Tuesday, July 29, 2008
letter to my mother
My mother sent me an email asking me why I think my views are so different and why I thought I have all the answers.
SO I wrote back a response that I thought I would share since I know she never comes to read any of this and since I wrote it not to her but to a generic audience. So it isn't personal in any way.
In bold are her words.
why do you suppose your views are so different than anybody else's are?
I really believe that people are living in denial, the kind of denial that an addict suffers from. I believe people are addicted to this standard of living and don’t want to give it up. As a former smoker I had countless reasons not to attempt to quit my addiction. From “oh my life is too stressful right now and I wouldn’t want to add another stress” to “well you gotta die of something.” I always had a reason because I was addicted. I think that there is a similar addiction to America consumerism and its symptoms manifest themselves in similar ways.
I always knew that smoking caused cancer, made my clothes smell, bothered other people, made me less healthy over-all, cost me tons of money and all of it went to the same corporations I railed against daily but I still smoked.
For instance everyone really knows that our country is rich enough to provide health care to every citizen. Everyone really knows that our country has plenty of money to provide for our citizens after they retire. Everyone really knows that it is morally wrong to invade other nations, drop bombs on children, and torture and “disappear” people all over world. Everyone knows that the disparity of wealth causes crime. Everyone knows that the justice system is racially biased. Everyone knows that their actions are having a devastating effect on people in the third world. Everyone knows that our elected officials are bribed. Everyone knows that our presidential candidates are provided for us by Big Business. Everyone knows that the majority of the clothes they buy are made in near sweatshop conditions, which exploit the workers terribly, but they still buy them.
When one really thinks about the effect their consumption has on people on the globe who are starving, when they see their government murdering brown people and they know they supported the invasion, when they realize that their “democracy” is really a sham and they think they can’t do anything about it, when people realize that the only way for the world to survive is to drastically cut back on their consumption they don’t like the idea at all. So they turn on the TV and watch commercials. And what do the commercials tell them?
“Buy buy buy. If you don’t buy this product you will be incomplete and unhappy. You don’t want to be unhappy do you? Just think what society will think if you don’t look this way. You deserve this product. How did you ever live without this and how can you go with out? You don’t want to be unhappy do you?”
Then they turn on the news shows and what do the news shows say, “this is the way it is. We have a thriving democracy. There is no alternative. It is fine to do these things because we have no other choice. Our system is fair. We offer the full spectrum of thought; see we have two economists talking about the fairness of our system. One is from the right and the other is right of center.”
There are really plenty of people who are far brighter and far more eloquent and far more educated who believe the things I believe. Notice though they are not allowed on the news shows. Notice how the worlds leading intellectual, by all counts, is an American but he is never on American television. Notice how the one of the world’s leading scholars on the Israel/Palestine conflict and the literature surrounding it has never been on American corporate television. I could go on. The fact that the corporate media purposely shuns these people speaks volumes. I think the corporate media doesn’t want these people to be able to talk to the general population because the general population, upon hearing some of these things for the first time, might say, “wait a second, that makes a hell of a lot of sense even though Thomas Friedmann says it isn’t true. Maybe it is Mr. Freidmann, the acceptable type of intellectual, who is wrong or misrepresenting the facts to suit his, and his bosses, ideology and paycheck.”
There must have been a reason why no cable company picked up Al Jazeera English when it was launched. Maybe it is overt racism against Arabs or maybe it is that they offer a different voice that isn’t heard, and shouldn’t, be heard. So they went to YouTube instead, more on that later.
I think a better question is why do so many people believe things that are factually incorrect? Why does 95% of the US population believe in a higher power? Why did the Germans allow the Holocaust? I don’t know.
the rest of the world is wrong but you have the answers, i don't
get it.
Honestly I feel as if I am closer to what the rest of the world thinks then the average American. For instance, how many people, do you suppose, in America would say that the US President is the greatest threat to peace on the planet, not just Bush but whomever? How many Americans see the leadership of Israel a greater threat to world peace then the Iranians? How many Americans think it is a war crime to openly threaten other nations? How many Americans think their level of consumption to be ethical? How many Americans think Israel along with their own country are the biggest obstacles to peace in the Middle East?
