People think that being anti-gun is being, well, anti-gun. Actually it isn't, at least for me. I actually enjoy watching the occasional video of an expert marksman and, once upon a long time ago, was an enthusiastic archer. (Long ago, as in before compound bows became popular.) Once in a while I think about taking it up again, but flying / motorcycles / sailing ... another hobby is the last thing I need at the moment.
In fact my anti-gun thoughts are limited to just a few items. The first is requiring that people who own guns receive some basic training. Let the NRA set up the training and certification process, much like the Experimental Aircraft Association has be asked to set up the training and review process for those who want to do low level acrobatics in airshows. The Federal Aviation Administration has oversight, but the EAA has the experts and the whole thing actually works pretty well. (I worked in the airshow industry and had a low level waiver for acro ... and though not really a fan of the EAA the process was pretty well administered.) Anyone who has been in the military would be assumed to have the training as well.
The other thoughts focus on the actual equipment. Possessing a fully automatic weapon should be a serious felony, conviction should carry a mandatory 5 year prison sentence. Any semi-automatic weapon should be limited to a carrying capacity of 6 shots. (Yes, a completely arbitrary number admittedly based on the old 6-shooter of by-gone days.) So that is it. Require some basic training for gun owners. Let the NRA hold onto the training records, not the government (to keep the "black helicopter" set from wetting their pants). Limit the mass murdering capacity of the weapons allowed out in public. That doesn't seem that is too much to ask from a first world democracy.
My being anti-gun is more about being anti-violence, about opposing the idea that someone has the "right" to threaten other people with death. The celebration of violence, one might even say the worshiping of it in our society, is the true problem. Our love of high capacity killing machines is just one tenet in the religion of force.
Other tenets of that religion taint our democracy in many ways. We have a "winner take all" mentality which allows a political party to proclaim a "mandate" with a 50.6 to 47.8 percent victory. (Not sure how, but the 47.8 % side is claiming a "mandate" as well.) A bare majority will impose its will on a slight minority in all things and in all ways. Which seems a exercise in force to me. (And one of the real potential problems with democracy that vexed the founders of our experiment - and hasn't been resolved yet.)
Without the American love of war, force, and violence it would be impossible to envision our expanding an out-of-control and bloated military budget even more, even at the expense of caring for our parents and children and maintaining our own infrastructure. Yet both political parties are working desperately to protect the military from the cuts that driving "off the cliff" would required. It would be impossible to envision our approving a drone war, blowing up houses and cars from afar without really knowing (or caring) who is inside and what they are doing. Indeed, just the idea of airborne automated killing machines should chill the soul of any thinking, caring human being. The USA has the most nukes, the only aircraft carriers that matter, overwhelming numbers of "Boomers", and control the world trade in weapons. (The next time the Middle East goes to war it is likely both sides will be flying US made F-18s.)
One of our national past times is football; large men literally (as we are discovering) beating each other's brains out. Another is NASCAR; a racing series deliberately manipulated to ensure several massive, high speed wrecks per season. And then there are video games ...
It doesn't seem much of a stretch to see our love of violence as a love of hate. The love of hate is at the very core of our decline as a culture. It has poisoned our politics, gutted our budget, and eroded our morality past the point of no return.
Anti-gun, anti-military adventurism, anti-military spending excess, anti-drone war, anti-war in general, anti-nuke; it is all wrapped up together. Toss in a lack of enthusiasm for the NFL and NASCAR, and the unlimited violence of video games aimed at young people. Wrap it all together and what you get is a position is that is pro-human, pro-freedom, pro-responsibility. It is a position that suspects that the concentration of power in any form always ends up doing evil. Guns, the military, violence, it is all the worship of power, of the concentration of power that can overwhelm the liberties of another.
No person should coerce another in any way, for any reason.
No one should profit off the effort of another.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Falling Generals
The latest scandal occupying the talking heads of the land involves a General (or two), a mistress (or two?) secret documents and hacked email accounts. Somehow it seems like I am the only one who; 1) isn't really surprised that one of the most powerful men in the world had a mistress, and 2) wonders why this is seen as such a huge moral failing.
If I recall recent history General Petraeus was up to his ribbons in the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Wars started on false pretenses and flawed (or fabricated) "intelligence". Wars that were launched without any clear objective or exit strategy. Wars that have resulted in uncounted hundreds of thousands of casualties, cost uncountable trillions of dollars, and that will end badly with the US claiming victory for establishing failed states dedicated to serving Allah, oppressing women, and exporting religious extremism and violence around the world. Any true rendering of history will surly count the good General, along with many others in both the Bush and Obama administrations, as murderously incompetent at best; war criminals at worst.
Having a mistress would seem to be a comparatively minor offence.
It would be nice to think that the shine falling off the stars of a few high profile General Officers would tarnish the D.O.D. in general. There is no more bloated, wasteful, black-hole of mis-information den of corruption entity anywhere on the planet than the US weapons manufacturing and deployment enterprises. A few of the utterly failed programs that come to mind are the B-1 and B-2 bombers, the F-22 and F-35 fighters, the V-22 Osprey (an accident looking for a job to fail at) and the C-130J. Equally questionable are more Aircraft Carrier battle groups and submarines.
Whoever it is that is driving the US economy "off the cliff" you can be sure he is wearing a military uniform.
Someday, of course, this is all going to come crashing down in a giant landslide of abuse, fraud, stolen money, illegal contracts, bribery ... maybe falling generals are the first pebbles sliding down the hill? When it does happen both of the current political parties will be swept away as well.
If I recall recent history General Petraeus was up to his ribbons in the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Wars started on false pretenses and flawed (or fabricated) "intelligence". Wars that were launched without any clear objective or exit strategy. Wars that have resulted in uncounted hundreds of thousands of casualties, cost uncountable trillions of dollars, and that will end badly with the US claiming victory for establishing failed states dedicated to serving Allah, oppressing women, and exporting religious extremism and violence around the world. Any true rendering of history will surly count the good General, along with many others in both the Bush and Obama administrations, as murderously incompetent at best; war criminals at worst.
Having a mistress would seem to be a comparatively minor offence.
It would be nice to think that the shine falling off the stars of a few high profile General Officers would tarnish the D.O.D. in general. There is no more bloated, wasteful, black-hole of mis-information den of corruption entity anywhere on the planet than the US weapons manufacturing and deployment enterprises. A few of the utterly failed programs that come to mind are the B-1 and B-2 bombers, the F-22 and F-35 fighters, the V-22 Osprey (an accident looking for a job to fail at) and the C-130J. Equally questionable are more Aircraft Carrier battle groups and submarines.
Whoever it is that is driving the US economy "off the cliff" you can be sure he is wearing a military uniform.
Someday, of course, this is all going to come crashing down in a giant landslide of abuse, fraud, stolen money, illegal contracts, bribery ... maybe falling generals are the first pebbles sliding down the hill? When it does happen both of the current political parties will be swept away as well.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Gun control...
