Our society. Damn, it's fucked up. Do I really need to go into detail? I think we can all agree on this. All right, nothing new, I know. But I have an explanation. I am of the firm belief that the vast majority of society's problems, if not, all of society's problems, are the result of symbolism. Yes, symbolism. Think about it: every man, woman, and child has their own ideas, own intuitions, own beliefs. These ideas are complex; they are built upon the thinker's life, experiences, and interactions with other ideas that this person has. So no idea is just something in and of itself, it is more of a nexus; an information center with connections to all sorts of other nexi (ideas). One can't define an idea by a singular definition. In order to fully understand the internal structures, implications, and connotations of an idea, one must also understand the other ideas and experiences surrounding it. However, people rarely, if ever, take the time and effort to wholisticly and completely explain their ideas. Nobody sits down with someone for 12 hours and gives a complete discourse on why they think "X" band is the best, or why "Y" book stinks. So in our society, we have all the little fragmented ideas floating around. None of them are complete (from the vantage of others, at least) and none of them completely represent the original intent behind them. Here's where the problem lies: when 2 crippled ideas that, in their complete form would have been perfectly compatible, meet we see dissonance arise. Because idea A is missing some valuable connotation, idea B cannot fully understand it, and thus cannot agree with it. Then human nature kicks in, expanding a philosophical disagreement into whatever the hell kind of disagreement it wants, usually a physical one. Symbolism. I was talking about symbolism. So symbolism provides a facade for these crippled ideas. Don't want to spend hours explaining why you support America? Wave a flag and be done with it! Don't want to give a lecture on why your favorite band is the best? Sew their patch onto your backpack and be done with it! Of course, in place of listening to you rationally explain your reasons for choosing, someone with a different opinion only has that little patch to go on. So naturally, they're going to disagree with you if they think some other band is better. Of course, they're not going to explain their reasoning either. So both of you are relying on the use of symbols to make your arguments, while the real meeting of ideas never takes place. Then it escalates, etc. Another example: someone feels pride (for whatever strange reason) in America after the Sept. 11 attacks. So instead of standing on their porch, giving an oration on every piece of belief and information that feeds into their ideas, they hang an American flag off the front of their house. Osama and his crew see this surge in blind nationalism, and, missing out on the connotations and purposes of the patriotic displays, decides to retaliate. The United States, not aware of the complete rationale and emotions behind anti-Western sentiment in the Middle East, decides to retaliate against their retaliation, ad nauseum. If symbolism had never been used, most of this argumentation would never have started.
Wow... so, that was a bit philosophical, I guess... but it explains where I'll be coming from in later posts. This is the main psychological idea that drives my philosophical and political arguments.
Anyone so arrogant and thinking them selves so much better than everyone else that they can "ride high" and waist so much fucking fuel honestly deserves to be beaten with bamboo rods until one of two things happen. They become more humble or they die. Pride is the route of all human evil. Anyone who thinks them self too good to for something ought not exist as far as I am concerned. There are few things worthy of death in my book, not murder, not rape, but pride. Pride is to hatred like no one would ever admit. Pride is why we have social classes. Pride is why individuals waist tens of thousands of dollars on ornate and valueless belongings while there are people elsewhere struggling to survive. Of course we would never go out of our way to help another because, hell, were Americans.
Running off on a wild tangent now, and yet somewhat still involved in the previous topic is my idea for a better social system. I believe that all information should be free. No more personal information, no more hidden info, no censorship, and no more fear of nudity. It would take about a decade to get used, although society probably would never truly adapt and then the government would collapse as all good governments do. As my father said when talking about Strom Thurman "Why doesn't he have the common decency just to curl up and die already" This too holds true for good governments when they get past their prime and start to over regulate and people like Al Gore start appearing wanting to force morals upon us through a fucking V Chip and the such. And this leads me back to my point, how can we force morals upon someone if morals are dependent on the family. In my family there has never been any real big thing wrong about nudity on television. We understand that it is a human body and that as such we all have the parts and we have seen them before. If you have never seen your self naked then something is obviously wrong with you. Well anyway getting back on topic I believe that all children should be taught to respect their parents by being beaten with rods until awed at their parents mere image, wait that's not my point but that works too. My real point is that I believe the working man, the man who pounds in the rail road ties and the man poring molten steel should be making the most money. Not the fucking record execs that sit on their mother fucking fat asses all day doing nothing but whine that their not getting money for selling nothing any more due to the realization by people that they are paying money for nothing. Instead people realize they can get this god damn nothing off the internet, and god damn it this leads me back to Palladium and I need to save this for my IWW paper. Well that's it for now
The government should lock up and arrest any person that decides to buy an SUV. I think that Jesse would agree with me on this particular subject in saying that any perosn would throw away money that they could be using to do incredible amounts of good in this world. But no they decide to spend their money on perpetuating or dependece on gas and thus the middle East, and also our natural rescources of our national parks. SUV drivers symbolize the wrongs of mankind and the reason that man will eventually fall . . . stupidity, ignorance, and elitism. The three ideals that every person who drives around a fucking Cadillac Escalade SUV - terrorists!
