musings of wrath

I made a post yesterday, that pissed off a lot of people.

Let me explain a little bit why I posted it.

When I read it, I was angry, but it got me thinking.

The more I thought, the more I examined what the guy said, and realized that no, not all of it’s true, and yes, much of it can be applied to ANY country in the world. However. Our own government claims to be fighting a WAR because of ideals against this sort of behavior.

War should always be the last resort, period.

Our government is NOT behaving like it’s responsible to us, at all. It’s behaving like it answers to money, and money alone. There’s something wrong with that, and I don’t CARE if that’s “Just how it is” or “how it’s always been”. IT’S STILL WRONG.

The right to vote has NOTHING to do with property, money, or birthright. At least, it shouldn’t. That wasn’t the intention, and anyone who says otherwise is full of it and they KNOW it.

When’s the last time you saw a homeless person in a polling station? It’s difficult to register to vote if you don’t have a mailing address.

When’s the last time you saw a corporation in a polling station, casting a vote? Never, and yet they get preferential treatment over the constituents in Congress. Why? Because they pay taxes? Fuck that. That’s the cost of being ALLOWED to run a business in the United States.

This government is so wrapped up in money (particularly, oil money), that they can’t see the people “beneath” them.

And another thing? I’ve recently become a Christian, and I’ve watched how they’ve used my religion as an excuse to take away people’s rights (part of the Constitution’s point was to take away the government’s power to take away rights from specific groups), and in some cases, fight a war.

But, I digress.

My point was not to say “I agree with every point this asshole says about my country.” My point was to say, “This guy has made me think about what IS wrong with this country, even if he’s missed the mark.” There’s something wrong with us, and the people of the world see it, just not necessarily like this guy does. I agree that we have some house cleaning to do, and some skeletons to dust off in the closet, but not the same points he made.

We are NOT supposed to be a theocracy.

The federal is NOT supposed to rule us, it’s supposed to SUPPORT the state systems, and make laws that do that very thing.

Why is it that whenever someone speaks out against the government’s ways, they’re immediately labelled as a “liberal communist” or “America-hater”? Maybe it’s because the truth hurts. I love this country, and I love the people in it. I can’t stand what our government, however, is doing to it.

I get what you are saying and I am with you on the ideals portion.

But its human nature. We follow power, where it leads and even if we don’t like it, we still follow.

It sucks, but its the way of all governmental systems, because they are run by people and people are that way.

I’m not angry with you, I’m frustrated at the system as well, but I don’t think its ever going to change because people just don’t change.

Clarifying is cool - but I thought it was pretty clear from the first post its was just a ‘This made me think’ thing - not a ‘Im repeating this cos this guy is spot on’ kinda thing.

I just wish they would shit or get off the pot. Be a Democracy, or a Theocracy - but stop pretending to be one while eshewing the other.

I love this country, and I love the people in it. I can’t stand what our government, however, is doing to it.

I know how you feel there. Just in a smaller, UK version! :)

yeah, so I know whether or not to move to Canada!

heh.

indeed.

“No, no, I’ve NEVER liked to the people of Britain. I never lied, not even about the War in Iraq!”

Man, he sweats under pressure.

*laughs*
ohhh yes, he so does. And is such a liar. I emailed him yesterday to ask that he keeps his promise to reduce/cancel Third World debt. We shall see if he listens to me and the thousands of other people who have done the same :) I can’t believe the populace of the UK elected him in again (myself not included. I voted for the other guy)! Aieeeeeeee!

I understand why you posted it, but it also pains me to see someone post something so full of garbage rhetoric from the other viewpoint. I’m an absolute hater of BS no matter which viewpoint it comes from and find myself an outside of even the smaller political parties in the US because of this. At the same time I am quite the realist and pragmatic. There are certain things it is impossible to change at the *present time* and no amount of whining, protesting or trying to force through change will cause these things to happen. They simply require a societal change.

An example I like to use is Gay Marriage. There’s nothing wrong with gay marriage, in fact it is is beneficial to society as a whole, yet societies around the world reject it openly and readily. In fact people who agree with me on most political issues reject it. Yet there is a minute shift happening every year and a slight swing in the minds of society. In 15? 20 years? No one will care and domestic partners will be more the norm than the exception.

Big corporations are currently dominating our political landscape but people (who funny enough, don’t know their history) or losing it and calling this the end of the world. Unfortunately this is just cyclical in nature, the late 1890s through the 1920s America was heavily dominated by a few large corporations who were run by single men. Now our ruling companies answer to numerous men and in some cases the people themselves. What will the next evolution of the corporation bring us?

My point is, change happens, sometimes too slowly for Americans but it happens here much faster than many other places.

Why does it require something calling America mass murderers to make you think?*

* Unfair, but in the same vein of rhetoric.

the “furious”, btw, for the mood has nothing to do with the responses on my previous post, but how I feel towards our government.