Don't worry my right winger friends, even though your "side" lost rather badly last election, no one is going to take your guns away. If you have been sleeping with them under you pillow, ready to defend your right to the death, (that whole "take it out of my cold, dead fingers" thing) from the hoards of liberals that are about to break down your door, teach evolution to your kids, make sure you health care provider doens't drop you for no reason, and confiscate your tools of mass murder, relax. At the very least you can unload your guns and lock them up in your gun cabinet safe from the kids. (You do have a locking gun cabinet, right?)
The Democrats folded on gun control a long time ago. Even when one of their own was shot in the head along with 15 others (six dead) by a mentally ill man wielding a 9mm Glock semi-auto pistol with a 33 shot magazine, there was no serious talk of gun control. But it bears repeating, by a mentally ill man wielding a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol with a 33 shot magazine. A man who had be rejecting by the Army, had dropped out of collage rather than face a mentally health review, and all but posted what he was about to do on Facebook.
Though most of my fellow citizens seem to disagree (why I am way, way off the reservation) it seems to me that:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state..."
is the exact opposite of,
"A citizenry at constant threat from mad men who have access to unregulated, high capacity weapons of mass murder".
Free to be murdered is a definition of freedom for crazy people.
There is zero chance of it happening, but if the people of the United States, by what ever means, reinterpreted the 2ed Amendment of the Constitution as meaning, "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state..." and started passing laws that kept high capacity killing machines out of the hands of crazy people, we would not be abandoning the Constitution.
We would be returning to it.
The NRA, and the people who support it, are the ones undermining the security of a free state.
But then, a free and secure state is the last thing the Powers-That-Be want. A free and secure state does not need nor want those who rule by fear and hate.
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I've been wrestling with another thought about guns...particularly the high performance killing machines of assault rifles and semi-auto handguns with high capacity magazines; machines built explicitly to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. It is an offensive thought, or at least it occurs to me couched in offensive imagery, but that's the way it is ... so here goes.
Imagine a person who has kiddie porn on his computer. This person has actually never touched a child in an inappropriate matter, let alone raped or abused anyone. Imagine even further that the images he possesses are not even pictures of real children, but caricatures or cartoons. Just the idea gives most people a case of the shudders, and according to
18 U.S.C. § 1466A (2008) § 1466A / OBSCENE VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN
such a person is, in fact, a criminal. (I'm not sure I quite understand (b)(2)(B) - something about artistic or literary value - but (b)(2)(B)(c) is pretty clear.)
Again, this is a person who has never actually hurt anyone, but he is absolutely a criminal and (I think most people would agree) an ugly excuse for a human being. He is an ugly excuse for a human being because he imagines such a thing, but he is a criminal because he has in his possession an item that enhances his imaginings. Is it much of a reach to think that having the item is a step toward acting out on his imaginings? From the thought to actually doing the thing (in this case accumulating illegal images) is the step from being ugly to being a criminal.
I am sure you have guessed where I am going with this, so I'll give you a moment to get there before me ...
What is the moral difference between someone caressing his AK47 and shredding pictures of human targets with a hail of high velocity bullets, and another gazing at kiddie cartoon porn while stroking his pecker? Are not the fantasies of both equally offensive? And if not, shouldn't they be? Tell me both are not caressing evil.
I admit that the target pictures are usually caricatures of cartoon bad guys pointing big, bad guns at the shooter. But those are no less fantasies than the porn guy thinking that the children in his mind are being treated gently, and with love. When the porn guy acts on his delusions the children are not being loved. And when the gun guy acts on his the targets are not bad guys with guns but a theater full of movie fans or people at a political rally. (And the dead and wounded usually include children.)
Maybe the NRA is more porn empire than it is terrorist organization. That would certainly explain its popularity.
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I understand that assault weapons grew out of a military need to kill as many enemy solders as possible, as quickly as possible. That has no bearing on gun control. Besides, war may be an evil that human kind seems unable to outgrow (which would make it likely that our species is going to have a very limited run in the cosmos), but it is evil nonetheless. Flooding a society with the tools of that evil isn't doing us much good.
My version of gun control has nothing to do with hand guns holding 9 bullets (though that seems rather excessive as well). It has nothing to do with hunters having shotguns or scooped rifles to pop deer and rabbits. (Even though both have been used in domestic terrorism.) Most of the gun folks I know seem to live in constant fear of "home invasion", it being their primary defense for having such weapons. (A few of the real bonkers are pretty sure the civil war will start in a week or so - and want to be ready to take a side. It is a pretty good question as to them being on the same side as democracy, freedom, civil liberty, and a first world society, but that is a different issue.) Yet living in constant fear of a home invasions seems about as logical as thinking you are going to will the multi-million dollar lottery some day. You might, but the odds are vanishingly small.
An aside: I have had a house burglarize once (while we were sleeping in the next room). My garage has been robbed a couple of times. I have never been the victim of a "home invasion". And though I was hugely pissed at the time, those who stole my friend's stereo system or the stuff from my garage didn't do anything that deserved the death penalty. Had I opened fire with an assault weapon it is likely that anyone in the next room, or next house for that matter, would be in at least as much risk as the bad guys. And before you drag out that old, "hitting what you aim at is gun control" bullshit, military folks practice all the time and often miss, cops practice and miss as well (ask New Yorker about that one). Sharp shooters miss all the time - I've seen Top Shot. Not much chance you are going to be dead-eyed Dick rubbing the sleep out of your eyes in the middle of the night. At least with a shot gun or hand gun that has just a few bullets in it, the only people at risk are the bad guys and your family, not so much your neighbors or the paperboy outside.
Still, no one is coming to take your guns away. Human kind isn't that smart generally, and the US of A is not that advanced a culture. Maybe though, you would consider just getting rid of yours for moral and logical reasons? Loving and owning assault weapons would seem to put you in the wrong camp on both counts ...
... just saying.
The Democrats folded on gun control a long time ago. Even when one of their own was shot in the head along with 15 others (six dead) by a mentally ill man wielding a 9mm Glock semi-auto pistol with a 33 shot magazine, there was no serious talk of gun control. But it bears repeating, by a mentally ill man wielding a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol with a 33 shot magazine. A man who had be rejecting by the Army, had dropped out of collage rather than face a mentally health review, and all but posted what he was about to do on Facebook.
Though most of my fellow citizens seem to disagree (why I am way, way off the reservation) it seems to me that:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state..."
is the exact opposite of,
"A citizenry at constant threat from mad men who have access to unregulated, high capacity weapons of mass murder".
Free to be murdered is a definition of freedom for crazy people.
There is zero chance of it happening, but if the people of the United States, by what ever means, reinterpreted the 2ed Amendment of the Constitution as meaning, "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state..." and started passing laws that kept high capacity killing machines out of the hands of crazy people, we would not be abandoning the Constitution.
