07 December 2009

My Ideal America

If I could have it my way, I would reshape this country into something different. What once was the land of the free has become the home of the working slave. Freedom is intoxicating to whole who have it; it leads to corruption when there are not enough eyes watching. We live in a world where every corporation seems to be fingering the loopholes of the laws intended to make this a good place to live. This is a rant. This is a message to everyone, not just the government, but entire chunks of the population. This is my ideal America. In it, ...

... every one is treated with respect and equality.

I'm not asking for money or public services, I'm just asking for homosexuals, blacks, immigrants, atheists, believers, and all other classifications to be treated with dignity and allowed the same public freedoms as everyone else. It is no sweat off my back to accept these people into open arms, why is it so hard for everyone else? Because god says they're bad? Because a bunch of 'em beat up your neighbor? When you oppress a people, you turn them against you. By treating others as lesser beings, you are inducing the very systemic problems you complain about. My philosophy in life is to treat others to a good life so that my life will in turn be as good. Only a blind cynic can doubt that.

... taxes are seen as purchases of civilization, not tools of oppression.

For everything we ask of our government, we must pay in taxes. The platform of reducing taxes for the sake of lower and middle class relief is a false beacon. The focus should be on doing better with the taxes that are in place. I won't pretend to know how to do that down to the detail, but I do know that there is waste everywhere we look. From every war we wage on vacuous concepts (terror, drugs, profanity, etc) to the resources necessary to track every citizen; waste, waste, waste. Every precaution leads to an escalating arms race, but none of it is necessary if there is no problem to begin with. The immense amount of money that can be saved by the relaxation of control can be spent on the actual freedom that we were told we had while growing up. If you want to claim necessity in a large standing army, you must first make the country a place that its citizens are proud to defend. The paranoia is so great that my own tax money is used to spy on me. This is injustice and I am not proud.

... basic necessities are provided for.

As an individual without health care, I am disgusted that my only choice for medical attention is to feed an industry driven by profit. If the problem of wasted taxes is resolved, there should be no problem with providing health care for everyone. Having recently injured myself, the fact that I could not see a doctor because it would be a total hit to my bank account for no other reason than the irresponsibility of the for-profit health care industry was humiliating. I pay my taxes like everyone else, but I am self-employed and the only way to get insurance is to pay close to $400/mo (for my age and location) for it. No fucking way. Other countries have figured this out, why can't we?

... citizens actually care about each other.

Capitalism has killed our kind spirit. When someone begins to rant about their hard-earned money and how the less fortunate can't have any of it, it makes me want to massage my temples. This is economic isolation and it saddens me that people have adopted this competitive and mean-spirited mentality. We are a collective society. No matter how different you think we all are, everyone's well-being is related. A condo in Bel Air is worth more than an ivory tower in the wasteland of Detroit. The term Socialism has gotten some pretty nasty press, but it is too bad that people don't realize how much of our society already runs on its model. Socialism is a necessary part of any society that favors its citizens over corporations or the nation itself. Do not fear for the fate of your dollars if you and your neighbors are taken care of.

... the culture is not based on debt.

The Federal Reserve is a private bank. It is not a government institution. Our nation's entire currency is based off of debt to this bank. Think about that for a while. When you purchase things, you don't pay with money, you pay with debt, and then you spend years of your life repaying.Once you get into debt, your choices shrink. You can't quit your shitty job because you need to keep paying off your interest. You have become a slave to the things you own and to the banks that gave you permission to purchase them. Nobody is stopping the banks from working like this because everyone's in on it. This recession won't stop consumerism because all we've been told about escaping low economies requires us to spend, spend, spend.

... the foreign policy is "live and let live."

It is sad that the US has such a large role in so many atrocities these days. From Iraq, to Israel, it feels like there is some serious money to be made from the chaos. I wouldn't know though, I'm just a regular guy trying to do what is best. So, how can I rest knowing that my money and vote goes toward these wars, occupations and coups? I find no pride in imperialism. It would take a fraction of the budget that we spend on war to completely revamp the education system and fund innumerable technologies across the country. There is no sense in telling the young generation to stay in school while you turn around and send their older siblings to war.

... there is no nationalistic pride.

Nationalism is the most idiotic source of pride that I can imagine. If you were to tell me that I am better than an Iranian because I am American, I would call you a fucking moron. Actually, I have a lot of envy for the hearts of the Iranians who continue to protest, but I do not envy their current situation - which is far more responsible for said "heart" than the symbol stamped on their birth certificates. There is no special bond that you share with your countrymen that you can't get cheering for a sports team. Alas, sports are to war as porn is to sex. You're likely to have more commonalities with a foreign colleague than with a compatriot and the myths about national dispositions are laughably generalized. If this country allows so many people to be taken advantage of by old rich white men who don't give a shit, then there is no reason to have any pride at all.

