in my opinion.
This democracy is plaqued with a leech though. Capitalism. Money runs our world. That was ok to begin with, but (coming to my first real point) I don't see how it can continue to function while maintaining social and moral justice. I'm no political science scholar yet. I have alot to learn, but from my percieved notion of the United States, capitalism is going to eat itself. We already have a dramatic shift in our country's classes. The middle class has shrunk dramatically leaving the poor, and the rich. This part is going to tip-toe the political line: Conservatives claim that by giving the rich tax breaks, it allows money to trickle down through the system and stimulate the economy. Looking at the country in the last few years, in which we've had a conservative President, a conservative Senate and House, and a court that is getting ever closer to being majorily conservative leaning, this should have amounted to dramatic economic success. Instead, the record breaking surplus that Clinton brought in, was quickly used up and the stock market and our economy in general, has been at a low not seen in decades (I won't quote numbers because I dont want to look them up at the moment and source them since it's late but trust me they are very significant and you can look them up yourself or if absolutely neccesary, ask.)
So our economy has been floundering a bit to put it nicely, the middle class is disappearing, and what will happen? Our economy is based on people constantly making more money. Some guy is going to strike it rich and make more where someone else tried. We've seen in my lifetime especially, and even earlier, the privatization of everything. EVERYTHING is owned by multibillion dollar conglomerates. This does alot. First off, companies do everything in their power to increase profit (even when its in excess!) I'm sure my values misalign with others, but I dont see why someone needs billions of dollars in their name while others have none. Not to mention, the middle class worker in America gets laid off either to boost cash flow for the rich business people higher up the chain, or to ship their job overseas where the labor is cheap thus presenting another issue of human rights (but this is all assuming at the moment companies DON'T screw people for profit. (Bear with me.) Our economy is based on people getting sucked into consumerism. We HAVE to buy stuff. Why is that? Because our lifes revolve around media and a lifestyle of needs, not wants and we are fed the idea of consumerism through the media and everything. If the poor keep getting poorer, and the rich get richer, then who do the companies market their products to in the hopes that hundreds of thousands of people will go out and buy their product? In addition, businesses are generally no longer a group of people trying to make a living, they are a chain store that manages millions of dollars of product and artificially controls everything. That adds into the marketing factor of demanding people buy stuff. While trying to leech every dime out of our pockets for things we "can't live without," greed takes over and we also loose protection.
Politics in our world have shifted dramatically. You need lots of cash to run for office. This is given to you by the gigantic corporations listed above. This creates special interest. (I wont even list the countless number of politicians who have ties to major criminal offenses that are being investigated or NEED to.) Our elections are bought and won by corporations. Meanwhile, Joe Consumer gets the shaft because our Foriegn Affairs Policy, our laws, and our safety are essentially bought and paid for by the companies. Take for example the mining accident that happened a few weeks ago. The governing body over mining safety was cut down to almost nothing and the companies decreased safety measures in order to ensure profit. About a dozen people lost their lives due to simple things that should have been maintained and repaired. In the same way, we get the news spoonfed to us by gigantic corporations which own all the news outlets including tv, radio and print in the country. A few companies own all of the different newspapers and tv channels we have. If you don't think our news is censored at all, you need to wake up. A company that owns a bunch of other companies including a news service, isn't going to be happy with a reporter that writes an article about corruption in that parent company.
All of this results in the decay of our gaurenteed safety standards such as some of the governing bodies of the U.S. government. The FDA and other organizations with their countless codes and requirements may seem nice, and they do some good, but a lot still slips by due to negligence or profit. We ingest so much food that isn't handed to us and ensured healthy, meanwhile alot of the supposed knowledge of that food, isn't even that extensive because it turns a profit. All of our food is processed beyond belief, with added growth hormones and antibiotics along with pesticides and many other impurities. This is due to the industrialization of our food industry, and sure it provides us with lots of milk (or what have you) but at what cost? Americans are obese, and risk many different diseases especially heart disease and cancer. Our population has gained significant height which could be linked to what we eat. Why are girls starting thier periods and developing breasts exceedingly early? So many things that aren't going right with our bodies are overlooked for the sake of higher production yields and higher profit. Not to mention our diet wastes so much energy and water. Americans eat/drink dairy products the most followed by meats, which is almost opposite what we should. The amount of energy and water we put into eating animals in excess also wastes resources that, if used correctly, could feed far more people in less energy demanding food sources. I'm not saying be a vegan, but for Christ's sake, can't we possibly consider people other then ourselves when we make decisions?
