The Land of Simple

Favored Quote:

2006-07-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

“When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

Sinclair Lewis

Favored Quote:

2006-04-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. "

Seneca the Younger

What is a Liberal...

2006-04-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

Well for starters, I would guess that most people on the planet are liberals. Certainly, the vast majority of everyday Americans are.

That's because the definition of being a liberal also means:

Someone who cares more about his neighbors, his friends and his family than the almighty dollar.

Someone who cares more about the good of society as a whole, than him/her-self.

Someone who will offer someone in need a helping hand.

Someone who puts human values ahead of personal profits and wealth.

Someone who believes in helping the weakest among us to survive, rather than saying "tough luck...do it on your own!"

Someone who believes in leaving the planet a better place for our future generations than how we found it.

Someone who is open-minded and believes in progress and being open to new ideas and improvements on past ways of doing things.

Liberalism is about community. It's about gathering together to help us all be a more successful society. It's about throwing aside the personal gain and greed in favor of everyone getting a fair chance at survival. It's about helping the least amongst us share in what our world has to offer, rather than pushing them off to the side and taking theirs for ours...just because we can.

It's about humility, compassion and tolerance, and not being judgmental.

It's about doing what's 'right' in the world.

I am proud to be a "liberal".

To Solve the Problem...

2006-04-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

...you must deal with the root of the problem.

Modern day societal problems, such as our wayward American government and it's manifest human destruction and harm on national and global scales, are much like a large sick tree that has a cancer.

The cancer is obviously evident in nearly every branch and leaf of the tree. But clipping off a few of these bad leaves and branches doesn't solve the problem, which must actually be dealt with at the roots of this diseased tree.

The approach by most people these days is to point to those few bad leaves ("Bush", the "Republicans", the "neocons", etc.,) and suggest that we just need to clip those off and things will be better. This ignores the fact that the basis of the problems are rooted much deeper in the system.

In order to fix our country's problems, we must look much deeper than those outter branches and leaves which are most apparent to us.

The problem (and thus the solution) with our American government is not party-affiliation, idiology, or some other discreet branch of the tree. The problems are rather systemic and can be easily traced down the fundemental rules of our system; the very roots of the system.

Unless we address these roots of the system (which very few people ever talk about) then nothing will ultimately be accomplished, or changed.

A changing of the guard in Washington, while being a 'feel good' thing in the moment, will accomplish little, if any, meaningful changes over the long term or on the greater scale. Nor will it effect a change of direction away from the iceburg that this Titanic will ultimiately strike.

The problem lays at the roots of our political/governmental tree and thus significant changes to the foundation of this system must be enacted in order to change directions in this country.

Nobody of significance (on the mainstream stage) ever talks about these real issues that must be dealt with, but rather this or that superficial change that will make this or that ego feel better for the time being; that branch or clump of leaves that needs pruning so that the outer surface looks just a little more healthy, and while ignoring the fact that the real cancer continues to live underneath and will shortly again, and continue repeatedly, to rear it's ugly nature until systematic failure and self-destruction of the system, the death of our society as we know it, ultimately results.

The Fox Guarding the Hen House...

2006-04-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

...or why our corrupt American system of government won't get fixed before it's too late.

The only sensible way to fix our corrupt system of government is for those who make up our government (legislative, judicial and executive branches) who benefit by this corruption to change the very rules which not only allow, but actually encourage this corruption to enrich their lives in the first place through greater wealth and power.

In other words, to sacrifice their own potential for greater wealth and power for the greater good of the (other...the rest of us) people.

Not only common sense, but the very evidence before us, tells us that this won't occur.

Those Who Don't Learn From the Past...

2006-04-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

...it is said...are doomed to repeat it.

Our current state and direction of this nation, the United States of America, is little more than a repetition of history - of empires that have risen and fallen before us throughout history, and for mostly the very same reasons.

A few hundred years from now - if this planet is still inhabited by us humans - school children will be studying the history of "The Rise and Fall of the American Empire".

It will thus be repeated again that those who did not learn from the past, were doomed to repeat it.

Wealth and Power...

2006-04-23T10:51:00.001-07:00

...or as I most often refer to in terms of 'the quest for greater wealth and power'...are mutually inclusive.

That is to say that:

A) If you have greater wealth, you inherently have greater power.
B) With greater power, you can inherently achieve greater wealth.

An Ounce of Prevention...

2006-04-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

...it is said, is worth a pound of cure.

It is thus obvious that many of our society's problems would best be solved through prevention, rather than cure.

Ironically, however, since in our capitalism-driven society a pound of anything is worth more than an once of it, people are most often more interested in pursuing (and marketing) the cure rather than the prevention.

To put it simply, there's a lot more money to be made selling cures rather than preventions.

Nowhere in our American society is that more clearly demonstrated than in our 'health care industry'.

The quest for greater individual wealth and power most often trumps common sense and what is in the best interest of society (and our species) as a whole.

Favored Quote:

2006-04-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

Mr Spock

Money Makes the World Go-Round

2006-04-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

The often inherent, insatiable, greedy quest for greater wealth and power by a minority of humans (or non-human human-created entities, i.e., corporations) largely shapes the environment we all live in, as well as our destiny as a society (and a species) as a whole.

And that is most often NOT in the best interest of society (or our species) as a whole.

Six of One...Half-Dozen of the Other

2005-11-05T14:34:00.000-08:00

Elected Democrats... Elected Republicans

Elected 'representatives' who largely 'represent' the entities which serve to raise their personal standards of living, i.e., financial wealth (and other material possesions), plus social status (power).

And that's largely NOT their constituents who voted for them at the polls.

The Meaning of Life

2005-08-31T19:29:00.000-07:00

Simply put, there is no meaning!

Meaning implies design and purpose. That's a nice emotionally satisfying fantasy for humans to lean on, but as is so often the case the evidence and facts simply don't support this to be the reality.

Given the biological building blocks and the right environment, life grows...and evolves...all on it's own. It's fundamental, it's chemical and it's biological. It's in the fossil record and it's demostrable in a laboratory.

There's no apparent reason to attribute a supernatural intelligence and purpose to the process of biological life, other than human ego, arrogance, uncertainty, hope, despair and faith. Take this out of the mix and life still happens. Take the biology and chemistry out of the mix and it doesn't.

Some humans...well many humans, seem to want or need there to be a 'meaning' to life; to the fact that we're here. But that's completely emotional and totally irrelevant to the process of life that the apparent facts and empirical evidence explain.

Keep it Simple Stupid!

2005-08-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

Here in The Land of Simple most things are...well, pretty simple!

You see, most of the things that matter to us in the world are not really all that complex.

Complexity, after all, is simply the aggregate of many simple elements put together.

To understand, and thus to solve our problems, you have to look at the simple stuff that is, in fact, the roots of the larger problems we face.

The Beginning of Time in The Land of Simple

2005-08-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

In the beginning, I created this blog!