We would be returning to it.
The NRA, and the people who support it, are the ones undermining the security of a free state.
But then, a free and secure state is the last thing the Powers-That-Be want. A free and secure state does not need nor want those who rule by fear and hate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've been wrestling with another thought about guns...particularly the high performance killing machines of assault rifles and semi-auto handguns with high capacity magazines; machines built explicitly to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. It is an offensive thought, or at least it occurs to me couched in offensive imagery, but that's the way it is ... so here goes.
Imagine a person who has kiddie porn on his computer. This person has actually never touched a child in an inappropriate matter, let alone raped or abused anyone. Imagine even further that the images he possesses are not even pictures of real children, but caricatures or cartoons. Just the idea gives most people a case of the shudders, and according to
18 U.S.C. § 1466A (2008) § 1466A / OBSCENE VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN
such a person is, in fact, a criminal. (I'm not sure I quite understand (b)(2)(B) - something about artistic or literary value - but (b)(2)(B)(c) is pretty clear.)
Again, this is a person who has never actually hurt anyone, but he is absolutely a criminal and (I think most people would agree) an ugly excuse for a human being. He is an ugly excuse for a human being because he imagines such a thing, but he is a criminal because he has in his possession an item that enhances his imaginings. Is it much of a reach to think that having the item is a step toward acting out on his imaginings? From the thought to actually doing the thing (in this case accumulating illegal images) is the step from being ugly to being a criminal.
I am sure you have guessed where I am going with this, so I'll give you a moment to get there before me ...
What is the moral difference between someone caressing his AK47 and shredding pictures of human targets with a hail of high velocity bullets, and another gazing at kiddie cartoon porn while stroking his pecker? Are not the fantasies of both equally offensive? And if not, shouldn't they be? Tell me both are not caressing evil.
I admit that the target pictures are usually caricatures of cartoon bad guys pointing big, bad guns at the shooter. But those are no less fantasies than the porn guy thinking that the children in his mind are being treated gently, and with love. When the porn guy acts on his delusions the children are not being loved. And when the gun guy acts on his the targets are not bad guys with guns but a theater full of movie fans or people at a political rally. (And the dead and wounded usually include children.)
Maybe the NRA is more porn empire than it is terrorist organization. That would certainly explain its popularity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I understand that assault weapons grew out of a military need to kill as many enemy solders as possible, as quickly as possible. That has no bearing on gun control. Besides, war may be an evil that human kind seems unable to outgrow (which would make it likely that our species is going to have a very limited run in the cosmos), but it is evil nonetheless. Flooding a society with the tools of that evil isn't doing us much good.
My version of gun control has nothing to do with hand guns holding 9 bullets (though that seems rather excessive as well). It has nothing to do with hunters having shotguns or scooped rifles to pop deer and rabbits. (Even though both have been used in domestic terrorism.) Most of the gun folks I know seem to live in constant fear of "home invasion", it being their primary defense for having such weapons. (A few of the real bonkers are pretty sure the civil war will start in a week or so - and want to be ready to take a side. It is a pretty good question as to them being on the same side as democracy, freedom, civil liberty, and a first world society, but that is a different issue.) Yet living in constant fear of a home invasions seems about as logical as thinking you are going to will the multi-million dollar lottery some day. You might, but the odds are vanishingly small.
An aside: I have had a house burglarize once (while we were sleeping in the next room). My garage has been robbed a couple of times. I have never been the victim of a "home invasion". And though I was hugely pissed at the time, those who stole my friend's stereo system or the stuff from my garage didn't do anything that deserved the death penalty. Had I opened fire with an assault weapon it is likely that anyone in the next room, or next house for that matter, would be in at least as much risk as the bad guys. And before you drag out that old, "hitting what you aim at is gun control" bullshit, military folks practice all the time and often miss, cops practice and miss as well (ask New Yorker about that one). Sharp shooters miss all the time - I've seen Top Shot. Not much chance you are going to be dead-eyed Dick rubbing the sleep out of your eyes in the middle of the night. At least with a shot gun or hand gun that has just a few bullets in it, the only people at risk are the bad guys and your family, not so much your neighbors or the paperboy outside.
Still, no one is coming to take your guns away. Human kind isn't that smart generally, and the US of A is not that advanced a culture. Maybe though, you would consider just getting rid of yours for moral and logical reasons? Loving and owning assault weapons would seem to put you in the wrong camp on both counts ...
... just saying.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Sometimes its good to be wrong...
... not so much about the Presidential election. When it comes to the White House and the House of Representatives the situation on Wednesday (Nov 7) is pretty much identical to what it was on Monday (Nov 5). The Senate is not exactly the same ... 20 women are now sit in the Senate of the United States of America. That is 40%! Women actually said, "Enough!" and delt a major blow to the Republican assertion that they are not equal partners in life and in our society. It will be fun to watch what else they might do. For example, the Senate swings a pretty big stick when it comes to where America sends its foreign aid money. What happens the next time a Muslim nation stands in front of Senate with one hand out for millions of dollars while the other holds a knife used for "honor killings"? Will at least 20 Senators tell them to fuck off until they pull their society's head of a backward religion's ass? (Using more diplomatic and lady-like language, of course.)
The abortion fight will go on, but at least women will now have a major voice on how that battle is defined and joined. It is hard to imagine the next Supreme Court judge is going to be some angry old white guy who promises to walk back a woman's civil rights back into the 1940s.
Maryland, Washington and Maine voted, (Voted!) to allow gay marriage. So much for the conservative insistence that civil rights for gays is being forced on a Christian American by activist, secular, out-of-touch judges. Those three states join Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Washington D.C., and Iowa. (Odd that CA isn't in that list, but my guess is a lot of states will be joining soon.) Hopefully the Religious Right claim that god will punish our society for actually showing compassion and acting humane, will finally die away. It is probably too much to hope that the Religious Right will die away, but, at least in the short term, fewer people will be listening to them. In any case, if someone were to claim that the people of the US finally settled the gay rights issue and landed on the right side of history, it would be hard to dismiss them out of hand.
In Colorado and Washington Americans voted to legalize marijuana use. Could this be the beginning of the end of the "War on Drugs"? That is probably too optimistic a view, but it was a clear slap in the face of the Religious Right / Republican / T-party. Even better, it was a slap in the face of the drug war policies of the Obama White House. On the evidence of the ballot one might conclude that a small majority of the people in the US are actually much more liberal than is Obama. America may not be the "center right" country that some people think.