To summarize the above, our world is a consumeristic commercialized world and I dont see how we can feed off ourselves and still function.
China, with a government that has the ability to do whatever it wants (due to their totalitarian "communism") has made great progress in industrializing and will soon overtake the United States as a super power if we dont keep up with them. In addition, you have dozens of countries that all want the prosperity the United States has had, which requires industrialization and ENERGY. Meanwhile, the United States is fully relient on fossil fuels, which I predict will be our downfall to China as a super power. If China stays out of fossil fuels, we'll be stuck with the infrastructure designed for a limited and depleting resource, while they'll be quite a few steps ahead. On a tangent, why the hell are companies touting hydrogen cars? Hydrogen is a fuel carrier not a fuel source. You have to produce the large amounts of hydrogen to get it ready to go in your little hydrogen cars. This requires alot of electricity, which oh yea, still comes from our coal burning power plants etc etc. Why don't we put more effort in far more "green" energy sources? This is just another example of the media telling us what they want to say which in reality has little bearing.
All in all, we are controlled by the whims of corporations whos goal is to make as much money from us as possible. If they keep taking money, and it doesn't feed back through the economy well, then eventually the poor will be to poor to keep the rich, rich. Add on to this the fact that a majority of large corporations will swindle/steal/put innocent people at risk in order to continue making profit.
I hope everything above was semicoherent and thought out. I have so much more to say and I'm not sure how to put it all together perfectly.
In addition to the above, I dont care if you are a republican, or a democrat, the current administration governing the executive branch has committed many offenses which violate the very thing which they SWORE to protect. The most recent example of this being the NSA wiretapping. It is illegal under our RIGHTS as American CITIZENS to privacy. These are given to us in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution which our President swore to uphold. That is his job. Regardless of whether you think he did it legitimately to spy on some random terrorist the media is claiming is the new Osama Bin Laden, or you think our President perhaps isn't the most upstanding man to grace the oval office, he violated his oath and DUTY as President. If he was spying on terrorists, it was still ILLEGAL. They didn't even get the after the fact warrent which they are allowed for these special spying warrents. This, along with many other grievances, undermine the ENTIRE BASIS of the United States. The terrorists win if we remove everything everyone before us has fought to protect and defend.
A quote by Benjamin Franklin:
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.
Meanwhile, most people could give a damn that the very fabric of our country which 2000+ have died for in the Iraq war alone is being unraveled. Excuse me? How can you not care? The Constitution is what protects us and seperates us from dictatorships.
To top that off, I watch so many people go through high school and college expecting to get out of college and make enormous salaries. Sure some will but how many? There are only so many people that can make millions. Plus, the expect it to be GIVEN to them. The point of college is to learn what you need to know. I dont mean to pick on business majors, because their are plenty of good ones, but so many people slack off through college, expect the classes to be easy for them because its their right, which is ludicris, and expect to be handed an enormous salary. Partying/drinking/pot/and worse are done CONSTANTLY. I'm not against partying. Its fun. I'm not against alcohol. I'm not even against drugs but I know to many people where the entire point of college is to get through their classes which they expect to be easy for them, and then come back and end up passed out, puking, or smoking out a room till 6 am. The average American college student expects the world to be handed to him/her like its owed to them, with no effort, and somehow we can all be millionares. This ties in with the very beginning. This is one reason why our country is screwed. Look at alot of the developing countries that are catching up to us. The students from their have GOOD work ethics and actually want to work and earn their keep. People expecting to graduate with engineering degrees are going to have to wake up and realize you can't get high every night once you have the hard classes that demand every waking second for study. That or they'll just transfter to some bullshit major. Whats up with a business major anyways? You learn basic finances and business stuff. So what? You get far more from other classes plus the additional skills of whatever your major is. Someone who sells stuff takes someones work (whether it be an aggie, an engineer, or whatver) and tries to make a profit off of it. That goes back to the trouble of our economy. How can a society turning out a vast number of business majors support itself (not even factoring in the fact that everyone expects a gigantic salary too?) My goal in life is to make money? But all you are doing is leeching off the system. Why do CEO's and Presidents get paid millions of dollars while people putting the thing together get practically nothing and are often laid off? There have been business geniuses in the past, don't get me wrong and these people were able to accomplish amazing things that could land them into tidy sums of money but to have our economy based on a vast system of people whose solitary function is to make money while not really producing anything takes a toll or so I would think.