I agree with you, but on the “unfair” (I don’t think it was unfair of you to say it, personally) question you asked:

It doesn’t require it, it simply made me realize that half the problem is people don’t THINK about the problem. In a sense, everyone who posted angry, argumentative or even praising responses thought about the issue - for just a moment. Long enough for them to write up a response, at the very least.

That sounds like I’m being manipulative, but far from it - I was sharing something that made me think with others who I thought (and it seems I was right) can add something to it all. In essence, everyone who posted has affected my thinking on the subject, and I think because of that, I have a much more objective view on what is “wrong”.

Several have said that the problem with the government is the people who voted them in. Yeah, that’s part of it, but denying the fact that the government is full of lying bastards doesn’t make it okay, or right, or anything else. Sure, probably every administration we’ve ever had in this country has lied. Does that mean it should continue? Does that mean we should be misled into voting for crap that is BAD for our society?

No. Change happens over time, yes, but change doesn’t happen if people don’t realize the change is needed. Say something, do something, but don’t just accept it as an impossibility.

Hell, man, you’ve seen the protests in SF, first hand - a lot of people are getting out there and saying how they feel, in addition to voting. Some are called the vocal minority, but sometimes, they really are NOT a minority, but only a small number of them ARE vocal.

I’m a paranoid freak, and I don’t post half the things I think this government is doing to us, because I know many of them are irrational. However, some of the things they ARE doing have ALSO been called irrational paranoia in the past, but are now public knowledge.

I need to get back to work. Glad you posted.

Hey, for the record, I figured it was a this guy made me think. I’m pretty sure you’re a libertarian or at least have those tendencies, and it did prompt discussion where as far as I could tell no one died.

I’ve had similar ephiphanies over watching people from overseas burn U.S. flags (Back during the Cold War), and I wondered why. I’m also a big fan of Thomas Jefferson and his political thoughts.

hehe, actually, I used to be a member of the party.. I parted ways about the time of Brown, but have still considered voting for their candidates when they pop up here.

indeed!

I understand your frustation with government definitely.

Just to clarify, I am not angry at you. I do think that the author of that crud is an idiot…but the world is full of them.

My beef is that effectively this guy is twisting the truth and outright lying in some places and many people believe him/her. It’s the Wizard’s First Rule syndrome.

Hisotircally I would disagree with you on the intention of the Founders on who should be allowed to vote. Their idea of who could be a citizen was fairly limited (white, male, land owner, wel educated). Over time we have expanded the electorate to include non-landowners, all men, and eventually women.

Like I sid before to you Corps do not vote per se. They lobby, and that is a very effective method of manipulating gov’t. But just as WE are out gov’t, we are Corps as well. I own stock in corps (albeit via 401(k) plans, but I used to own stock directly. When you do, you have a responsibility to direct the board to act a certain way as your proxy (or you only invest in certain companies…or as a consumer only purchase from certain companies.) Then again, I am a person that wants to see the abolition of corp income taxes because they are paid by each of us (and are double taxation to boot).

I think it is ridculous to even imply that we are a theocracy. That is scare speech by secular humanists that are seeing a normal pendular reaction to decades of movement that favors their secular humanist ideals. When the secular humanists grabbed political control in the 60s the gov’t and the society started a normal pendular swing in reaction to the 30-50s (which was a reaction to the 20s). People who disagreed with that stance were stymied by legislation and moreso by the judiciary. As a result the “Christian Right” has organized itself politically and socially and is now a major force in politics. They are a creation of the secular left…in some ways the left’s Frankenstein monster. But in the end they are a colalition of vastly divergent groups that tolerate each other because the alternative is worse. The politics of the national Democratic party has caused the formation of a large coalition against them…That coalition, as all are, is doomed to fail when the opposition no longer gives them something to band together against. Which in and of itself is a fun and interesting dicusion.

As for you comment about the purpose of teh Federal system…at one time the Federal gov’t was designed to be subordinate to the states. But we fought a war to create the primacy of the Federal gov’t, and firmly hae established that the States are NOT the primary sources of gov’t services. THis is a double edged sword. It has given us Civil Rights and The Patriot Act.

I do think that criticism is a good thing. That author was an American hater. No two ways about that. I also think that there is a way to criticise constructively and destructively. IMO there is way too much of the later (mostly grounded in disaffection with the results of the last 4-6 national elections that has transmuted itself into outright hatred of President Bush). WE no longer have a “loyal opposition”…and its not a recent development either. I think its worse this past 5 years, but still not a new development.

One observation…when we forget that we are the gov’t the bureacrats have won.

Politicians lie because we expect them to and thus allow it (though there is a note that the gov’t has to lie to us to an extent or more correctly withhold info).

This is one problem with a two party system (even though in reality the two party system is a farce and the two parties are just caucuses of simiarl minded people that align in coalitions of power.

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” - Mahatma Gandhi

dammit.