I'm beginning to avert my eyes...
In my recent two to three months of unemployment (they've been awesome), I've done an exceptional amount of interneting. Lately though, it's been getting hard to to keep watching the state of national/world affairs. Even fark has been lean on material to make me smile.
This supposed coming recession of the American economy, while triggered by the huge emergence and then the following huge foreclosures of the sub-prime lending trend, seems that it will be fueled by rather permanent forces in our market (looking at you globalization and fossil fuel dependence). While many of the side-effects of these forces have been very detrimental to the average American for some time, the persons actually in power and setting policy have benefited (and continue to benefit) from them. I wouldn't hold my breath for change to occur in the imminent future. However, I am no expert on these issues. I have tried to read up on it, but economics still comes off as more of a pseudo-science.
On top of economic woes there are of course the countless acts of violence worldwide. We watched CNN videos the other day about a 5 year old Iraqi boy who had come to CA for plastic surgery. His father is apparently an Iraqi police officer, and one day when the little boy was playing in the street in front of his house, two masked assailants came up, threw him on the ground, poured gasoline on his face, and lit his face on fire. He didn't even seem to be from the worst parts (poor areas?) of Iraq: his parents were saying that the other kids wouldn't play with him anymore because of how he looks now, so he spends most of his time inside playing games on the computer and looking at the internet.
The violence though, isn't limited to that which we foster, inflict, and suffer from abroad. Last week there were stories of two young college girls from Georgia, one 18 at Auburn, the other 23 and student body president of UNC, murdered (shot through the head) for mere pocket change. I guess in both of the stories of the college girls and the little boy, what is most disturbing is the level of violence inflicted upon relatively defenseless victims. I do not care when young men involved in gangs and drug deals die when these activities go badly; they put themselves in the way of violence thinking they could beat the system and deserve the fruits of their labor. Soldiers, while more noble than those involved in gangs, are still less pitiable than the girls and the child. At least soldiers have a fighting chance (they are armed and trained), and again they made a conscious decision to engage in warfare.
With all these stresses swarming the American condition at present, you would think the filtering process of the primaries would have brought forward at least a few promising Presidential candidates out of 20. However, the primaries in America seems to be as broken as every other political (perhaps even governmental) institution. Not only is there no true conservative candidate (i.e., fiscal conservative), there is not even a moderate. McCain seems to be everything that George W. has been, but perhaps worse by giving much more voice to his jingoist views. Obama has decent foreign policy, but his extreme domestic policy is such that I don't know that I can bring myself to vote for him. Hillary's foreign policy is slightly less promising than Obama's and her domestic policy is the same. At least Obama gives the impression that his presidency might be defined by a search for new, innovative ideas and insights; she just seems that she'll beat whatever dead tactic will get her the best results in the popularity polls.
On top of the seeming lack hope for the presidential election in the fall, it doesn't seem that there was ever anything to be done by the average concerned citizen to do anything to help the situation. Political activism (personal experience speaking) only serves to make those in agreement dogmatic, and those in opposition annoyed. While I do still believe in the power of the individual vote in election results; I am disillusioned in the effectiveness of our elections. Lobbyists buy off both sides of the line, and neither side is in any hurry to even examine that issue. The most effective means of making a difference (informing and modifying the views of others and yourself) seems to be through personal, interesting, open, and unemotional discussions with others. Eventually though, even these feel like rehashing the same frustrations without any progress. What is there left to do? If we did find it worth it to jump ship, where would we go? The best option seems to be Britain, but they have fewer freedoms than even the Patriot Act affords us, or California affords to neighbors of people with solar panels.
My greatest hope is that just as the economic prosperity of the late 90s didn't touch our family, none of this will either. Indeed, I'm starting my job the 31st of March, in spite of the "recession". Wish me luck!
This supposed coming recession of the American economy, while triggered by the huge emergence and then the following huge foreclosures of the sub-prime lending trend, seems that it will be fueled by rather permanent forces in our market (looking at you globalization and fossil fuel dependence). While many of the side-effects of these forces have been very detrimental to the average American for some time, the persons actually in power and setting policy have benefited (and continue to benefit) from them. I wouldn't hold my breath for change to occur in the imminent future. However, I am no expert on these issues. I have tried to read up on it, but economics still comes off as more of a pseudo-science.
On top of economic woes there are of course the countless acts of violence worldwide. We watched CNN videos the other day about a 5 year old Iraqi boy who had come to CA for plastic surgery. His father is apparently an Iraqi police officer, and one day when the little boy was playing in the street in front of his house, two masked assailants came up, threw him on the ground, poured gasoline on his face, and lit his face on fire. He didn't even seem to be from the worst parts (poor areas?) of Iraq: his parents were saying that the other kids wouldn't play with him anymore because of how he looks now, so he spends most of his time inside playing games on the computer and looking at the internet.
The violence though, isn't limited to that which we foster, inflict, and suffer from abroad. Last week there were stories of two young college girls from Georgia, one 18 at Auburn, the other 23 and student body president of UNC, murdered (shot through the head) for mere pocket change. I guess in both of the stories of the college girls and the little boy, what is most disturbing is the level of violence inflicted upon relatively defenseless victims. I do not care when young men involved in gangs and drug deals die when these activities go badly; they put themselves in the way of violence thinking they could beat the system and deserve the fruits of their labor. Soldiers, while more noble than those involved in gangs, are still less pitiable than the girls and the child. At least soldiers have a fighting chance (they are armed and trained), and again they made a conscious decision to engage in warfare.
With all these stresses swarming the American condition at present, you would think the filtering process of the primaries would have brought forward at least a few promising Presidential candidates out of 20. However, the primaries in America seems to be as broken as every other political (perhaps even governmental) institution. Not only is there no true conservative candidate (i.e., fiscal conservative), there is not even a moderate. McCain seems to be everything that George W. has been, but perhaps worse by giving much more voice to his jingoist views. Obama has decent foreign policy, but his extreme domestic policy is such that I don't know that I can bring myself to vote for him. Hillary's foreign policy is slightly less promising than Obama's and her domestic policy is the same. At least Obama gives the impression that his presidency might be defined by a search for new, innovative ideas and insights; she just seems that she'll beat whatever dead tactic will get her the best results in the popularity polls.
On top of the seeming lack hope for the presidential election in the fall, it doesn't seem that there was ever anything to be done by the average concerned citizen to do anything to help the situation. Political activism (personal experience speaking) only serves to make those in agreement dogmatic, and those in opposition annoyed. While I do still believe in the power of the individual vote in election results; I am disillusioned in the effectiveness of our elections. Lobbyists buy off both sides of the line, and neither side is in any hurry to even examine that issue. The most effective means of making a difference (informing and modifying the views of others and yourself) seems to be through personal, interesting, open, and unemotional discussions with others. Eventually though, even these feel like rehashing the same frustrations without any progress. What is there left to do? If we did find it worth it to jump ship, where would we go? The best option seems to be Britain, but they have fewer freedoms than even the Patriot Act affords us, or California affords to neighbors of people with solar panels.
My greatest hope is that just as the economic prosperity of the late 90s didn't touch our family, none of this will either. Indeed, I'm starting my job the 31st of March, in spite of the "recession". Wish me luck!