I have recently discovered a wonderful place for dialogue: youtube. I know, I'm a bit behind the times, however, the power of youtube is self-evident. It is a forum for voices that usually go unheard. I realize there's a lot of crap on youtube, too. But, there's serious discussions of serious issues going on.
I recently participated in a discussion on the presidential candidate Ron Paul. Paul is currently a representative from Texas. He is smart, idealistic, anti-war, and libertarian Republican. I tought it would be educational to engage Paul supporters on youtube, so I visited one of the video postings of the Republican debates. The video featured Ron Paul's comments.
While it was refreshing to hear a Republican berate fellow Republicansabout their support of the Iraq war, I still had my doubts about libertarians. My comment on youtube was "I am pleased to see Ron Paul is against the war. However, I wouldn't ever vote for Ron Paul." I figured someone would bite, and they bit like an alligator.
I have studied libertarianism and political philosophy, so I had some background. However, I was not prepared for the barrage of defenders that would do everything from call me an "ass" to others willing to debate. The debaters, I took on.
We had a lively discussion. One thing that stood out was that they are anythig but a homogenous bunch. They vary in many ways, but most agree that the Federal government has too much power. And, they also believe that a free market, ala Milton Friedman, would bring America out of the dark ages of capitalism into the bright light of...uh...capitalism? Well, they were assured that the market corrects all problems--global warming? Leave it to the market! Pollution, corporate corruyption? leave it to the market! Unsafe working conditions, low wages? Leave it to the market! and so on.
After days of exhausting debate, I threw this letter together for one of my more friendly debaters. It is as follows:
Mattes50A05, I want to thank you for your polite patience with me. You are truly a respectable person, and I offer my hand to you. I keep forgetting that I can send a longer message this way. Still, I like the public nature of my comments. I've never been afraid to say what I need to say in public. By now, you may have read my comments on line. I said, I've declared that I'm a socialist/libertarian.
Here's a critique of much of what I heard from Paul supporters.
I don't know how old you are, and I would never assume you're unwise because you're younger than me--there's nothing an older person ever taught me that was any worth. Nonetheless, I was commenting to someone ellse about how pessimistic and cynical, even angry, most younger people are today. look at many of the responses on youtube. They seem to have little hope, and that lack of hope, I think, comes from a cynical/pessimistic culture and cynical, pessimistic, even nihilistic leadership in our country--that goes for Clinton, too! Dems and Repubs both.
There's much to be cynical and pessimistic about. Young people have to work twice as hard to get half as much as their parents did 25, 30, 40 years ago. Indeed, when I graduated from high school in 75, I was able to pick from 5-6 factory jobs that all paid between $12-15.00 an hour, back then! Today, you're lucky if you can find a job paying $7- 9/hr. out of high school. That would piss me off too.
But, young people's response is, not to question that loss of real wages, but to glorify the coming of an era where you're worth less (not worthless) to your corporate masters, even while CEO's today are being paid 400-500 x's their predecessors. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and yet, libertarians seem to blame the poor for (your and) their problems. "I don't want my tax dollars going to help some lazy SOB!" I hear libertarians say, but not once did I hear them/you complain about corporate welfare, which far-exceeds personal welfare in every material and economic way.
Your response is that of Friedman, who I have read, by the way, with different eyes, along with Adam Smith, among others, that a truely free market will correct itself, that it will somehow create this utopian world. Like IO told this old friend of mine who is a PhD in economics, This is very naive, because it underestimates how powerful and manipulative and corrupt the wealthy of this nation are.
Meanwhile, you guys cry for individual freedoms, all the while you get your cheap products from people who work like slaves for slave wages to make your cheap products, or froil from countries we steal it from or pay off leaders to give to us cheap.. What freedom do they have? Working 12-16 hours a day for subsistence wages. They were happier when then were self sufficient farmers on their own land, which was taken by corrupt governments and rich corporations.
Empathy for others is hard, and I know you may have worked hard to get what you have: amen to you, brother. However, until you walk a mile in a poor person's shoes, you can't understand their situation. I grew up poor. I know. But, also, I read...a lot. Like, I never understood slavery until I read Frederick Douglass' Narrative of a Slave. I have since read at least 6-7 others. They say you have to know history to keep from repeating its mistakes. Well, it's no mistake that slavery has taken on a new face: it's called sweat shop labor.
