Lemonade is for Suckers
When life hands you lemons some would advise you to make lemonade. Being somewhat more anarchistic I would advise you to hurl the aforementioned lemons at a passerby. Why not? It’s all in fun.
Allergy season is here and my head feels like a lump of concrete sitting there bobbling on my shoulders as I write this. The week has been rough on me already and it’s only day one! Some weeks are like that. I’m trying to organize my thoughts between burning eyes, violent sneezes, and itching ears. What the hell? There is definitely something in the air.
Bush – Do You Want Him With You or Against You?
George W. Bush definitely knows how to stand by his man and in this case it’s attorney general Alberto Gonzales. I don’t understand the President’s unwavering support for incompetence but he has demonstrated it famously with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Gonzales, and to a lesser degree with infamous FEMA “director” Michael D. “Brownie you’re doing a heckuva job” Brown. At this point wouldn’t you rather Bush not cast his support your way if you were in the line of fire? I wonder if this was how Britain felt when Bush belatedly chastised Iran for taking fifteen British sailors hostage. Was there a point when Tony Blair might have said to Bush “err, why don’t you just sit this one out old boy and we’ll get this mess sorted?” Maybe? I don’t know.
The most amazing twist in this attorney scandal is Justice Department official Monica Goodling pleading the Fifth Amendment which guarantees her right not to incriminate herself based on the fact that she might not tell the truth when questioned. She is basically saying “if I testify there’s a good chance I will perjure myself, and therefore I plead the fifth.” This is a new low and yet another lovely twist on the logic of the law. And these people accused Bill Clinton of being the tricky one.
Communication Breakdown
Honesty is in short supply these days. Personally I have always found honesty to be the only way to go – I’m basically too dumb to lie effectively so that’s easy for me to say. But really, sometimes the truth will lock you up but ultimately it will set you free. Life is a lot less tangled when you consistently tell the truth. You don’t have to cover your tracks or remember what you told when and to whom. Just be honest. When you screw up, admit it. If our politicians would employ this simple kindergarten logic we’d all be a lot better off. They’re all so fucking busy thinking that they’re smarter than the rest of us they can’t be bothered with such basic concepts as “truth” and “honesty.”
Find the Hypocrite in the Room
That’s an easy one, just find a mirror. We’re all capable of hypocrisy but our public servants are particularly susceptible basically because the institution is held to a higher standard than the people who comprise it. And that is the essence of hypocrisy – holding others to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. Plenty amongst us have a tendency to think pretty highly of ourselves and the best way to avoid being a hypocrite is to keep ourselves grounded. Make a concerted effort to understand ourselves, what makes us tick, and who we are.
Self-Reflexivity
When I was a young art student in Southern California the concept of self-reflexivity was pounded into my brain. To be a reasonable artist you have to have at least some idea of how you work. You need to be able to see yourself through other people’s eyes. It doesn’t mean you need to fit-in or succumb to peer pressure. On the contrary, by practicing self-reflexivity you gain confidence in your decisions and your path in life because you understand where you’ve been and where you are going. It also means you understand your weaknesses as well as your strengths.
You and I are Not the Same
This is the lesson I have learned this year. You don’t think like me, I don’t think like you. Certainly there will be similarities. In some cases there may be two people who think very similarly – but never exactly the same. We won’t necessarily react in the same way to the same stimuli. We won’t show stress the same way or communicate the same way or understand a set of circumstances the same way. We think differently. It’s a healthy thing to keep in mind when dealing with other people and dealing with other people has a great deal to do with living this crazy American workaday life. Damn it wears me out sometimes.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Call it What it Is
At this point it should be clear that the term “terrorism,” as used by our government, refers specifically to radical Muslims who are willing to inflict death and mayhem upon a civilian population in order to establish and enforce a society based upon a strict and conservative form of Islam. If we agree on that then we understand we are basically fighting a war against a train of thought. It could also be reasonably argued that whether we like it or not we are involved in a “holy” war – a clash of cultures, and a battle over beliefs.
So are we fighting this war the right way? My personal belief based on an incomplete and basic understanding of human nature is that we are not employing the right tactics and that in many instances we are only exacerbating the problem by fighting a belief system with military reaction.
I’ve said it before but I believe we missed a golden opportunity to turn the other cheek when we were attacked on September 11th, 2001. Nineteen people did the unthinkable. Nineteen people. We had a chance to unite the world, to demonstrate that we are a tolerant nation based on law but not on vengeance. Instead we reacted violently, carpet bombing civilians in Afghanistan, leveling football field sized swaths of people with cluster bombs dropped from B-52’s. We were indiscriminant in our reaction.
Then we inexplicably turned our sites on Iraq. We’ve carried through on the old adage of “bombing them back to the stone-age.” We turned the metropolitan city of Baghdad, one of the birth-places of civilization, into rubble. People there die every single day trying to buy food for their families. A recently released British memo states that the methodology used by census takers who estimated between 600,000 and 650,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the War on Iraq is sound and robust. 650,000 people – 2.5 percent of Iraq’s total population. That’s over 200 times more people than were killed in the attacks on the twin towers. How much blood do we demand in vengeance?