These are all rays of sunlight, but dawn has not broken yet. There is no simple fix for the fiscal disaster that is the result of US policies. We are still a war economy. We are still at war and war still looms as the likely choice when it comes to Iran. The war on drugs is a failure but continues. The war on poverty is a failure but continues. The culture war will be dampened a bit, for a while. But those who think they talk to god and know what he/she/it/them demands of the rest of us are not going to go away. Our government does not work very well and is still dominated by by money and power while ignoring and abusing those who actually create the wealth in this country. (Those who labor 40 or 50 or 60 hours a week don't get to keep much of the wealth they create, but they are the real "makers" of our society.) It is hard to image a tax code worse than the one we have. Will it get fixed now? As long as money and power write it? Not likely.
Most of us still suffer from the illusion that infinite exponential growth is a valid economic model. Most of us still believe in some version of trickle down economics and the capitalism of Wall Street. Most of us still think that the rest of world doens't mind being under the constant threat of the American military machine.
And we are still a country that hates itself. A bare half of the voting public celebrated the Democratic win. The other half are discouraged, depressed, and some sound like they have suffered a psychotic break of some kind. I actually listed to a couple of hours of right wing radio during a long drive the day after the election. I want to be careful not to paint with too broad a brush, but these folks clearly are bat-shit crazy. (At least the ones on that particular FM station broadcasting into the mountains of WV on Wednesday night last.)
To some degree I have to emphisize with the dispirited right. After all, George Bush the Lesser won, and then won again. I remember thinking that the USA might have finally bit the big one and I would not have been surprised at riots, violence, and a dramatic collapes echoing that of the old Soviet Union. Yet somehow the country muddled through. Badly damaged we were (and still are), sucked into a disasterous war we were (and still are), plauged by an out of control Wall Street and burried in a depression built on fraud and pure theft we were (and still are); but we muddled through. I suspect the damage is cumulative and eventually (hopefully soon) the country will experience a major break with the politics of the past and strike out on a new path. (Hopefully without the riots, violence and dramatic collapes of the old Soviet Union) If (when) that happens the ideas of Republicans and Democrats, the fasinantion with the trany of the bare majority (otherwise known as democracy) and the oppression of wealth (otherwise known as capitalism) will all be descarded. But until that happpes I hope my right wing friends will at least consider that Obama can't be any worse than Bush. They need not despair. And they need not hate the half of us that disagreed and voted for the other guy.
After all, both Bush and Obama work(ed) for the same team.
The abortion fight will go on, but at least women will now have a major voice on how that battle is defined and joined. It is hard to imagine the next Supreme Court judge is going to be some angry old white guy who promises to walk back a woman's civil rights back into the 1940s.
Maryland, Washington and Maine voted, (Voted!) to allow gay marriage. So much for the conservative insistence that civil rights for gays is being forced on a Christian American by activist, secular, out-of-touch judges. Those three states join Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Washington D.C., and Iowa. (Odd that CA isn't in that list, but my guess is a lot of states will be joining soon.) Hopefully the Religious Right claim that god will punish our society for actually showing compassion and acting humane, will finally die away. It is probably too much to hope that the Religious Right will die away, but, at least in the short term, fewer people will be listening to them. In any case, if someone were to claim that the people of the US finally settled the gay rights issue and landed on the right side of history, it would be hard to dismiss them out of hand.
In Colorado and Washington Americans voted to legalize marijuana use. Could this be the beginning of the end of the "War on Drugs"? That is probably too optimistic a view, but it was a clear slap in the face of the Religious Right / Republican / T-party. Even better, it was a slap in the face of the drug war policies of the Obama White House. On the evidence of the ballot one might conclude that a small majority of the people in the US are actually much more liberal than is Obama. America may not be the "center right" country that some people think.
These are all rays of sunlight, but dawn has not broken yet. There is no simple fix for the fiscal disaster that is the result of US policies. We are still a war economy. We are still at war and war still looms as the likely choice when it comes to Iran. The war on drugs is a failure but continues. The war on poverty is a failure but continues. The culture war will be dampened a bit, for a while. But those who think they talk to god and know what he/she/it/them demands of the rest of us are not going to go away. Our government does not work very well and is still dominated by by money and power while ignoring and abusing those who actually create the wealth in this country. (Those who labor 40 or 50 or 60 hours a week don't get to keep much of the wealth they create, but they are the real "makers" of our society.) It is hard to image a tax code worse than the one we have. Will it get fixed now? As long as money and power write it? Not likely.
Most of us still suffer from the illusion that infinite exponential growth is a valid economic model. Most of us still believe in some version of trickle down economics and the capitalism of Wall Street. Most of us still think that the rest of world doens't mind being under the constant threat of the American military machine.
And we are still a country that hates itself. A bare half of the voting public celebrated the Democratic win. The other half are discouraged, depressed, and some sound like they have suffered a psychotic break of some kind. I actually listed to a couple of hours of right wing radio during a long drive the day after the election. I want to be careful not to paint with too broad a brush, but these folks clearly are bat-shit crazy. (At least the ones on that particular FM station broadcasting into the mountains of WV on Wednesday night last.)
To some degree I have to emphisize with the dispirited right. After all, George Bush the Lesser won, and then won again. I remember thinking that the USA might have finally bit the big one and I would not have been surprised at riots, violence, and a dramatic collapes echoing that of the old Soviet Union. Yet somehow the country muddled through. Badly damaged we were (and still are), sucked into a disasterous war we were (and still are), plauged by an out of control Wall Street and burried in a depression built on fraud and pure theft we were (and still are); but we muddled through. I suspect the damage is cumulative and eventually (hopefully soon) the country will experience a major break with the politics of the past and strike out on a new path. (Hopefully without the riots, violence and dramatic collapes of the old Soviet Union) If (when) that happens the ideas of Republicans and Democrats, the fasinantion with the trany of the bare majority (otherwise known as democracy) and the oppression of wealth (otherwise known as capitalism) will all be descarded. But until that happpes I hope my right wing friends will at least consider that Obama can't be any worse than Bush. They need not despair. And they need not hate the half of us that disagreed and voted for the other guy.
After all, both Bush and Obama work(ed) for the same team.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Eve of Election...
It is the eve of election, finally. More than anything else I will just be glad that it is over ... and I don't watch TV. Those who do must have endured an onslaught of ugly these past few months, an onslaught that darkened their eyes and turned their stomachs. In any case I am going to take a bit of encouragement from one simple fact, no matter who wins in a few hours not much will change.
If Obama wins he will be facing a Congress even more hostile than that of the last two years. Republicans have spewed way to much bile to act any other way. Those who hold their seats in the House, (and my guess is they will still be a majority) got elected for one purpose only, to try and make sure Obama fails. Nothing will get past the House that Obama wants. It is hard to imagine that anything that gets through the House will be signed by Obama. He is in his second term. Vetoing nearly everything a lunatic House comes up with may be the best thing he could do for his place in history. After all, there is no institution on the planet more reviled than the US House of Representatives. No one in the country thinks these people are worth a shit. Obama could be ranked as one of the best Presidents in history by simply stating the obvious, "The House is broken, anything they do is going to be fucked up, so I'll protect the us from them with my veto pen." In doing so he would come closer to telling the truth than he has since the day he took office.