I'm running out of steam. It's late. I tried to keep that flowing and coherent but I doubt I succeeded that well. I doubt anyone will even read the whole thing. Thats about 2% of whats going through my head and all of these thoughts disgust me. I'm worried that by the time I have kids, this world isn't gonna be a place I'll wanna bring kids into. This also conflicts with my vast amounts of optimism so that creates internal conflict also. I read something somewhere, where someone predicted the cold war would start again, only instead of Russia, the U.S. will be the evil that the European Union will be fighting. The U.S. has commited so many crimes against humanity no wonder the world hates us. I hope we can somehow pull this trainwreck onto better tracks. God help us all.
Throwing a few other ideas off my chest, I have also become rather heavily conspiraciy theorist. I see things going wrong now, how corrupt people are with things, and it makes me think to prior events in history and question what really happened there too. So many things are done for the sake of power and money. Once again, God help us all. (Not to mention I have no idea what my religious beliefs are at the moment. I mean I do and don't at the same time. I'm with Corey on that.) I'd say its a mix between Christian, Agnostic, and Buddist.
OK I swear my rants done.
*EDIT #2* No Harry, this isn't about King Kong. Sorry.
Is anyone else scared?
I quote Marc Perkel: "If you don't wake up in the middle of the night screaming, you're not paying attention to what's going on in the world!"
I promise to refrain from political sides in this discussion/rant, majority of people that know me, especially well, easily know my political views but for the sake of a more important messege, I shall try and stay impartial.
Our country was founded on some amazing ideas. Brilliant ideas. Since it's inception, America has traveled down an honorable path. We've had blots of ink on our history, such as civil rights taking forever but the idea behind our Constitution and the Bill of Rights is absolutely beautiful. To be honest, I'm more of a socialist. (which should point to my political views! =P ) However, I'm also realistic, and I think the idea of socialism is the ultimate ideal for a society. Since it'll be a long time before that could even theoretically happen due to the magnitude of change required in our world and there are plenty of reasons stacked against a socialist world working, I'm not really holding my breath. BUT, Americas democracy, is most definitely the best working system of government on a large scale in my opinion.
This democracy is plaqued with a leech though. Capitalism. Money runs our world. That was ok to begin with, but (coming to my first real point) I don't see how it can continue to function while maintaining social and moral justice. I'm no political science scholar yet. I have alot to learn, but from my percieved notion of the United States, capitalism is going to eat itself. We already have a dramatic shift in our country's classes. The middle class has shrunk dramatically leaving the poor, and the rich. This part is going to tip-toe the political line: Conservatives claim that by giving the rich tax breaks, it allows money to trickle down through the system and stimulate the economy. Looking at the country in the last few years, in which we've had a conservative President, a conservative Senate and House, and a court that is getting ever closer to being majorily conservative leaning, this should have amounted to dramatic economic success. Instead, the record breaking surplus that Clinton brought in, was quickly used up and the stock market and our economy in general, has been at a low not seen in decades (I won't quote numbers because I dont want to look them up at the moment and source them since it's late but trust me they are very significant and you can look them up yourself or if absolutely neccesary, ask.)