On these and a whole host of issues I believe that I am much closer, in opinion, with the rest of the world then Americans are.
Then the question is, is the rest of the world wrong and America right? Is Ahmenijad the next Hitler? Did he really threaten to “wipe Israel off the map?” Why is there such a difference in opinion between Americans and the rest of the world?
Answers
I never claimed to have any answers. There are people with far greater minds with plenty ideas on how this world could improve for everyone. There have been studies that show the world could really feed twice the current population if we just allocated resources properly and changed parts of our diets, just to mention one. I think, that as a regular Joe, I can help to pave the way for social improvement by talking to other average people since that is the only way people can see that other things are possible. I am not delusional enough to think I am going to change the world but I am not stupid enough to think that facts can’t change people’s minds.
i think you need to become realistic
I think this is the language of addiction I was talking about earlier. “I have to be realistic about quitting my, whatever addiction, this week because external situations make it a unattainable.”
I think it is unrealistic to think that we can continue down this path without dire consequences. Maybe the world’s leading scientists are wrong, all 2000 thousand who are in agreement, and those five scientists paid by ExxonMobil are right. Personally I’d put my money behind the ones that write in peer reviewed journals as opposed to the ones that go on cable news shows.
I think it is unrealistic to believe, with all of human history available, that the leaders of Empires are benevolent to the world. Maybe I am wrong and the intellectuals who defend the right of the Empire are correct? They all have nice houses, who knows.
In reality I believe that overall things are constantly improving and moving towards a more humane American population and leadership. The examples are endless if one wants to go back and compare. People like Kennedy make Bush seem like a harmless guy. Christ, we nuked people only 60 years ago.
People are putting up with less and less of the bullshit they are being fed. As a result the news shows offer less and less difference of opinion because they know they are slowly losing grip. People are going on-line and finding other sources of news. If they want to see the truth about what is happening in Palestine they can log on to Israeli newspaper sites, which have far fairer reporting about the conflict than any American paper would ever print (which is odd). Access to information is a huge thing for freedom and democracy and that is why Big Business is trying to shut it down and control it.
Things are getting better no matter what the Bush-haters try to tell you. We have more freedoms no matter what those paranoid Ron Paul-ites try to claim. (I always tell those idiots to find an older black man and tell him he has less rights now than he did in the past.) Corporations realize that they are losing their grip and to top it off, they are beginning to collapse under their own corruption. Latin America is slowly throwing off the oppression of America and voting in left wing leaders, even people from their own ranks. Israel realizes that public opinion in America is starting to shift so they are quickly building a wall to set up their borders in one final land grab. Things are getting better.
One last quick example, a few years ago the Federal Communication Commission voted to allow mass consolidation in the media industry. Prior there were regulations about how many radio stations one could one, regulations not allowing the TV stations to own the newspaper in town and others. As one would logically expect the media was silent during the whole lead up to the vote. They never thought it was relevant to the American population to know that their parent companies were about to be given even more control over the information we receive. Once the vote went through, and the news companies were confident, they finally reported on it. As soon as the population was made aware of this change in regulation there was a massive out pouring of anger. The Congress received over a million letters demanding they overturn these new, for lack of a better term, regulations. That is one in every 300 people writing letters which says a lot, especially if one believes in that line about for every one letter writer there are one hundred people who agree with them. People as diverse as the NRA and MoveOn.Org teamed up with each other to make Congress overturn the laws and eventually they did.
Things like that give me hope for a better future.
SO I wrote back a response that I thought I would share since I know she never comes to read any of this and since I wrote it not to her but to a generic audience. So it isn't personal in any way.
In bold are her words.
why do you suppose your views are so different than anybody else's are?
I really believe that people are living in denial, the kind of denial that an addict suffers from. I believe people are addicted to this standard of living and don’t want to give it up. As a former smoker I had countless reasons not to attempt to quit my addiction. From “oh my life is too stressful right now and I wouldn’t want to add another stress” to “well you gotta die of something.” I always had a reason because I was addicted. I think that there is a similar addiction to America consumerism and its symptoms manifest themselves in similar ways.
