The times we are living in are rife with examples of utter blindness to facts. there has been much hoopla about the President's approval rating moving due to the price of gas. As if one person could possibly affect the price of a commodity that trades, at times, in volumes per day that dwarf the use characteristics of our nation for weeks. The roulette wheel that is the oil market burns as many fortunes as it creates. What the fiction reflects is the need for another lie to be "supported". You know, the one about thousands of years of oil available if we would only allow more drilling. It is far easier to blame someone for something instead of realizing that every single barrel of oil that we get from now on will cost more to get than what we have used up already. Peak oil has passed, the debate is over exactly when it occurred.
The entire concept of austerity in the face of crippling economic conditions is considered reasonable, only if we buy into nearly five hundred year old ideas. Have we not progressed one whit since the end of the dark ages? An individual, or family can benefit from reigning in spending during lean times, but the government must not, unless it is willing to raise a generation of less educated, sick people and let them drive on bad roads, waste more and neglect the infrastructure that civil society rests upon. Any functioning government must assist us in doing together, what we could not alone. Has anyone been paying attention? Equally disturbing, the propensity of people willing to say "All politicians are crooks." I have met politicians who are honest. Sadly, less than half, but there are good choices out there. When those who could make a difference are scared off from voting by a lie, who can we blame? Some are in too big a hurry to say, "We get the government that we deserve." On the face of it, it sounds plausible, but think, if we all understood, in our bones, that the dead from all of our wars died to give us the right to vote. If we had been educated about what democracy is, as well as what it requires, would we deserve anything more? I think it is just a convenient lie that we tell ourselves, just to get back to the life we know. Perhaps if people wrestled with any truth, it would create uncomfortable ripples across the ocean their entire conceptualization of the world around them.
I often try to understand where others are coming from, but the supposed majority who, we are told, think that we can ascribe responsibility for the current economic downturn to a black man in the White House; that Obama is a foreigner; climate change is make-believe; or that there are vast reserves of resources that we can only blame government for keeping out of our hands. These are the same folks who still claim that the trickle down effect is valid. As if the extravagant feasting of the wealthy will eventually drop enough crumbs for the masses to be better off. I heard the best analogy about "philanthropy". The real philanthropists are the maids and waitstaff, the cooks and dry cleaners who give their entire lives, so that the wealthy can be taken care of! Just because the majority of the population has no face for the wealthy, cannot mean that they have no voice either. We the People did not join in order to form a corporation. We did not include unequal power and influence as inalienable rights. Whoever has been changing the language that we use for our collective discussion, has been selling product as surely as churches peddle salvation. Problem is, there isn't even hope to rest their beliefs on, just a pack of lies.
The entire concept of austerity in the face of crippling economic conditions is considered reasonable, only if we buy into nearly five hundred year old ideas. Have we not progressed one whit since the end of the dark ages? An individual, or family can benefit from reigning in spending during lean times, but the government must not, unless it is willing to raise a generation of less educated, sick people and let them drive on bad roads, waste more and neglect the infrastructure that civil society rests upon. Any functioning government must assist us in doing together, what we could not alone. Has anyone been paying attention? Equally disturbing, the propensity of people willing to say "All politicians are crooks." I have met politicians who are honest. Sadly, less than half, but there are good choices out there. When those who could make a difference are scared off from voting by a lie, who can we blame? Some are in too big a hurry to say, "We get the government that we deserve." On the face of it, it sounds plausible, but think, if we all understood, in our bones, that the dead from all of our wars died to give us the right to vote. If we had been educated about what democracy is, as well as what it requires, would we deserve anything more? I think it is just a convenient lie that we tell ourselves, just to get back to the life we know. Perhaps if people wrestled with any truth, it would create uncomfortable ripples across the ocean their entire conceptualization of the world around them.
I often try to understand where others are coming from, but the supposed majority who, we are told, think that we can ascribe responsibility for the current economic downturn to a black man in the White House; that Obama is a foreigner; climate change is make-believe; or that there are vast reserves of resources that we can only blame government for keeping out of our hands. These are the same folks who still claim that the trickle down effect is valid. As if the extravagant feasting of the wealthy will eventually drop enough crumbs for the masses to be better off. I heard the best analogy about "philanthropy". The real philanthropists are the maids and waitstaff, the cooks and dry cleaners who give their entire lives, so that the wealthy can be taken care of! Just because the majority of the population has no face for the wealthy, cannot mean that they have no voice either. We the People did not join in order to form a corporation. We did not include unequal power and influence as inalienable rights. Whoever has been changing the language that we use for our collective discussion, has been selling product as surely as churches peddle salvation. Problem is, there isn't even hope to rest their beliefs on, just a pack of lies.
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