I cannot imagine any sane consumer-friendly arguments against my concerns, only those that stick up for "the principle" or some submissive citizen mentality. I'll definitely hear them out, though. I think for myself, and I think we should all be thinking about each other. There is no god to say if anything we're doing is right or wrong, so we should probably just be trying to help everyone. Make the short time we have in this life the best experience possible.
Posted by Andrew Gonsalves at 11:44 PM
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4 nibbles:

  1. Great points and although I'm not American, I hope your country would be the way you suggested. I think every country should be like that, also my Slovenia. And I really hate nationalism.
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  2. "There is no god to say if anything we're doing is right or wrong, so we should probably just be trying to help everyone. Make the short time we have in this life the best experience possible."

    A surefire way alas to poison your own message. How so? Well as ever, let me posit that there are two rough groups of people likely to read this, those who agree and those who don't. Let's see, call them the converted and the not-converted.

    If you're preaching to the converted, by all means, include theological or theosophical justifications. You're only dancing the dance of celebration though because they're already converted, and so fruitless is this exercise that "preaching to the converted" is an idiom meaning no less that "Wasting your time".


    If however you are preaching to the un-converted, like it or not there is a powerful chance they theology or theosophy or outlook on life at the level deities real or imagined, differs from yours, and that they are passionate about theirs, offended by yours and suddenly suspicious of your motives, inclined to argue with you and form contrasting views if only to differentiate their identity ... from you, eveil scum sucking atheist you!

    Ha, ha ... I mean I'm one of the converted. Nice picture, and as good a justification as any (albeit bizarre, there are also no martians to say if anything we're doing is right or wrong, but for some reason they didn't warrant a mention, nor did the fairies ...).

    Perhaps, maybe, you were picking a fight with the god believers specifically, oh, so they'd be off side and not hear your charming message? O.K. Granted it was a rant. My feedback is simply that it's much more powerful rant without the last two sentences, inordinately more powerful and likely to leave an impact on the collective conscience of mankind ... (I kid ye not! The difference between one religious bigot reading this and finding nothing but admiration for it, it's general appreciation for others, open love and caring even, and none at all, is the difference between a vain offering and a measurable and significant impact on the human psyche).

    Lest ye forget most of those who don't already agree in principle with your agenda here, happen to believe there is a god and he does say what is right or wrong, through scripture, through visions, through whatever their fantasy dictates. The irony is, that very god, at least for Christians, your dominant class of bigot in the U.S., dedicated all of his New Testament to pretty much the same message as you've presented above, if anything a step further ...

    I wonder in fact if, in those moments you've managed to avoid mention of your theology Andrew (or lack of it if you prefer that turn of phrase) you have ever, as have I (who is no less an adamant atheist and iconoclast), experienced someone asking you "Are your Christian?" with a look of disdain ... simply because of views you expressed with regards to other human beings. It's happened to me a couple of times most around women, when I'm in a car - a ride I thumbed - with a passionate redneck who uses rather base language around them and his relationship to them, and I offer moderating views of respect and care, or love and affection (in place of sex and abuse). Now and again such a man has cast a suspicious look at me and asked "Are you Christian?".

    I'm genuinely curious if you've experienced that. It's just an experience that epitomizes for me the burying of divisive theological agendas. It's not that they are irrelevant, there are times I engage in intense polemic on the matter, just that they needn't colour our beliefs. Humanism needs no justification in theology (or atheology), it stands strong, alone and ought to be judged for its merits independent of any theology (or atheology) as far as possible ...

    Bernd.
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  3. Bernd: I am not really trying to be sensitive to an opposing point of view. In fact, I've never felt intimidated about my choice of ideology. I've been knee deep in rednecks before (*shudder*) and simply held my poise as a "sophisticated city boy." Even won a poker tournament as the skinniest, whitest, most liberal yankee in the room. They called me "the foreigner." Nothing regarding politics or religion ever came up though. I do wonder what would happen, because I'm fairly certain that I would not lie or digress if the event arose. I would see it as an opportunity to turn a light on. Possibly at the risk of getting hurt.
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  4. The risk is always there. But possibly heightened by amateur deception over and above any level honest ground standing would produce. Tact is one thing, pretense another. I like your poker story, reminds me not only of my own experiences but poignantly of one Jacob Holdt described in American pictures. A situation in which in his seven years of penniless road tripping he ascribes misfortune to his uncharacteristically disingenuous approach.

    But it's not ground standing I was actually referring to, but tact and a question of motive. If the motive is to influence people, all I meant to say was leaving that last line off will improve your chances dramatically, that's all. If the motive is to vent and rant, it's arguably enhanced by a "so there" last line ;-). And perhaps I was projecting the former motive upon it as it stood very solid ground in that field until the last couple of lines and frankly I cherish good writing that promotes good thinking (i..e influences people).
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