Some Thoughts

I get very worked up and concerned about our American cultural bent. I try to understand why it happens this way, outside of the monetary gain of a small portion of the world, and it does not make sense. So, I end up getting depressed, until I sit back and remember all of the good people out there sharing their lives with others. Working hard to make their little piece of the world a little better. There is a lot that can and has been done on a local level that goes under the cultural umbrella. As a recent ex-pat in Japan it seems easy sometimes to shun my home country and fret over the whole ordeal, but I find it more comforting to think about the good things that are going on. The folks at home who are talking and sharing and discussing options and the future. The small scale farmers, the family stores, the cyclists, doing their little bit to effect a change, voting with their dollars and their feet. The country is full of good people, some of its leaders ( elected and otherwise) are a different story.

Critical Mass

We can't go on in this vein, consuming our resources as fast as possible without regard for the consequences. The idea that we always find a way to overcome resource challenges is bunk, because we have always had more resources or people to exploit. If we didn't have the resources here we just got in our ships and stole them from somewhere else. The current global economic and ecosystemic crisis could be a turning point, could be where we say enough is enough. It is a chance to reevaluate our system and look at who is benefiting from the exploitation. We could start the long climb toward peace and happiness through fulfillment of social and spiritual connection, bipassing the consumer culture that is at the root of the problem. But the feeling everywhere seems to be that this is a hump to get over, everything will be good again, big houses and gas guzzling continue. We are on a collision course, we are climbing that last hill on the roller coaster but the tracks run out at the bottom, no more, done. Every generation looks back at its predecessors and thinks them idiots, naive, or uninformed. The idea is that they did not know as much as we do, but now we know so let us push on. Of course we are making giant mistakes of ignorance and claiming them as feats, we are following a long tradition.

The Campaign

As I see it, with a year to campaign the candidates don't accomplish anything but making the media richer, and their reputations worse. After a year of insults back and forth, once one of these candidates is elected how are we supposed to respect them? Half of the country will hate and distrust the President. If McCain gets elected people will say he is too old, disconnected and picked a stupid running mate. If Obama is elected people will say he is a terrorist and wants to turn the country into a dreaded socialist state. The issues have fallen far to the wayside as the last push of campaigning focuses on the new American pastime of publicly smearing one's "opponent."