"Cause I'm as free as a bird now
And this bird you never change"
(when I was little I used to think "change" was "chain" which still makes sense)
Change I Can Believe In
America used to be the Land of the Free, but more and more of our individual freedoms are being eroded and surrendered in these current times. I'm certain that our Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves to see how easily the "people" are allowing the government to violate our basic, guaranteed freedoms that they devoted their lives to securing...
So many people have become so lazy that they think it is easier to let the government take care of them and make all of their decisions for them. Well, fine if they want that, but I DON'T. Here is a change I can believe in:
We should follow the example of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Divorce and allow our country to split into two. We could have one that wants to be socialist and the other that doesn't. Let's call them the USSA (United Socialist States of America) and the FSA (Free States of America). It would be pretty easy to find the geographical boundaries with the "left coast" joining with the upper midwest and northeastern regions to be the USSA, and the remainder becoming the FSA. If some are in a border area and don't agree with which side their state is becoming, then they can relocate.
There is enough unhappiness in the populace that many are grumbling and wishing for such a change. But we feel powerless. We feel betrayed, and we are in disbelief at our fellow citizens who are so willing to hand over so much power to the corrupt and bloated government that is exactly what our Founding Fathers rebelled against. It's shameful.
I'm ashamed of the "people" who are ruining our country and our Freedom, in the name of what? Economic security? Financial gain? Comfort? Power? All of the above. Sure, it might look and feel "easier" for the government to pay for all your healthcare, education, housing, food, air you breathe... But just remember who is the government and what those people are really after. They don't really care about your health and well-being. They only care about staying in their positions of power, influence, and control. They don't really care about fairness and equality.
It's not really possible or realistic to enforce some artificially created "fairness" in life. Life and Nature just aren't fair. The probabilistic nature of life is the reason that people vary so much in their life circumstances, such as wealth/poverty, health/illness, etc. In all its glory and accomplishment, science has yet to devise a way to control fate and the probabilities that determine how our lives turn out. Try as they might to tell us that they and we can control the climate and other forces of Nature, they are only engaging in wishful thinking and delusion.
Likewise, communism and socialism are creations of man that try to enforce some kind of artificial fairness and control over life and its circumstances. Sorry, but that will always fail. No matter how hard someone tries to make life "fair" for everyone, Nature will topple them. A personal example - it's terribly unfair that I've already lost my parents to illness while many others my age still have their hearty parents and can't even get along with them. No amount of government funding or other human intervention would have reversed these outcomes. I'm not asking for pity. I'm just giving a solid real-life example of the unfairness and uncontrollability of life.
Well, what do I know anyway? I'm just really sick and tired of all the sourpusses out there trying to tell us what we can and can't do, should and shouldn't think, what to buy or sell, how much money we are allowed to have, what we should and shouldn't eat, drink, smoke, or otherwise consume, and every other little aspect of our lives that we are supposed to be able to decide for ourselves. I'm over it and I'm ready for the Second Revolution.
3 comments:
Great, Rae Ann, now you're in my preferred universe of real change and real progress. But one could understand you in the sense of difference between political “right” and “left” preferences (especially with that “geographic” split idea), the “left” tendency considered as the origin of a “Soviet” kind of bureaucratic oligarchy, which is indeed a general form of today's Western decadence. But precisely, it happens under various changing governments, both left and right, and in all developed, officially always “capitalist” (= free-enterprise-based) countries. So the origin is much deeper than any conventional “politics”, and the related question is then what to do and how to advance towards something essentially better. I have my answer but am always interested in those of others. Usually my attempt to promote a greater, qualitative change in your world ends up in disappointment, kind of “they are not ready yet”. But problems in their strong enough, even catastrophic form are here and now, as you clearly noted, which means that “later” may be too late... I can only confirm, for example, that the (much less widely known) situation in such officially “great” activities as science (in particular, in the USA) is even more catastrophic and “Soviet-corrupt” than elsewhere, for a long time already, which starts being partially and “carefully” recognised even officially. One can easily imagine the critical importance of change to make in this kind of activity alone. So what the “Second Revolution” you mention may actually be like?
A “subjective” but equally important point is about one's personal feeling of the necessity of a “revolution” and motivation for it. It's relatively “easy” for me to be “advanced” while living in a godforsaken hole, sort of experiencing directly “what happens if one doesn't undertake the necessary change”. But in your relatively “replete”, always heavily over-producing society, even under the current “crisis” conditions (you've never seen what the real crisis is!), one would rather tend to be psychologically, even subconsciously lazy for a greater change. One can yet acknowledge that “we should be better”, “increase and ameliorate” (just like Soviets did during their last epoch and “perestroika”), but a real, qualitatively big change on the background of such dominating personal prosperity may appear personally inconceivable. [Just as an example of the “world” situation, for comparison: a “senior”, experienced scientist's income in a “European” and industrial country like Ukraine, with atomic energy and spacecraft production, is several times less than the minimum US income fixed by law (around 1000 $ I guess), with lower absolute supermarket prices in US, let alone much higher product quality.] This is to say, what is it that makes you “really care” in your case and ... aren't you alone there with it? :) I often ask myself how I would see it all if I had a comfortable Western life... And I know that I would probably feel different because I once had it, something like that... Good life spoils, practically everybody, irrespective of “political preference”. What are you going to do with it, masters? Now it's your turn to decide how to solve this “developed civilisation problem”, yet before your civilisation collapse...
P.S. Even your inserted music video says upon my trying to see it “This video is not available in your country or domain”. This is what I call the ultimate injustice: even the internet! :) But I would like it to be my greatest problem, of course. :)
i just re-read ayn rand's atlas shrugged over the christmas break. it is amazing that she could see this coming in 1957.
keep the faith, rea ann. i truely believe there's lots of folks out there like us. but in the last election cycle there was no one willing to play on our team. i'm hoping michael steele will help change the culture of the republican party back to a party that is truely conservative.
We've seen time and time again in other countries that there comes a time when it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands that tie them to another, and why can't it be peaceful more often? The dissolution of Czechoslovakia, for example, was carried out quite peacefully.
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