Empathy, Mattes! I say this to you because you seem like a nice enough guy, but I sincerely believe you ignore certain facts in order to maintain your libertarian perspective. And, let's face it: Why should you pay attention to what happens to "others". You're white and male, so everything you were taught in school made you feel good about your whiteness and maleness, since all the heroes in history books are white and male, with a few women and a couple blacks thrown in to make you feel good about how whites helped blacks and women. Everything you see on TV, in the news, most of the political leaders, CEO's, nearly everyone in power is white and male. That's very reassuring.
Jesus said, Blessed are the poor, not blessed are the rich. Jesus, himself, knew poverty. He didn't totally despise wealth, though. He just expected those of us with the means should share with those who don't have enough.
I'll end with this: Until you have thoroughly run the rounds with literature about people other than yourself, people who think and live differently than you, you're probably going to continue to think I'm full of shit.
remeber, peace is only a mind away--yours!
peacelf
I think this summarizes much of how I feel. I understand the gulf between me and them and I don't blame or judge them in anyway other than I disagree with many of their views on the grounds I mentioned above. Nothing personal. I mean it when I say I love humanity. And, to think we are all fortunate enough to share the same planet in this broad and wide universe! Well, I wouldn't want it any other way. It keeps life interesting.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Sicko Review
On June 29th I went to the local movie house to see the most important movie/documentary to hit the silver screen. The movie is Sicko by Michael Moore. The importance of this documentary stems from its subject matter: that is, the failures, shortcomings, and problems associated with the American healthcare system. Moore brilliantly forgoes the obvious approach to viewing the issue of healthcare in the U.S., focusing not on those who aren't covered (including myself), but on those who are supposedly covered.
Moore asserts that our current system of for-profit healthcare is not only unfair in its requirement to pay for healthcare, but that its inhumane to refuse treatment to people who are sick, injured, etc. for reasons the healthcare companies deem "not covered." Moore cites case after case of people refused for coverage on their healthcare claims for various reasons, some life or death. These victims of American healthcare are contrasted with patients in countries that have universal healthcare, like Brittain, France and Canada. European people see healthcare as a human right, therefore, there is no question of coverage or payment. Everything is covered, no citizen is refused.
Many critics of universal healthcare will say that countries like Canada that have a single payer government system will be waiting in line for healthcare, that people can die waiting for coverage. Well, in those countries, waiting for coverage may be necessary. However, doctors,not healthcare companies, decide who waits based on need. An emergency takes priority over a nonemergency. The hard facts are most industrialized nations enjoy healthier, longer lives thanks to universal healthcare. And more importantly, the infant mortality rates are lower than the U.S.. Given these two statistics, how can anyone argue against a medicare for all program.
Still, some detractors will fight to keep the profit in healthcare--I hesitate to call it healthCARE, because health insurance companies have taken the care out of health. It would be more accurate to call it the health industry. As most other industrialized and , even third world, nations understand, healthcare is a right, not a privilege. My hope is that a candidate who wants universal, single-payer healthcare is elected in 08.
peace is only a mind away
Moore asserts that our current system of for-profit healthcare is not only unfair in its requirement to pay for healthcare, but that its inhumane to refuse treatment to people who are sick, injured, etc. for reasons the healthcare companies deem "not covered." Moore cites case after case of people refused for coverage on their healthcare claims for various reasons, some life or death. These victims of American healthcare are contrasted with patients in countries that have universal healthcare, like Brittain, France and Canada. European people see healthcare as a human right, therefore, there is no question of coverage or payment. Everything is covered, no citizen is refused.
Many critics of universal healthcare will say that countries like Canada that have a single payer government system will be waiting in line for healthcare, that people can die waiting for coverage. Well, in those countries, waiting for coverage may be necessary. However, doctors,not healthcare companies, decide who waits based on need. An emergency takes priority over a nonemergency. The hard facts are most industrialized nations enjoy healthier, longer lives thanks to universal healthcare. And more importantly, the infant mortality rates are lower than the U.S.. Given these two statistics, how can anyone argue against a medicare for all program.