We’ve created fear, unemployment, desperation, and hatred. These are the very emotions and conditions that make a strict totalitarian regime feasible. These were the exact conditions that existed in Germany after World War One and lead to the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich.
When a people are beaten and humiliated to a point where they are forced to live like animals that is when religious extremism rises up. Through our actions we are beating ourselves in the very war we created.
Borat’s slip of the tongue is apropos, this isn’t a war on terror, it is a war of terror. We’re showing the world that we can kill more people than anyone and we’re right. But you can’t kill an idea with the military.
The solution to “terrorism” is pretty simple. You need to provide people with a more attractive alternative. That means bolstering economies, promoting education, encouraging cross-cultural communication and tolerance. Easier said than done for sure but why do I feel like we are working hard at moving in the wrong direction?
Same Goes for Immigration
I get frustrated with the over-emphasis on illegal immigration that’s been going on lately. Honestly my feeling is this – if some Central American or Mexican makes it into this country and then with little or no education, no valid identification and not even a strong grasp of the language “takes your job” then you must be one stupid worthless ignorant motherfucker. Sorry, that’s just the way I feel. We have one of the best educational systems in the world and as American citizens we have so many advantages that illegal immigrants do not.
People travel to this country because their own countries have crap economies and they want to make some money. These are the people we should want in our work-force.
Ignoring the Writing on the Wall
Of course if we keep plowing ahead like we are, ignoring the economic writing on the wall and spending more than we’re earning then we may all find ourselves sneaking into Mexico looking for work. We have an aging population that we are not going to be able to afford – our medical system is broken, and Bush’s war without end is going to strain the nation financially for decades to come. The divide between the rich and poor grows wider every second while the politicians squabble over “non-binding resolutions” and try and figure out whose going to run for President twenty some odd months from now. It really makes me wonder what the Hell is going on around here.
Kind of makes you wish you
So are we fighting this war the right way? My personal belief based on an incomplete and basic understanding of human nature is that we are not employing the right tactics and that in many instances we are only exacerbating the problem by fighting a belief system with military reaction.
I’ve said it before but I believe we missed a golden opportunity to turn the other cheek when we were attacked on September 11th, 2001. Nineteen people did the unthinkable. Nineteen people. We had a chance to unite the world, to demonstrate that we are a tolerant nation based on law but not on vengeance. Instead we reacted violently, carpet bombing civilians in Afghanistan, leveling football field sized swaths of people with cluster bombs dropped from B-52’s. We were indiscriminant in our reaction.
Then we inexplicably turned our sites on Iraq. We’ve carried through on the old adage of “bombing them back to the stone-age.” We turned the metropolitan city of Baghdad, one of the birth-places of civilization, into rubble. People there die every single day trying to buy food for their families. A recently released British memo states that the methodology used by census takers who estimated between 600,000 and 650,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the War on Iraq is sound and robust. 650,000 people – 2.5 percent of Iraq’s total population. That’s over 200 times more people than were killed in the attacks on the twin towers. How much blood do we demand in vengeance?
We’ve created fear, unemployment, desperation, and hatred. These are the very emotions and conditions that make a strict totalitarian regime feasible. These were the exact conditions that existed in Germany after World War One and lead to the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich.
When a people are beaten and humiliated to a point where they are forced to live like animals that is when religious extremism rises up. Through our actions we are beating ourselves in the very war we created.
Borat’s slip of the tongue is apropos, this isn’t a war on terror, it is a war of terror. We’re showing the world that we can kill more people than anyone and we’re right. But you can’t kill an idea with the military.
The solution to “terrorism” is pretty simple. You need to provide people with a more attractive alternative. That means bolstering economies, promoting education, encouraging cross-cultural communication and tolerance. Easier said than done for sure but why do I feel like we are working hard at moving in the wrong direction?
Same Goes for Immigration
I get frustrated with the over-emphasis on illegal immigration that’s been going on lately. Honestly my feeling is this – if some Central American or Mexican makes it into this country and then with little or no education, no valid identification and not even a strong grasp of the language “takes your job” then you must be one stupid worthless ignorant motherfucker. Sorry, that’s just the way I feel. We have one of the best educational systems in the world and as American citizens we have so many advantages that illegal immigrants do not.
People travel to this country because their own countries have crap economies and they want to make some money. These are the people we should want in our work-force.
Ignoring the Writing on the Wall
Of course if we keep plowing ahead like we are, ignoring the economic writing on the wall and spending more than we’re earning then we may all find ourselves sneaking into Mexico looking for work. We have an aging population that we are not going to be able to afford – our medical system is broken, and Bush’s war without end is going to strain the nation financially for decades to come. The divide between the rich and poor grows wider every second while the politicians squabble over “non-binding resolutions” and try and figure out whose going to run for President twenty some odd months from now. It really makes me wonder what the Hell is going on around here.
Kind of makes you wish you
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