July 25, 2007
July 6, 2007
It's not enough to simply survive
You may have heard about a kid that was attacked a few years back after making a pass at someone's sister. This kid was brutally sodomized while at least one onlooker shouted "White Power" (the victim was Hispanic). This made worldwide news, and EVERYONE around him knew exactly who he was and what happened to him.
After living with what happened, after the 20-30 operations he endured and months in the hospital, one day very recently, he decided that he could no longer live being known as "that kid". He jumped from a cruise ship and drowned. It's a terribly tragic end, especially after having gone through all that hell to survive. Read about it here. At least justice was served. One attacker received life in prison and another 90 years.
I've been reading about some of the worst in humanity today and I have to say that despite the fact that I know full well what we are capable of, it still baffles me how we can do certain things to people. Or animals.
July 5, 2007
The outrage
I watched (listened to?) the audio commentary of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith over the weekend. George Lucas talked about the willful giving over of democracy to tyrants as opposed to some evil taking power by force. Here's how it develops:
1) Democracy is established to take care of people above all else. There is a definite aspect of socialism there in that education and helping out different groups of people become priorities.
2) People become complacent and too busy to examine broader social issues outside of their own spheres. Subgroups and factions emerge.
3) These groups come into conflict and can no longer get along. The people can no longer follow the politics involved. They seek someone, anyone, to "fix" everything, as though this could be done. I blame religion for this.
4) One of two things happen. A person, usually part of one of the factions in conflict, decides that gaining power is the only thing that matters and decides to take over by force. The other, more interesting option, is when the people willingly give up their ruling position to an autocrat that will take drastic measures to impose its own brand of order on things. This is what happened in Star Wars.
And it happens again and again in the world. Westerners, unable to deal with the issues of today, throw up their hands and give carte blanche to some leader who then makes all the decisions for everyone else. Now I am not saying that George Bush is Emperor Palpatine (at least I could admire him for something if he were), but I am saying that Americans have given up too much to someone that does not care about the people he swore to defend.
My vision of parliament is not at all what the reality is. In parliament, I think that parties should attempt to work together to solve problems and improve life in this country. But politics separates all of us so that things that could potentially get accomplished never do. When I say politics, I essentially mean selfishness. One party would destroy all chances of peace for all (constitutionally, physically, whatever) because it didn't get everything it asked for. To hell with everyone else. Federal elected representatives, in my view, should attempt to work at a high level to solve EVERYONE's problems. Local problems should be dealt with locally. That's why there are provincial and municipal governments.
Vila and Frank posted a very damning indictment of Bush's recent acquittal (essentially) of Scooter Libby. These are the types of things that happen when you let things get away from you. One person that decides everything for everyone and damn those that get crushed under; they probably deserved it anyway. And in today's world this is explained by the fact that more than a stable, just government with adequate social programs and education and so on, more than the liberty they think they have, more than ANYTHING, people want stability. Changing the government when things don't work properly creates instability, makes other countries think that the US isn't so wonderful and just doesn't feel good. It might mean that the citizens have to get involved. Well, fuck that. (Sometimes for good reasons, too.)
Could it just be that the state is too large and that there are too many people to govern, and therefore factions of power with which to contend? Maybe. If I were a politician, I'd be a municipal or possibly provincial politician. Or federal in a country with 5 million people or less.
Westerners are probably just too fat and happy to complain. I think Rosie O'Donnell asked on The View what it takes to get impeached in the US. What indeed? A fucking blowjob, apparently. No one wants their leaders to actually be better than themselves in some way, else how could George Bush charm anyone? He is charming because he's just an idiot like everyone else. Bad idea. This is supposedly the most powerful country in the world. It shouldn't be run by the corrupt, the apathetic, and certainly not by "just anyone". Sure, the person should not be too much of a snob, and should care about his own citizens, but putting people like Bushco in power is like putting the guy that runs the local poutinerie in power. It's not well planned, and the best you can hope for is...nothing.
Which I suppose is better than what is happening now. I'd choose nothing over a lot of what has transpired over the last six years if I were American. Imagine if half the money for the wars (hundreds of billions of dollars) went to health care or higher education or something like that. Imagine where they would be in 20 years. Like any poorer country that chooses the right priorities, this great country would only prosper.
But that is not going to happen. Maybe we need a wake up call. Maybe we are too complacent and all this shit needs to happen. But sitting back and doing nothing will breed more Bushcos, more fear, more complacency. And eventually, Palpatine won't just be a fictional character. I suspect that if that happens, it will be too late.