So our economy has been floundering a bit to put it nicely, the middle class is disappearing, and what will happen? Our economy is based on people constantly making more money. Some guy is going to strike it rich and make more where someone else tried. We've seen in my lifetime especially, and even earlier, the privatization of everything. EVERYTHING is owned by multibillion dollar conglomerates. This does alot. First off, companies do everything in their power to increase profit (even when its in excess!) I'm sure my values misalign with others, but I dont see why someone needs billions of dollars in their name while others have none. Not to mention, the middle class worker in America gets laid off either to boost cash flow for the rich business people higher up the chain, or to ship their job overseas where the labor is cheap thus presenting another issue of human rights (but this is all assuming at the moment companies DON'T screw people for profit. (Bear with me.) Our economy is based on people getting sucked into consumerism. We HAVE to buy stuff. Why is that? Because our lifes revolve around media and a lifestyle of needs, not wants and we are fed the idea of consumerism through the media and everything. If the poor keep getting poorer, and the rich get richer, then who do the companies market their products to in the hopes that hundreds of thousands of people will go out and buy their product? In addition, businesses are generally no longer a group of people trying to make a living, they are a chain store that manages millions of dollars of product and artificially controls everything. That adds into the marketing factor of demanding people buy stuff. While trying to leech every dime out of our pockets for things we "can't live without," greed takes over and we also loose protection.
Politics in our world have shifted dramatically. You need lots of cash to run for office. This is given to you by the gigantic corporations listed above. This creates special interest. (I wont even list the countless number of politicians who have ties to major criminal offenses that are being investigated or NEED to.) Our elections are bought and won by corporations. Meanwhile, Joe Consumer gets the shaft because our Foriegn Affairs Policy, our laws, and our safety are essentially bought and paid for by the companies. Take for example the mining accident that happened a few weeks ago. The governing body over mining safety was cut down to almost nothing and the companies decreased safety measures in order to ensure profit. About a dozen people lost their lives due to simple things that should have been maintained and repaired. In the same way, we get the news spoonfed to us by gigantic corporations which own all the news outlets including tv, radio and print in the country. A few companies own all of the different newspapers and tv channels we have. If you don't think our news is censored at all, you need to wake up. A company that owns a bunch of other companies including a news service, isn't going to be happy with a reporter that writes an article about corruption in that parent company.
All of this results in the decay of our gaurenteed safety standards such as some of the governing bodies of the U.S. government. The FDA and other organizations with their countless codes and requirements may seem nice, and they do some good, but a lot still slips by due to negligence or profit. We ingest so much food that isn't handed to us and ensured healthy, meanwhile alot of the supposed knowledge of that food, isn't even that extensive because it turns a profit. All of our food is processed beyond belief, with added growth hormones and antibiotics along with pesticides and many other impurities. This is due to the industrialization of our food industry, and sure it provides us with lots of milk (or what have you) but at what cost? Americans are obese, and risk many different diseases especially heart disease and cancer. Our population has gained significant height which could be linked to what we eat. Why are girls starting thier periods and developing breasts exceedingly early? So many things that aren't going right with our bodies are overlooked for the sake of higher production yields and higher profit. Not to mention our diet wastes so much energy and water. Americans eat/drink dairy products the most followed by meats, which is almost opposite what we should. The amount of energy and water we put into eating animals in excess also wastes resources that, if used correctly, could feed far more people in less energy demanding food sources. I'm not saying be a vegan, but for Christ's sake, can't we possibly consider people other then ourselves when we make decisions?
To summarize the above, our world is a consumeristic commercialized world and I dont see how we can feed off ourselves and still function.
China, with a government that has the ability to do whatever it wants (due to their totalitarian "communism") has made great progress in industrializing and will soon overtake the United States as a super power if we dont keep up with them. In addition, you have dozens of countries that all want the prosperity the United States has had, which requires industrialization and ENERGY. Meanwhile, the United States is fully relient on fossil fuels, which I predict will be our downfall to China as a super power. If China stays out of fossil fuels, we'll be stuck with the infrastructure designed for a limited and depleting resource, while they'll be quite a few steps ahead. On a tangent, why the hell are companies touting hydrogen cars? Hydrogen is a fuel carrier not a fuel source. You have to produce the large amounts of hydrogen to get it ready to go in your little hydrogen cars. This requires alot of electricity, which oh yea, still comes from our coal burning power plants etc etc. Why don't we put more effort in far more "green" energy sources? This is just another example of the media telling us what they want to say which in reality has little bearing.
All in all, we are controlled by the whims of corporations whos goal is to make as much money from us as possible. If they keep taking money, and it doesn't feed back through the economy well, then eventually the poor will be to poor to keep the rich, rich. Add on to this the fact that a majority of large corporations will swindle/steal/put innocent people at risk in order to continue making profit.