I always knew that smoking caused cancer, made my clothes smell, bothered other people, made me less healthy over-all, cost me tons of money and all of it went to the same corporations I railed against daily but I still smoked.
For instance everyone really knows that our country is rich enough to provide health care to every citizen. Everyone really knows that our country has plenty of money to provide for our citizens after they retire. Everyone really knows that it is morally wrong to invade other nations, drop bombs on children, and torture and “disappear” people all over world. Everyone knows that the disparity of wealth causes crime. Everyone knows that the justice system is racially biased. Everyone knows that their actions are having a devastating effect on people in the third world. Everyone knows that our elected officials are bribed. Everyone knows that our presidential candidates are provided for us by Big Business. Everyone knows that the majority of the clothes they buy are made in near sweatshop conditions, which exploit the workers terribly, but they still buy them.
When one really thinks about the effect their consumption has on people on the globe who are starving, when they see their government murdering brown people and they know they supported the invasion, when they realize that their “democracy” is really a sham and they think they can’t do anything about it, when people realize that the only way for the world to survive is to drastically cut back on their consumption they don’t like the idea at all. So they turn on the TV and watch commercials. And what do the commercials tell them?
“Buy buy buy. If you don’t buy this product you will be incomplete and unhappy. You don’t want to be unhappy do you? Just think what society will think if you don’t look this way. You deserve this product. How did you ever live without this and how can you go with out? You don’t want to be unhappy do you?”
Then they turn on the news shows and what do the news shows say, “this is the way it is. We have a thriving democracy. There is no alternative. It is fine to do these things because we have no other choice. Our system is fair. We offer the full spectrum of thought; see we have two economists talking about the fairness of our system. One is from the right and the other is right of center.”
There are really plenty of people who are far brighter and far more eloquent and far more educated who believe the things I believe. Notice though they are not allowed on the news shows. Notice how the worlds leading intellectual, by all counts, is an American but he is never on American television. Notice how the one of the world’s leading scholars on the Israel/Palestine conflict and the literature surrounding it has never been on American corporate television. I could go on. The fact that the corporate media purposely shuns these people speaks volumes. I think the corporate media doesn’t want these people to be able to talk to the general population because the general population, upon hearing some of these things for the first time, might say, “wait a second, that makes a hell of a lot of sense even though Thomas Friedmann says it isn’t true. Maybe it is Mr. Freidmann, the acceptable type of intellectual, who is wrong or misrepresenting the facts to suit his, and his bosses, ideology and paycheck.”
There must have been a reason why no cable company picked up Al Jazeera English when it was launched. Maybe it is overt racism against Arabs or maybe it is that they offer a different voice that isn’t heard, and shouldn’t, be heard. So they went to YouTube instead, more on that later.
I think a better question is why do so many people believe things that are factually incorrect? Why does 95% of the US population believe in a higher power? Why did the Germans allow the Holocaust? I don’t know.
the rest of the world is wrong but you have the answers, i don't
get it.
Honestly I feel as if I am closer to what the rest of the world thinks then the average American. For instance, how many people, do you suppose, in America would say that the US President is the greatest threat to peace on the planet, not just Bush but whomever? How many Americans see the leadership of Israel a greater threat to world peace then the Iranians? How many Americans think it is a war crime to openly threaten other nations? How many Americans think their level of consumption to be ethical? How many Americans think Israel along with their own country are the biggest obstacles to peace in the Middle East?
On these and a whole host of issues I believe that I am much closer, in opinion, with the rest of the world then Americans are.
Then the question is, is the rest of the world wrong and America right? Is Ahmenijad the next Hitler? Did he really threaten to “wipe Israel off the map?” Why is there such a difference in opinion between Americans and the rest of the world?
Answers
I never claimed to have any answers. There are people with far greater minds with plenty ideas on how this world could improve for everyone. There have been studies that show the world could really feed twice the current population if we just allocated resources properly and changed parts of our diets, just to mention one. I think, that as a regular Joe, I can help to pave the way for social improvement by talking to other average people since that is the only way people can see that other things are possible. I am not delusional enough to think I am going to change the world but I am not stupid enough to think that facts can’t change people’s minds.
i think you need to become realistic
I think this is the language of addiction I was talking about earlier. “I have to be realistic about quitting my, whatever addiction, this week because external situations make it a unattainable.”