I've had this idea for quite a while, stupid as it may sound, its still mine. I believe the air planes might have been crashed into the towers by secret service agents or the such. It was all an attempt to attain a reason to attack the Middle East. One huge "dog waging"(if you don't know of this you should see the movie 'Wag the Dog'.) I honestly don't trust any government or any politician for that matter. I am pessimistic of the future and paranoid of the present. I can't get my mind off Palladium (not the element (if you don't know what it is, ask Jeff or Nick)) right now but I need to save it for my paper in Intermediate Writers Workshop.
Can anyone explain to me what America is doing about limiting nukes or any other weapons of mass destruction in this world? Because it seems to me that we are continuing to build our piles of missiles and arming up the wazoo while we hell at other nations for having weapons of mass destruction. NO nation is going to stop building weapons of mass destruction when they have nations right next to them or on the other side of the world that are able to obliterate their nation in about 20 minutes or less. If any nation stopped building weapons they would be buffoons because they are threatened by our weapons. And yet we Americans are complaining that Saddamm has weapons stock piled, eventhough they can't find traces of weapons or any radioactive material, while we America practically brag about the weapons that we have. To tell the truth to a good portion of this world . . . we are the threat. We are the terrorists that are killing innocent civilians, brother, fathers, mothers, and sisters, while at the same time we blame all the other nations of the world for the wrongs committed against them. I dont' hate America or believe we are the Universal terrorists but all I am saying is that by building nuclear weapons and so on we are only perpetuating more and more countries to mount some defense against the US, the effect then is cyclic. (Kind of like the situation in Colombia, but that is a wholly different blog!)
I am glad to see that NATO is having some difficulties with the nations of Germany and France and so on, and I hope that this dilemna persists. NATO is a horrid orginazation that will create another large scale war. I said will because as we have seen in our past when nations feel threatened they ally together and so on and so forth until WAR! I believe that if we continue to threaten smaller nations with military alliances they will create military alliances of their own. The middle - Eastern countries could ally, and then maybe China could ally and then possibly North Korea. This is very far fetched but potentially likely if NATO continues to be a dominating militaristic force. And this is why I am glad Germany and France are providing some dissidence because hopefully that will remove some of NATO's power and create a much less powerful military alliance and won't threaten nations into military alliances with other nations!
I am sorry but it is true Bush is doing so crazy messed up shit in office and I definitely think that there are plenty of black helicopters. There is no question in my mind that America wants oil and oil especially from the middle East. I also believe that Bush is a fascist and that yes if we don't watch out he will become a lot more powerful then he should be in the confines of a democracy. Again and again I talk about it but our civil liberties are getting displaced . . . According to Carrie Lucking if you rent Mien Kampf (or whatever) or the Anarchist Cook Book you get put on a list. All I am saying with this blog is that yes Ben, especially, a government can be corrupt and can have devious purposes that aren't released to the public. And all I want is for people to keep their eyes open and think about how could a 400 page document be released 10 days after September 11th regarding September 11th and the actions we will take against it? If there are Black Helicopters we will have to grab our guns and shoot them down!
I guess just about anybody can get on this blog now-a-days... I remember the good ol' days when we were elitist bastards, and wouldn't let just anybody on... granted, it's actually ALWAYS been like this...
Furthermore, Paul, nobody "trembles" or "bows" in your "presence".
Australia trembles with my words, and France bows in my presence, this can only be the start of something great
I'm looking forward to a good "relathionship" as well... or am I being "to" optimistic, Andrew?