Still, some detractors will fight to keep the profit in healthcare--I hesitate to call it healthCARE, because health insurance companies have taken the care out of health. It would be more accurate to call it the health industry. As most other industrialized and , even third world, nations understand, healthcare is a right, not a privilege. My hope is that a candidate who wants universal, single-payer healthcare is elected in 08.
peace is only a mind away
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Critical Theory
One of the most influential areas of study in my life is critical theory. Critical theory is the study of applying critical thinking to every aspect of our lives. Mostly, I've studied critical theory in its aplication to education and politics. I have also delved into areas of cultural criticism as applied to movies and books. Beyond that, I've utilized my knowledge and experiences in critical theory and applied it to religion, particularly Christianity and the Holy Bible. It has caused some problems.
I have been kicked out of a Baptist church for expressing my beliefs about The Holy Bible. One of my beliefs that got me in trouble is that the Holy Bible is fallible and subject to criticism. For whatever reasons, many Christians believe the Holy Bible is the "word of God," and according to many Christians, infallible, that it is perfect and that God spoke to/through the authors. As many people are aware or becoming aware, the Chrisitian Bible, while containing many wise and valuable truths, was corrupted by the Roman emporer who in 325 C.E. assembled a council in Nicea to decide which books or Gospels about Jesus would be included in the New Testament. Many gospels were excluded, particularly the gospels found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945.
In light of these discoveries and revelations about other gospels, I have come to consider the Holy Bible as one book about the search for truth. Indeed, in many passages of the Bible, if one substitutes the word "truth" for "God" the Bible takes on a whole new meaning. It is those nuggets of truth that must be extracted from the other stories in the Bible, the stories about genocide, slavery and women being treated poorly or ignored.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, the light." In the Nag Hammadi gospels, like the Gospel of Thomas, we hear of a slightly different Jesus, a Jesus who preaches about a mysterious truth that is both hidden from us and right before our eyes. Jesus' paradoxical truth was the message of love: love one another and we will have heaven on earth. No one can deny the wisdom in that statement, especially in a time when humans have within their power nuclear weapons that could annihilate the planet.
Loving one another is no mystery. The real mystery is why we can't see how important, how paramount our loving each other is to the survival of our species and other species on this tiny lifeboat called earth. Cornell West says our politicians are nihilists, with few exceptions (maybe Al Gore is breaking away from Nihilist thinking). They want to destroy our planet, exploit it for every possible dollar, then what? Move on to the next one? And like the poor Irish immigrants on the lower decks of the Titannic, most of us too poor to get a seat on the life boat, we'll go down with the ship.
It is critical theory that taught me to sort through the Holy Bible, it's genocides and slavery, it's heirarchies of power and social controls to see Jesus' Holy light shine through, as the truths we should glean for humanity's sake.
Peace,
Saty
I have been kicked out of a Baptist church for expressing my beliefs about The Holy Bible. One of my beliefs that got me in trouble is that the Holy Bible is fallible and subject to criticism. For whatever reasons, many Christians believe the Holy Bible is the "word of God," and according to many Christians, infallible, that it is perfect and that God spoke to/through the authors. As many people are aware or becoming aware, the Chrisitian Bible, while containing many wise and valuable truths, was corrupted by the Roman emporer who in 325 C.E. assembled a council in Nicea to decide which books or Gospels about Jesus would be included in the New Testament. Many gospels were excluded, particularly the gospels found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945.
In light of these discoveries and revelations about other gospels, I have come to consider the Holy Bible as one book about the search for truth. Indeed, in many passages of the Bible, if one substitutes the word "truth" for "God" the Bible takes on a whole new meaning. It is those nuggets of truth that must be extracted from the other stories in the Bible, the stories about genocide, slavery and women being treated poorly or ignored.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, the light." In the Nag Hammadi gospels, like the Gospel of Thomas, we hear of a slightly different Jesus, a Jesus who preaches about a mysterious truth that is both hidden from us and right before our eyes. Jesus' paradoxical truth was the message of love: love one another and we will have heaven on earth. No one can deny the wisdom in that statement, especially in a time when humans have within their power nuclear weapons that could annihilate the planet.
Loving one another is no mystery. The real mystery is why we can't see how important, how paramount our loving each other is to the survival of our species and other species on this tiny lifeboat called earth. Cornell West says our politicians are nihilists, with few exceptions (maybe Al Gore is breaking away from Nihilist thinking). They want to destroy our planet, exploit it for every possible dollar, then what? Move on to the next one? And like the poor Irish immigrants on the lower decks of the Titannic, most of us too poor to get a seat on the life boat, we'll go down with the ship.