I think it is unrealistic to think that we can continue down this path without dire consequences. Maybe the world’s leading scientists are wrong, all 2000 thousand who are in agreement, and those five scientists paid by ExxonMobil are right. Personally I’d put my money behind the ones that write in peer reviewed journals as opposed to the ones that go on cable news shows.
I think it is unrealistic to believe, with all of human history available, that the leaders of Empires are benevolent to the world. Maybe I am wrong and the intellectuals who defend the right of the Empire are correct? They all have nice houses, who knows.
In reality I believe that overall things are constantly improving and moving towards a more humane American population and leadership. The examples are endless if one wants to go back and compare. People like Kennedy make Bush seem like a harmless guy. Christ, we nuked people only 60 years ago.
People are putting up with less and less of the bullshit they are being fed. As a result the news shows offer less and less difference of opinion because they know they are slowly losing grip. People are going on-line and finding other sources of news. If they want to see the truth about what is happening in Palestine they can log on to Israeli newspaper sites, which have far fairer reporting about the conflict than any American paper would ever print (which is odd). Access to information is a huge thing for freedom and democracy and that is why Big Business is trying to shut it down and control it.
Things are getting better no matter what the Bush-haters try to tell you. We have more freedoms no matter what those paranoid Ron Paul-ites try to claim. (I always tell those idiots to find an older black man and tell him he has less rights now than he did in the past.) Corporations realize that they are losing their grip and to top it off, they are beginning to collapse under their own corruption. Latin America is slowly throwing off the oppression of America and voting in left wing leaders, even people from their own ranks. Israel realizes that public opinion in America is starting to shift so they are quickly building a wall to set up their borders in one final land grab. Things are getting better.
One last quick example, a few years ago the Federal Communication Commission voted to allow mass consolidation in the media industry. Prior there were regulations about how many radio stations one could one, regulations not allowing the TV stations to own the newspaper in town and others. As one would logically expect the media was silent during the whole lead up to the vote. They never thought it was relevant to the American population to know that their parent companies were about to be given even more control over the information we receive. Once the vote went through, and the news companies were confident, they finally reported on it. As soon as the population was made aware of this change in regulation there was a massive out pouring of anger. The Congress received over a million letters demanding they overturn these new, for lack of a better term, regulations. That is one in every 300 people writing letters which says a lot, especially if one believes in that line about for every one letter writer there are one hundred people who agree with them. People as diverse as the NRA and MoveOn.Org teamed up with each other to make Congress overturn the laws and eventually they did.
Things like that give me hope for a better future.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
I'm at it again.
Yes I had to write to another community columnist. Basically this guy is against democracy as well.
Dear Mr. SMith
Do you think people should have the right to vote on anything or should we have some "managers" to make all of our decisions?
If people are not informed enough to make the proper decision isn't that the media's fault?
If we can't trust people to make rational decisions then can we trust the people that they elect to office?
Do you really know what the term "leftist" means? (I am surprised you didn't pull out the old bogey man, Socialists)
Why would anyone company want to come to this crappy town anyway? All the mass transit we offer? The great infrastructure? The fantastic race relations? The 50% unemployment rate of black men? So they all can live in tax heaven Waukesha county? All the great culture we offer? Clean beaches and water? The awesome parks system?
You seem to enjoy the talking point about entitlement mentality? Does this apply to Lockheed, Chrylser, the Airlines, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the S&Ls, or just regular folks?
Typically intellectual garbage. "Oh ya it is okay for government to bail out the big monied interests in America but not the poor. Because you see unlike the corporations who we bail out, poor people made bad decisions so they deserve it. The monied interests, which Thomas Jefferson warned us about, are the important people." What I love is how the conservatives suck up to the masters of the world in hopes of getting, I don't know, some favors? Or maybe they too think that are monied interests.
So-called Conservatives make me laugh. If only they were really conservatives and not proxies for the masters of the world.
Oh by the way my fiance is a small business owner. Though I think we have a different view on what a small business is. Do yourself a favor and reread Wealth of Nations.
