I've been having some thoughts that are decidedly not politically correct and I'm not sure how to deal with them. Maybe I'll use this old blog that nobody has gone to in many months to air them. Perhaps somebody will give me an argument, or an agreement, or an earnest discussion. Let's just see if anything happens.
Let's face it. Everybody dies. Some die young, some die old. Suffering is a part of life. We should be compassionate with one another as fellow sufferers and mourners of the dead. Is it really the government's responsibility to try to put an end to these normal facts of life? Wouldn't it be better for the government to concern itself with the distribution of resources and wealth, and especially to stop directing resources and wealth into destructive activities such as war and the corporate destruction of the ecosystem? Wouldn't it be better for the government to direct its energies into helping each person discover his/her capacities/aptitudes, and then empowering each person to do meaningful, constructive work according to his/her capacities/aptitudes, channeling the resources and wealth so that each person can make a sustainable living doing meaningful, constructive work? Then each person could afford his/her own preventive, basic health care. Government-funded health care could be reserved for emergencies, and for those massive, life-threatening conditions and diseases which are by-and-large caused by the destruction of the ecosystem due to government-funded corporate greed.
Well, huh? What?
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Well yes to all that. I regret that politics - being what it is - attracts very few people who do not have self interest at heart - or their own convictions about what is right and wrong. Too often in Australia and the USA now we are getting the laws that the religious right want. In Australia it is - for example - illegal to discuss euthanasia on the telephone or Internet (No I am not kidding) and the government is just about to bring in an Internet 'filter' so that we cannot view sites that contain stuff we should not see. i.e. How to shoot up safely, how to kill yourself if you are terminally ill and dying painfully. This is nonsense because there are many ways to get around filters - but the government is doing this because of religious pressure. I could make an argument that religion is the single most destructive and poisonous influence on the planet right now - and will get worse in the future.
ReplyDeleteJim - have you tried Google wave yet for chat?
Badger, thanks for your words. I didn't think anybody was looking at the blog anymore since I haven't been doing anything to promote it. It's all about Facebook these days. Politically in USA, on the left it is PC to support Universal Health Care. I think that's a good start, but I can understand the libertarians who say people need to take the initiative to take care of themselves and not expect the government to solve their problems. Unfortunately what we have is a vast, desolate wasteland created by government-sponsored corporate greed. People are so broken by it they can't take care of themselves. The paradigm shift required is daunting. Recent books I have read by Bill McKibben and Thomas Hartman have given me some hope. This is the kind of thinking I wish more people would do.
ReplyDeleteWe all will die, we all suffer. Even the richest man in the world will suffer loss of loved ones, sickness (probably), and death, and other tragedies.
ReplyDeleteIt is up to us, each individual, to make the best of it. If joining the Elks Club or a church, or sending money to a charity like the Red Cross is our personal way to make the world a better place then we should follow our leading. Or join the peace corps, or volunteer at a hospital. But NO NO NO, not the government! The government is almost by definition inefficient and corrupt. Also, when you say "the government" you are talking about the people in government at the time. These people will now make decisions on who to give money to so they can have a better life. At the same time they are deciding who NOT to give money to. Also, all this "government" money is STOLEN money from the people. Almost impossible to get away without paying taxes. It is like the mafia, they will get your money. Any time you say "the government" should do "this" or "that" you are saying that John Smith or Mary Wilson or Andrew Jason or Jim Nail should work for free for x amount of time. The income tax was first proposed to be limited to 2%. "2% is nothing, nobody will mind paying 2%." Now they add a 1/2 % to sales tax, nobody will mind. But the taxes keep on increasing a teensy 1% at a time, nobody will care. Yeah right. Have you ever heard of the straw that broke the camel's back? Taxation is slavery. It is the forced work for nothing in return. It is the forced work for whatever the government decides to give you later. Right now half the people in this country do not pay taxes. So the other half is supporting these people! It is scary to me. There is going to be a tax revolt. It cannot go on forever. The government is broke and printing money. And we should not be all over the world fighting wars either! The money for those wars should not be spent on other things. The money should be returned to the people it was stolen from.