I hope everything above was semicoherent and thought out. I have so much more to say and I'm not sure how to put it all together perfectly.
In addition to the above, I dont care if you are a republican, or a democrat, the current administration governing the executive branch has committed many offenses which violate the very thing which they SWORE to protect. The most recent example of this being the NSA wiretapping. It is illegal under our RIGHTS as American CITIZENS to privacy. These are given to us in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution which our President swore to uphold. That is his job. Regardless of whether you think he did it legitimately to spy on some random terrorist the media is claiming is the new Osama Bin Laden, or you think our President perhaps isn't the most upstanding man to grace the oval office, he violated his oath and DUTY as President. If he was spying on terrorists, it was still ILLEGAL. They didn't even get the after the fact warrent which they are allowed for these special spying warrents. This, along with many other grievances, undermine the ENTIRE BASIS of the United States. The terrorists win if we remove everything everyone before us has fought to protect and defend.
A quote by Benjamin Franklin:
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.
Meanwhile, most people could give a damn that the very fabric of our country which 2000+ have died for in the Iraq war alone is being unraveled. Excuse me? How can you not care? The Constitution is what protects us and seperates us from dictatorships.
To top that off, I watch so many people go through high school and college expecting to get out of college and make enormous salaries. Sure some will but how many? There are only so many people that can make millions. Plus, the expect it to be GIVEN to them. The point of college is to learn what you need to know. I dont mean to pick on business majors, because their are plenty of good ones, but so many people slack off through college, expect the classes to be easy for them because its their right, which is ludicris, and expect to be handed an enormous salary. Partying/drinking/pot/and worse are done CONSTANTLY. I'm not against partying. Its fun. I'm not against alcohol. I'm not even against drugs but I know to many people where the entire point of college is to get through their classes which they expect to be easy for them, and then come back and end up passed out, puking, or smoking out a room till 6 am. The average American college student expects the world to be handed to him/her like its owed to them, with no effort, and somehow we can all be millionares. This ties in with the very beginning. This is one reason why our country is screwed. Look at alot of the developing countries that are catching up to us. The students from their have GOOD work ethics and actually want to work and earn their keep. People expecting to graduate with engineering degrees are going to have to wake up and realize you can't get high every night once you have the hard classes that demand every waking second for study. That or they'll just transfter to some bullshit major. Whats up with a business major anyways? You learn basic finances and business stuff. So what? You get far more from other classes plus the additional skills of whatever your major is. Someone who sells stuff takes someones work (whether it be an aggie, an engineer, or whatver) and tries to make a profit off of it. That goes back to the trouble of our economy. How can a society turning out a vast number of business majors support itself (not even factoring in the fact that everyone expects a gigantic salary too?) My goal in life is to make money? But all you are doing is leeching off the system. Why do CEO's and Presidents get paid millions of dollars while people putting the thing together get practically nothing and are often laid off? There have been business geniuses in the past, don't get me wrong and these people were able to accomplish amazing things that could land them into tidy sums of money but to have our economy based on a vast system of people whose solitary function is to make money while not really producing anything takes a toll or so I would think.
I'm running out of steam. It's late. I tried to keep that flowing and coherent but I doubt I succeeded that well. I doubt anyone will even read the whole thing. Thats about 2% of whats going through my head and all of these thoughts disgust me. I'm worried that by the time I have kids, this world isn't gonna be a place I'll wanna bring kids into. This also conflicts with my vast amounts of optimism so that creates internal conflict also. I read something somewhere, where someone predicted the cold war would start again, only instead of Russia, the U.S. will be the evil that the European Union will be fighting. The U.S. has commited so many crimes against humanity no wonder the world hates us. I hope we can somehow pull this trainwreck onto better tracks. God help us all.
Throwing a few other ideas off my chest, I have also become rather heavily conspiraciy theorist. I see things going wrong now, how corrupt people are with things, and it makes me think to prior events in history and question what really happened there too. So many things are done for the sake of power and money. Once again, God help us all. (Not to mention I have no idea what my religious beliefs are at the moment. I mean I do and don't at the same time. I'm with Corey on that.) I'd say its a mix between Christian, Agnostic, and Buddist.
OK I swear my rants done.