Justin Loper
Dear Mr. SMith
Do you think people should have the right to vote on anything or should we have some "managers" to make all of our decisions?
If people are not informed enough to make the proper decision isn't that the media's fault?
If we can't trust people to make rational decisions then can we trust the people that they elect to office?
Do you really know what the term "leftist" means? (I am surprised you didn't pull out the old bogey man, Socialists)
Why would anyone company want to come to this crappy town anyway? All the mass transit we offer? The great infrastructure? The fantastic race relations? The 50% unemployment rate of black men? So they all can live in tax heaven Waukesha county? All the great culture we offer? Clean beaches and water? The awesome parks system?
You seem to enjoy the talking point about entitlement mentality? Does this apply to Lockheed, Chrylser, the Airlines, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the S&Ls, or just regular folks?
Typically intellectual garbage. "Oh ya it is okay for government to bail out the big monied interests in America but not the poor. Because you see unlike the corporations who we bail out, poor people made bad decisions so they deserve it. The monied interests, which Thomas Jefferson warned us about, are the important people." What I love is how the conservatives suck up to the masters of the world in hopes of getting, I don't know, some favors? Or maybe they too think that are monied interests.
So-called Conservatives make me laugh. If only they were really conservatives and not proxies for the masters of the world.
Oh by the way my fiance is a small business owner. Though I think we have a different view on what a small business is. Do yourself a favor and reread Wealth of Nations.
Justin Loper
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
My letter to one of the Community Columnists
This is an email I sent to one of the many idiots the Journal Sentinel picked to be a Community Columnist over me. Typical intellectual garbage. I thought I would post it just in case she responds. Here is a link to her column.
Dear MS. Carlson,
I read your column on Tuesday and was a little disturbed. Your essay was in relation to the proposed referendum to raise the sales tax to pay for various services. To be fair, I really don’t believe this is the right thing to do but that is my opinion, nothing more.
What I found so disturbing was your remark about how you applaud Mr. Walker’s veto of the resolution. I am a little confused by this remark because I figure that you must be an American citizen, most likely a naturalized one, yet you hold contempt for Democracy.
Why is it a good thing that the people’s right to exercise their right to vote should be thwarted? Shouldn’t people in America have the right to vote on an issue instead of having Government tell us we are not allowed to? Where does the Government get the right, or privilege, to stop us from voting? Is it that you believe Government is the best decider on all the issues and one man should be allowed determine everything? Because remember Scott Walker is part of the Government.
From where I sit this is classic class warfare. I really enjoyed the line about a radio caller who saves $30 dollars a month by not shopping in Milwaukee County. Because that is all it is about, me, me, me! Screw the rest. Why should any of you care if the old widow across town has enough to eat or can take a bus to the clinic? She made her choices and should have to not eat, right? Why should you care? It isn’t about the most important person, you.
I mean your essay was basically a stereotype. “I spend $500 dollars on garbage from a department store, while others can’t feed their children. I really need to have a plasma T.V. because I earned it. Forget all those others who made bad choices in life since everyone who is struggling is so because of the choices they made, not their parents, not the State, just them. Also while were at it, since there are more of them then there are of us, we better not let them vote.” What are we just the rabble who is allowed to “participate” in elections when you people decide we can.
Who the hell do you people think you are? Is Scott Walker now an elected Monarch? Is that the kind of system you would prefer? Where the more “educated”, or indoctrinated, get to make all the choices because the common person is to stupid to know what he wants. Of course, this is the same common person that the Right claims to be a champion for.
I am sorry if you think my rhetoric is a little heated but I believe strongly in Democracy, one person one vote, and you disagree. Democracy is supposed to be the law of the land, unless it may hurt your pocket book but allow others to find more work.
Nevermind, you only care about yourself, and by extension you family, and no one else. You hold contempt for the common person and their wishes. I am slowly beginning to see how the “right” in America is truly anti-american values. They don’t believe in elections, they don’t believe in a jury of one’s peers, they don’t believe in the right to assemble, they don’t believe in the right to free speech, they don’t believe that persons should not be unreasonably searched, they don’t believe in the right to a speedy trial, they like cruel and unusual punishment, and on and on. Oh wait they do believe that everyone should have the right to be armed to the teeth.