It is true that an Obama second term may have its biggest impact on the Supreme Court, and that is a reason for a little optimism. But just a little. Not even a moderate candidate will get by the Senate, even if the Democrats hold a small majority. The best we can hope for are judges that lean just a little to the right while avoiding the truly bat-shit crazy.
If Romney wins he will be facing a Senate that hates him even more than the current House hates Obama. Four years of Republicans doing all they can to make sure Obama failed? A Democratic Senate will flat butcher anything that Romney tries to do. (Except fight wars and give Wall Street a break - but the Democrats did that under Bush and Obama so that will be business as usual.) It is true that Mitt will try and get the bat-shit crazy on the SCOTUS; but political reality will force him to go with the right leaning as well. (Not that it would be possible to have a Court more corrupt than it already is. It really can't get any worse than betraying the Constitution and selling our elections to the highest bidder.)
At the very worst the Republicans take the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Though a lot of people are going to get hurt if that happens, the world will not end. No matter what Romney and the bat-shit crazy T-party promise, they can't make magic. They cannot cut taxes, increase military spending, start a war with Iran, and then cut domestic spending anywhere near enough to not explode the deficit. Their god Reagan couldn't pull it off. Bush the First couldn't do it and Bush the Lesser couldn't do it even worse. Clinton did build up a surplus, but a huge cut in defense spending made it possible. (Something neither Obama or Romney would consider even in their wildest dreams.)
Roads and bridges need rebuilt, waterways and power grids... Public education will surly take a beating, but it isn't going away. People will not long tolerate air they can't breathe, water they can't drink, or drugs and consumer products that kill them and their children. It will not matter what Republicans think about the US Department of Education, the EPA, or the FDA. Oil will get scarce and ever more pricey. Republican mutterings will not put more of it in the ground - or make it any easier to extract. Global warming will continue regardless of what those who hate science claim. After all, the world was a globe and orbiting the sun even as the Pope declared that god had told him the earth was the center of the universe. With Mitt in the White House and the Republicans controlling the Hill, the people of the USA might even be forced to concede that the cosmos doesn't care in the least what someone "believes"; and that science is usually right while religion usually wrong.
Republican or Democrat, White House, House or Senate, in any of the possible combinations, will face the same basic math. They will still love war. Any of them will have to answer to those who paid for the propaganda, and not the voters. And none of them give a shit about anything but staying in power and increasing their personal wealth.
In our hearts most of us know this regardless of who we plan to vote for. Everyone I know who will vote for Obama thinks of it as voting for the lesser of two evils. Everyone I know who will vote for Romney thinks the exact same thing. Virtually all of us, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Off the Reservation, all of us are voting for what we think will be the lesser of two evils. Which means we are all voting for evil. That doesn't say much for the future of this society.
So tomorrow's election will be much, much ado about very damned little. At the moment the USA is on the wrong side of history. Not matter who wins the decline continues until the people of the USA shake off the self-hatred that as been bread into our politics by the scorched earth tactics of the disciples of Lee Atwater. (Look him up ...)
If Obama wins he will be facing a Congress even more hostile than that of the last two years. Republicans have spewed way to much bile to act any other way. Those who hold their seats in the House, (and my guess is they will still be a majority) got elected for one purpose only, to try and make sure Obama fails. Nothing will get past the House that Obama wants. It is hard to imagine that anything that gets through the House will be signed by Obama. He is in his second term. Vetoing nearly everything a lunatic House comes up with may be the best thing he could do for his place in history. After all, there is no institution on the planet more reviled than the US House of Representatives. No one in the country thinks these people are worth a shit. Obama could be ranked as one of the best Presidents in history by simply stating the obvious, "The House is broken, anything they do is going to be fucked up, so I'll protect the us from them with my veto pen." In doing so he would come closer to telling the truth than he has since the day he took office.
It is true that an Obama second term may have its biggest impact on the Supreme Court, and that is a reason for a little optimism. But just a little. Not even a moderate candidate will get by the Senate, even if the Democrats hold a small majority. The best we can hope for are judges that lean just a little to the right while avoiding the truly bat-shit crazy.
If Romney wins he will be facing a Senate that hates him even more than the current House hates Obama. Four years of Republicans doing all they can to make sure Obama failed? A Democratic Senate will flat butcher anything that Romney tries to do. (Except fight wars and give Wall Street a break - but the Democrats did that under Bush and Obama so that will be business as usual.) It is true that Mitt will try and get the bat-shit crazy on the SCOTUS; but political reality will force him to go with the right leaning as well. (Not that it would be possible to have a Court more corrupt than it already is. It really can't get any worse than betraying the Constitution and selling our elections to the highest bidder.)
At the very worst the Republicans take the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Though a lot of people are going to get hurt if that happens, the world will not end. No matter what Romney and the bat-shit crazy T-party promise, they can't make magic. They cannot cut taxes, increase military spending, start a war with Iran, and then cut domestic spending anywhere near enough to not explode the deficit. Their god Reagan couldn't pull it off. Bush the First couldn't do it and Bush the Lesser couldn't do it even worse. Clinton did build up a surplus, but a huge cut in defense spending made it possible. (Something neither Obama or Romney would consider even in their wildest dreams.)
Roads and bridges need rebuilt, waterways and power grids... Public education will surly take a beating, but it isn't going away. People will not long tolerate air they can't breathe, water they can't drink, or drugs and consumer products that kill them and their children. It will not matter what Republicans think about the US Department of Education, the EPA, or the FDA. Oil will get scarce and ever more pricey. Republican mutterings will not put more of it in the ground - or make it any easier to extract. Global warming will continue regardless of what those who hate science claim. After all, the world was a globe and orbiting the sun even as the Pope declared that god had told him the earth was the center of the universe. With Mitt in the White House and the Republicans controlling the Hill, the people of the USA might even be forced to concede that the cosmos doesn't care in the least what someone "believes"; and that science is usually right while religion usually wrong.
Republican or Democrat, White House, House or Senate, in any of the possible combinations, will face the same basic math. They will still love war. Any of them will have to answer to those who paid for the propaganda, and not the voters. And none of them give a shit about anything but staying in power and increasing their personal wealth.
In our hearts most of us know this regardless of who we plan to vote for. Everyone I know who will vote for Obama thinks of it as voting for the lesser of two evils. Everyone I know who will vote for Romney thinks the exact same thing. Virtually all of us, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Off the Reservation, all of us are voting for what we think will be the lesser of two evils. Which means we are all voting for evil. That doesn't say much for the future of this society.
So tomorrow's election will be much, much ado about very damned little. At the moment the USA is on the wrong side of history. Not matter who wins the decline continues until the people of the USA shake off the self-hatred that as been bread into our politics by the scorched earth tactics of the disciples of Lee Atwater. (Look him up ...)