It is critical theory that taught me to sort through the Holy Bible, it's genocides and slavery, it's heirarchies of power and social controls to see Jesus' Holy light shine through, as the truths we should glean for humanity's sake.
Peace,
Saty
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The choice for war is a choice for poverty
I have a t-shirt that says "Fight War not Wars" with a large peace sign affixed in the center of those words. I am a peace activist, have been all my life. I don't ever remember a time when I didn't want peace. Who doesn't?
Some may believe war is inevitable. I believe war is only inevitable when people, especially our leaders, believe it is. Sure, we live in a dangerous world. There is much violence, but the greatest act of violence, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi said, is poverty. The disproportionate distribution of wealth and resources is the greatest single act of violence in the world.
I think Jesus meant for us to understand that problem. He, afterall, spent his life trying to teach us to love one another and share our resources, so that we could have God's Kingdom here on earth.
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, (and I'm paraphrasing) The Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you. People just can't see it.
They cannot see it because they have not tried to see it, or imagine it. JohnLennon wrte the song, Imagine" to try to capture that ideal, to imagine a world that would eliminate poverty, a world where everyone had everything they needed. If you imagine a world like that, believe it will happen, then we will be one step closer to being that world.
War is greed perpetrated through violence. Make the choice to love your neighbor, act on that choice, and the world has already changed for the better.
Some may believe war is inevitable. I believe war is only inevitable when people, especially our leaders, believe it is. Sure, we live in a dangerous world. There is much violence, but the greatest act of violence, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi said, is poverty. The disproportionate distribution of wealth and resources is the greatest single act of violence in the world.
I think Jesus meant for us to understand that problem. He, afterall, spent his life trying to teach us to love one another and share our resources, so that we could have God's Kingdom here on earth.
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, (and I'm paraphrasing) The Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you. People just can't see it.
They cannot see it because they have not tried to see it, or imagine it. JohnLennon wrte the song, Imagine" to try to capture that ideal, to imagine a world that would eliminate poverty, a world where everyone had everything they needed. If you imagine a world like that, believe it will happen, then we will be one step closer to being that world.
War is greed perpetrated through violence. Make the choice to love your neighbor, act on that choice, and the world has already changed for the better.
Hello and Welcome
As my first entry into the blogosphere, I'd like to introduce myself by briefly describing my intentions for this blog. Who I am is not important, and may only prejudice the reader/blog participant, so I will try to remain anonymous, with the exception of my discussions, which will reveal more about me than any single person usually knows about another.
As the title of my blog and gmail suggest, I am on a quest for truth. I firmly believe that the search for truth requires a broad discussion, or a dialectical conversation encompassing any and all topics. I am a participant in that discussion, though I may make some assertions in my writings that I hope will be provocative and incite discussion. Moreover, if I make an assertion, I do not propose it to be fact or fixed. Indeed, I am only making assertions in the tradition of, say, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who says "speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today..." ("Self-Reliance"). Thus, if someone teaches me to change my mind, I will. But, they must provide proof or damning evidence to change my mind.
The main focus of this blog, though, will be politics, religion/spirituality, philosophy, culture and truths. I include politics and culture in this discussion, because I believe they most affect our thinking and sometimes blind us to the truth.
So, without further ado, let the blogging begin...
Peace,
Saty
As the title of my blog and gmail suggest, I am on a quest for truth. I firmly believe that the search for truth requires a broad discussion, or a dialectical conversation encompassing any and all topics. I am a participant in that discussion, though I may make some assertions in my writings that I hope will be provocative and incite discussion. Moreover, if I make an assertion, I do not propose it to be fact or fixed. Indeed, I am only making assertions in the tradition of, say, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who says "speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today..." ("Self-Reliance"). Thus, if someone teaches me to change my mind, I will. But, they must provide proof or damning evidence to change my mind.
The main focus of this blog, though, will be politics, religion/spirituality, philosophy, culture and truths. I include politics and culture in this discussion, because I believe they most affect our thinking and sometimes blind us to the truth.
So, without further ado, let the blogging begin...
Peace,
Saty
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)