Opponents of democracy need to be unmasked for the good of the country.
The comedy is how you people label silly liberals as elitists because they drink fancy coffee. What is tragic is that people listen to you.
Dear MS. Carlson,
I read your column on Tuesday and was a little disturbed. Your essay was in relation to the proposed referendum to raise the sales tax to pay for various services. To be fair, I really don’t believe this is the right thing to do but that is my opinion, nothing more.
What I found so disturbing was your remark about how you applaud Mr. Walker’s veto of the resolution. I am a little confused by this remark because I figure that you must be an American citizen, most likely a naturalized one, yet you hold contempt for Democracy.
Why is it a good thing that the people’s right to exercise their right to vote should be thwarted? Shouldn’t people in America have the right to vote on an issue instead of having Government tell us we are not allowed to? Where does the Government get the right, or privilege, to stop us from voting? Is it that you believe Government is the best decider on all the issues and one man should be allowed determine everything? Because remember Scott Walker is part of the Government.
From where I sit this is classic class warfare. I really enjoyed the line about a radio caller who saves $30 dollars a month by not shopping in Milwaukee County. Because that is all it is about, me, me, me! Screw the rest. Why should any of you care if the old widow across town has enough to eat or can take a bus to the clinic? She made her choices and should have to not eat, right? Why should you care? It isn’t about the most important person, you.
I mean your essay was basically a stereotype. “I spend $500 dollars on garbage from a department store, while others can’t feed their children. I really need to have a plasma T.V. because I earned it. Forget all those others who made bad choices in life since everyone who is struggling is so because of the choices they made, not their parents, not the State, just them. Also while were at it, since there are more of them then there are of us, we better not let them vote.” What are we just the rabble who is allowed to “participate” in elections when you people decide we can.
Who the hell do you people think you are? Is Scott Walker now an elected Monarch? Is that the kind of system you would prefer? Where the more “educated”, or indoctrinated, get to make all the choices because the common person is to stupid to know what he wants. Of course, this is the same common person that the Right claims to be a champion for.
I am sorry if you think my rhetoric is a little heated but I believe strongly in Democracy, one person one vote, and you disagree. Democracy is supposed to be the law of the land, unless it may hurt your pocket book but allow others to find more work.
Nevermind, you only care about yourself, and by extension you family, and no one else. You hold contempt for the common person and their wishes. I am slowly beginning to see how the “right” in America is truly anti-american values. They don’t believe in elections, they don’t believe in a jury of one’s peers, they don’t believe in the right to assemble, they don’t believe in the right to free speech, they don’t believe that persons should not be unreasonably searched, they don’t believe in the right to a speedy trial, they like cruel and unusual punishment, and on and on. Oh wait they do believe that everyone should have the right to be armed to the teeth.
Opponents of democracy need to be unmasked for the good of the country.
The comedy is how you people label silly liberals as elitists because they drink fancy coffee. What is tragic is that people listen to you.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Monday, July 07, 2008
Mumia Abu Jamal On Nader and Obama
You know the fucked up thing is how many college age kids got behind Ron Paul and not Ralph Nader. Could it be that Ralph threw his hat into the ring to late for those kids to know he even existed? Or do they really want the destruction of the state as Ro Paul does? Or is it that they are fucking ignorant? My guess is ignorance.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
What was Clinton's problem.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela is to be removed from U.S. terrorism watch lists under a bill President Bush signed Tuesday.
The man became the President of South Africa and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but he is finally not a terrorist in America's eyes. This makes Cat Steven's refusal to be let into America seem logical.
The funny thing is that many Israeli apologists ask, "where is the Palestinian Nelson Mandela?"
The man became the President of South Africa and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but he is finally not a terrorist in America's eyes. This makes Cat Steven's refusal to be let into America seem logical.
The funny thing is that many Israeli apologists ask, "where is the Palestinian Nelson Mandela?"
?
Why is it that North Korea was allowed to build a nuclear bomb during the Bush administration but we are told this administration will not allow Iran to do the same? The odd thing is that North Korea has missile technology that allows them to reach the United States whereas the Iranians do not. Why the difference? Is it oil or Israel?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