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Glass half full ...
I have a friend who looks a the world very much like I do, but I find him hard to take for more than a few minutes at a time. The reason is simple, he is relentlessly, endlessly, negative about everything. Talking with him just makes a person tired. Indeed, I often find myself taking an optimistic view of something just to fend him off a little.
I think it is a tactic I should use on myself. It is far too easy to be pessimistic.
Human kind really is backing itself into a corner and it appears that evil is on the rise everywhere. Religious fundamentalism has hijacked the hopes of more than one country in the last decade, and is going a long way to derailing the US of A. War is the norm, civil rights are in retreat, and most of us work harder and harder every year and have less and less to show for it. It seems that even Mother Earth is a bit tired of us as the environment shifts dramatically, leading to ever more calamitous events reeking havoc on our modern societies. I am tired of the relentlessly bad news even as I know there is more in store.
Human trends work on scales that are usually much longer than individual life spans, making it hard to find optimism if one's personal life happens to get tangled up with a bad stretch of history. Imagine those who lived in Europe starting early in the 1900s ... WWI, WWII, the cold war ... 1919 to 1989 ... 70 years of trying to find good news. Imagine living in China pretty much during any time since 1911 on to today ... war lords, civil war, the war with Japan, the Cultural revolution ... ugly. But all are temporary upheavals even in the short span of human civilizations (as compared to that of the cosmos). Things have been much better in the US of A since 1900 or so, as long as one was white, male, and Protestant.
Happily the Protestant thing is a dying requirement. Though the Republican Presidential ticket is, in my eyes, one scheming Capitalist hypocrite and his faithful, bat-shit crazy T-party side kick, it is interesting that neither one is Protestant. In fact, in what I can take as a glass-half-full kind of thing, the only Protestant in the mix is Obama, and American Protestantism has renounced him with a level of hatred that is near astonishing, backing the Mormon and the Catholic instead. Should the Mitt and Paul show move into the White House, the Protestants are not likely to find much of a sympathetic ear to demands particular to their religion. (It is hard to imagine the Mormon and the Catholic being very sympathetic to young earth creationism, and hopefully, to the idea that all science is evil.) Should Obama stay for another 4 years, the Protestants will be even further removed from political power. This is all glass-is-half-full stuff.
The "male" thing might be fading a bit as well. Though women are not doing themselves any favor by sticking to religion or the Republican party, not all women are voting against their own best interests. It looks likely that the most outspoken of the anti-women jack asses running for the Senate are going to get their heads handed to them come election day. And it may well be that a Mitt and Co. loss could be attributed to the women they have managed to alienate. In any case women as a whole are not likely to allow themselves to be dragged back into the 1930s. They are too well educated and too entrenched in positions of power. The conservative / religious re-oppression of women is going to be a short lived phenomena. (Something the Muslims will be facing before another generation goes by as well.)
And then there is the "white" thing. Sad fact for the white racists and elitists among us ... we will not be the majority much longer. The Republican party's efforts to disenfranchise non-white voters is all the proof anyone needs that they see the future coming, and realize it doesn't belong to them. Plus, well, the fact of the matter is the guy in the White House for the last 4 years has not been White. Even if he loses next week the color barrier in the West Wing is broken.
So, glass-half-full? All the longer term trends seem to favor a better future. Climate change and global warming is going to kick our ass, no question. But that may well lead to a whole new view of the need for conservation and alternative energy. It will be a change in perspective that falls directly on the middle class of the first world, who have the resources to change lifestyles, live in smaller and more energy efficient homes, support public transportation, drive more fuel efficient (and eventually electric) vehicles. (When a major US business magazine has on it's cover, "It's Global Warming, Stupid; one can hear the sound of heads being pulled out of asses all over the nation.)
The continuing collapse of robber baron capitalism coupled with unrestrained consumerism is also promising. People will find a way to eat, to put a roof over their head, to stay warm. Whole new economic ideas will be invented, tried, and modified. China and South America are on the leading edge of blending old ideas into new economic systems. In Europe and the USA underground and off-the-grid economics are popping up and taking hold as people, unable to remove their Capitalist Masters at the voting booth, simply find ways to work around them. Unpresidented global communications and social networks moving at the speed of light will open up avenues never before imagined in human history. Societies hoplessly wedded to the whims of the Capitalists and cosumerism are already on the wrong side of history and will simply not endure much longer.
The world is struggling right now, but when you think about all the changes that are in the works, how could it be any other way? Old power structures will not give way easily, new ways of thinking always cause chaos at first. Things are looking grim, but they are also looking up.
I like this glass-half-full view.
I think it is a tactic I should use on myself. It is far too easy to be pessimistic.
Human kind really is backing itself into a corner and it appears that evil is on the rise everywhere. Religious fundamentalism has hijacked the hopes of more than one country in the last decade, and is going a long way to derailing the US of A. War is the norm, civil rights are in retreat, and most of us work harder and harder every year and have less and less to show for it. It seems that even Mother Earth is a bit tired of us as the environment shifts dramatically, leading to ever more calamitous events reeking havoc on our modern societies. I am tired of the relentlessly bad news even as I know there is more in store.
Human trends work on scales that are usually much longer than individual life spans, making it hard to find optimism if one's personal life happens to get tangled up with a bad stretch of history. Imagine those who lived in Europe starting early in the 1900s ... WWI, WWII, the cold war ... 1919 to 1989 ... 70 years of trying to find good news. Imagine living in China pretty much during any time since 1911 on to today ... war lords, civil war, the war with Japan, the Cultural revolution ... ugly. But all are temporary upheavals even in the short span of human civilizations (as compared to that of the cosmos). Things have been much better in the US of A since 1900 or so, as long as one was white, male, and Protestant.
Happily the Protestant thing is a dying requirement. Though the Republican Presidential ticket is, in my eyes, one scheming Capitalist hypocrite and his faithful, bat-shit crazy T-party side kick, it is interesting that neither one is Protestant. In fact, in what I can take as a glass-half-full kind of thing, the only Protestant in the mix is Obama, and American Protestantism has renounced him with a level of hatred that is near astonishing, backing the Mormon and the Catholic instead. Should the Mitt and Paul show move into the White House, the Protestants are not likely to find much of a sympathetic ear to demands particular to their religion. (It is hard to imagine the Mormon and the Catholic being very sympathetic to young earth creationism, and hopefully, to the idea that all science is evil.) Should Obama stay for another 4 years, the Protestants will be even further removed from political power. This is all glass-is-half-full stuff.
The "male" thing might be fading a bit as well. Though women are not doing themselves any favor by sticking to religion or the Republican party, not all women are voting against their own best interests. It looks likely that the most outspoken of the anti-women jack asses running for the Senate are going to get their heads handed to them come election day. And it may well be that a Mitt and Co. loss could be attributed to the women they have managed to alienate. In any case women as a whole are not likely to allow themselves to be dragged back into the 1930s. They are too well educated and too entrenched in positions of power. The conservative / religious re-oppression of women is going to be a short lived phenomena. (Something the Muslims will be facing before another generation goes by as well.)
And then there is the "white" thing. Sad fact for the white racists and elitists among us ... we will not be the majority much longer. The Republican party's efforts to disenfranchise non-white voters is all the proof anyone needs that they see the future coming, and realize it doesn't belong to them. Plus, well, the fact of the matter is the guy in the White House for the last 4 years has not been White. Even if he loses next week the color barrier in the West Wing is broken.
So, glass-half-full? All the longer term trends seem to favor a better future. Climate change and global warming is going to kick our ass, no question. But that may well lead to a whole new view of the need for conservation and alternative energy. It will be a change in perspective that falls directly on the middle class of the first world, who have the resources to change lifestyles, live in smaller and more energy efficient homes, support public transportation, drive more fuel efficient (and eventually electric) vehicles. (When a major US business magazine has on it's cover, "It's Global Warming, Stupid; one can hear the sound of heads being pulled out of asses all over the nation.)
The continuing collapse of robber baron capitalism coupled with unrestrained consumerism is also promising. People will find a way to eat, to put a roof over their head, to stay warm. Whole new economic ideas will be invented, tried, and modified. China and South America are on the leading edge of blending old ideas into new economic systems. In Europe and the USA underground and off-the-grid economics are popping up and taking hold as people, unable to remove their Capitalist Masters at the voting booth, simply find ways to work around them. Unpresidented global communications and social networks moving at the speed of light will open up avenues never before imagined in human history. Societies hoplessly wedded to the whims of the Capitalists and cosumerism are already on the wrong side of history and will simply not endure much longer.
The world is struggling right now, but when you think about all the changes that are in the works, how could it be any other way? Old power structures will not give way easily, new ways of thinking always cause chaos at first. Things are looking grim, but they are also looking up.
I like this glass-half-full view.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Truth and joy
I used to think that truth and joy were close allies. Not two sides of the same coin, but close companions in a life well lived. But now I'm not so sure.
Some people may find truth and joy to be allies, but only those who find joy when they understand a truth. In such cases joy is dependant on truth, where understanding leads to a deep satisfaction, and that satisfaction, coupled with a sense of understanding one's place in the cosmos, leads to joy. But I have come to suspect that most, as in the vast majority, of my fellow travelers don't see it that way. For them truth and joy are two entirely separate, and sometimes mutually exclusive, commodities. When they conflict truth is always sacrificed for joy.
If the poles are to be respected most Americans be live in some form of creationism. While not all are young earth creationists, most think that a god created human beings, just as we are now, within the last ten thousand years or so. Even many who admit to evolution see it as just a tool used by god to create humanity as the center of interest in his cosmos. For them joy comes from being special in the eyes of an all powerful, all knowing, all loving being. They are chosen, destined for a blessed eternal life, for whom all things happen for the good, even if they can't see the good on this side of death. Any truth that contradicts this sense of being, this source of joy, is rejected. Any observation, any finding, any understanding that would tend to undermine their world view, and thus their source of joy, is simply dismissed. The need for joy is paramount; only truth that supports the claim for joy is acceptable.
Religion is not the only ideology guilty of subjecting truth to joy. In America the rich get rich mostly on the backs of the working class and the poor. This is nothing new. All through history the rich have gotten rich by claiming for themselves the wealth created by others. In America that particular form of greed is known as "trickle down" or "supply side" economics. But greed is pervasive in our society. From the cradle to the grave we are taught to be consumers, that money is the measure of success, and that to be rich is to be blessed. We all want to be rich. And we are taught that capitalism in general, and specifically supply side economics, gives us all an equal opportunity to be rich. Thus, if we are not rich it is 1) probably our own fault, and 2) possibly a reflection of our relationship with god.
None of this is the least bit true, but most of us find joy in the delusion that we can be fabulously rich one of these days. All we need is that one lucky break, that one good idea, that one best selling novel. And when we don't get to be fabulously rich we blame it on "the government" which takes too much of our money in taxes, or burdens society with too many regulations, or somehow or the other "gets in the way" of free enterprise. We find joy in the idea of riches. Any suggestion that the truth might be that not everyone can be rich, or that (for the most part) the rich are born to money, or even that being rich might not be a goal worthy of a thinking, caring, human being, is greeted with howls of protest. We find joy in the idea of greed. The truth that greed can and is destroying what was once a good and noble experiment in democracy, must be ignored.
Those who are rich must ignore the truth that most of them were born to money and power. In the USA today Mitt actually thinks he earned the name and access to power that allowed him to be rich and vie for the office of President. Those in the Bush empire suffered the same delusion. Those who flood the Democrats and Republicans with money actually think they have earned the right to dictate policies to the rest of the nation. After all, they have been blessed by god. Therefor what they see as good reflects what god sees as good. They find joy in money and power. Any hint that they are not actually anything special is a truth they must, and do, ignore.
Here is the rub, at least to me. Truth is an external thing. It exists regardless of what we feel. The cosmos is roughly 14 billion years old. Human kind was not created, we have evolved from a species of tribal ape, and all of our ideology gives evidence to that history. More, we are a natural expression in a universe that is, itself, continuously evolving. Of the three "Superpowers" likely in the modern age, the USA, the USSR, and China, two were (are) socialist economies. Capitalism is just another human attempt to organize a society. Gay people were born that way but, even if being gay is a choice, it doesn't matter. Gay people hurt no one, do not call down the wrath of a god, and experience love just like straight people. The earth is a globe, it revolves around the sun, it is a few billion years old itself, and its history is wrapped up in the history of the solar system, galaxy, and cosmos. These things are true regardless of what humanity believes.
Joy is an internal, and somewhat selfish, thing. It is mostly self centered, focused on the "me". If I find joy in a thing I will bend heaven, earth, physics, and history, to justify the thing that brings me joy. Unless I am very, very careful, I will not allow the truth to intrude on my joy. If I find joy in a god belief no amount of truth will dissuade me that the god does not exist as I believe he does. So self centered is this god belief that other people's god beliefs are dismissed.
Worse, if I find joy in a god belief, and that belief leads me to conclude that gay people are evil or that strapping a bomb to my chest and murdering as many infidels as I can will lead me to paradise, no amount of truth, nothing approaching rational thought that conflicts with those ideas, will be tolerated. My need for joy has inoculated me from the truth. I am, so far as truth is concerned, unreachable. Separated from external truths, I have become an agent of evil in the world.
If I find joy in riches nothing will convince me that my joy is based in greed and likely bad for most everyone else but me. Nothing that a god might say will convince me that riches are evil either. In fact I will find a god that condones my greed.
This all sounds like joy is a bad thing in the world, blinding us all to the truth. Sadly, I think that might be the case, at least for a lot of us at this point in history. For a long time there was so little that we understood that truth and joy were not often in conflict. But now? What other explanation is there for the rise of religious and political fundamentalism? Something is driving us to ignore truth. What could it be besides our clinging to joy?
And...if we cling to joy at the expense of truth, eventually we will extinguish hope as well.
This is not to say that we dismiss truth out of hand. On some inner level we all know that making good decisions is a key to survival. It is hard to make good decisions based on bad information. Indeed, all of us are descendants of those who made at least enough right decisions to live long enough to breed. We don't dismiss truth out of hand. But we often hold our short term, selfish joy dearer than truth.
Anytime we reject truth in order to protect a source of joy, we are engaging in a really base act of total selfishness. We are claiming that what we want is more important than how the universe really is. No wonder it is so destructive, for ourselves, and for those around us. Somehow we have to stop looking in at our own joy as the most important thing, and find joy in looking out to find truth. Until (and unless) we do, it is hard to see how the near term future will unfold without a lot of death, greif, sorrow and war.
Some people may find truth and joy to be allies, but only those who find joy when they understand a truth. In such cases joy is dependant on truth, where understanding leads to a deep satisfaction, and that satisfaction, coupled with a sense of understanding one's place in the cosmos, leads to joy. But I have come to suspect that most, as in the vast majority, of my fellow travelers don't see it that way. For them truth and joy are two entirely separate, and sometimes mutually exclusive, commodities. When they conflict truth is always sacrificed for joy.
If the poles are to be respected most Americans be live in some form of creationism. While not all are young earth creationists, most think that a god created human beings, just as we are now, within the last ten thousand years or so. Even many who admit to evolution see it as just a tool used by god to create humanity as the center of interest in his cosmos. For them joy comes from being special in the eyes of an all powerful, all knowing, all loving being. They are chosen, destined for a blessed eternal life, for whom all things happen for the good, even if they can't see the good on this side of death. Any truth that contradicts this sense of being, this source of joy, is rejected. Any observation, any finding, any understanding that would tend to undermine their world view, and thus their source of joy, is simply dismissed. The need for joy is paramount; only truth that supports the claim for joy is acceptable.
Religion is not the only ideology guilty of subjecting truth to joy. In America the rich get rich mostly on the backs of the working class and the poor. This is nothing new. All through history the rich have gotten rich by claiming for themselves the wealth created by others. In America that particular form of greed is known as "trickle down" or "supply side" economics. But greed is pervasive in our society. From the cradle to the grave we are taught to be consumers, that money is the measure of success, and that to be rich is to be blessed. We all want to be rich. And we are taught that capitalism in general, and specifically supply side economics, gives us all an equal opportunity to be rich. Thus, if we are not rich it is 1) probably our own fault, and 2) possibly a reflection of our relationship with god.
None of this is the least bit true, but most of us find joy in the delusion that we can be fabulously rich one of these days. All we need is that one lucky break, that one good idea, that one best selling novel. And when we don't get to be fabulously rich we blame it on "the government" which takes too much of our money in taxes, or burdens society with too many regulations, or somehow or the other "gets in the way" of free enterprise. We find joy in the idea of riches. Any suggestion that the truth might be that not everyone can be rich, or that (for the most part) the rich are born to money, or even that being rich might not be a goal worthy of a thinking, caring, human being, is greeted with howls of protest. We find joy in the idea of greed. The truth that greed can and is destroying what was once a good and noble experiment in democracy, must be ignored.
Those who are rich must ignore the truth that most of them were born to money and power. In the USA today Mitt actually thinks he earned the name and access to power that allowed him to be rich and vie for the office of President. Those in the Bush empire suffered the same delusion. Those who flood the Democrats and Republicans with money actually think they have earned the right to dictate policies to the rest of the nation. After all, they have been blessed by god. Therefor what they see as good reflects what god sees as good. They find joy in money and power. Any hint that they are not actually anything special is a truth they must, and do, ignore.
Here is the rub, at least to me. Truth is an external thing. It exists regardless of what we feel. The cosmos is roughly 14 billion years old. Human kind was not created, we have evolved from a species of tribal ape, and all of our ideology gives evidence to that history. More, we are a natural expression in a universe that is, itself, continuously evolving. Of the three "Superpowers" likely in the modern age, the USA, the USSR, and China, two were (are) socialist economies. Capitalism is just another human attempt to organize a society. Gay people were born that way but, even if being gay is a choice, it doesn't matter. Gay people hurt no one, do not call down the wrath of a god, and experience love just like straight people. The earth is a globe, it revolves around the sun, it is a few billion years old itself, and its history is wrapped up in the history of the solar system, galaxy, and cosmos. These things are true regardless of what humanity believes.
Joy is an internal, and somewhat selfish, thing. It is mostly self centered, focused on the "me". If I find joy in a thing I will bend heaven, earth, physics, and history, to justify the thing that brings me joy. Unless I am very, very careful, I will not allow the truth to intrude on my joy. If I find joy in a god belief no amount of truth will dissuade me that the god does not exist as I believe he does. So self centered is this god belief that other people's god beliefs are dismissed.
Worse, if I find joy in a god belief, and that belief leads me to conclude that gay people are evil or that strapping a bomb to my chest and murdering as many infidels as I can will lead me to paradise, no amount of truth, nothing approaching rational thought that conflicts with those ideas, will be tolerated. My need for joy has inoculated me from the truth. I am, so far as truth is concerned, unreachable. Separated from external truths, I have become an agent of evil in the world.
If I find joy in riches nothing will convince me that my joy is based in greed and likely bad for most everyone else but me. Nothing that a god might say will convince me that riches are evil either. In fact I will find a god that condones my greed.
This all sounds like joy is a bad thing in the world, blinding us all to the truth. Sadly, I think that might be the case, at least for a lot of us at this point in history. For a long time there was so little that we understood that truth and joy were not often in conflict. But now? What other explanation is there for the rise of religious and political fundamentalism? Something is driving us to ignore truth. What could it be besides our clinging to joy?
And...if we cling to joy at the expense of truth, eventually we will extinguish hope as well.
This is not to say that we dismiss truth out of hand. On some inner level we all know that making good decisions is a key to survival. It is hard to make good decisions based on bad information. Indeed, all of us are descendants of those who made at least enough right decisions to live long enough to breed. We don't dismiss truth out of hand. But we often hold our short term, selfish joy dearer than truth.
Anytime we reject truth in order to protect a source of joy, we are engaging in a really base act of total selfishness. We are claiming that what we want is more important than how the universe really is. No wonder it is so destructive, for ourselves, and for those around us. Somehow we have to stop looking in at our own joy as the most important thing, and find joy in looking out to find truth. Until (and unless) we do, it is hard to see how the near term future will unfold without a lot of death, greif, sorrow and war.
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