>>We are being enslaved with a national debt to pay for a protection racket for profiteers. This is nuts. <<
I've long understood that the best personal investment choice I can make is to pay off all bills bearing interest.
And for all my distaste of Clinton, a principal thing he got accomplished was the first concentrated effort that succeeded in reducing the national debt... even if some of the budget particulars were not the best available. It is still a notable achievement that reflects an occasional bout of sanity from the top.
But my intent is not partisan. The Oxy subsidies are a more egregious example of an unofficial but certain policy of corporate welfare that has probably benefitted oil more than any other. I don't submit to the either/or school of thought that this or any war is either about oil, or it's not. The fact is, once any war begins, it paves the way for political machinations that have little to do with the war effort.
Drilling Alaska, and every inch of coastline, will be among the initiatives advanced before the current spate of conflicts is over. However, I just don't believe many of the politicians are that far from what is wanted by the people who elect them.
As a nation, we individuals choose to consume 'just a wee bit' above the global median. We get discomfited when we look at some of the hidden costs of buck-anna-quarter breakfasts for our pet SUVs. So it's easier to blame the politicians, just like the Egyptians and Saudis shift the blame to Israel and Israel to the Palestinians and ya gotta know the Micks, Polacks, Wops, Wetbacks, Chinks, Gooks, Feminazis, Liberals, Jingoists, Jiggerboos, Commies, Lawyers, Lesbos, Fascist LandRapers, and Slacker Dipwads are behind this somehow someway.
Passing The Buck is the globe's #1 sport and only Selling It All For A Buck vies for equal standing in the truly Olympian arena.
We are paying protection for profiteers because we want something protected. It isn't all noble stuff like democracy and liberty, it's about a way of life that we can trim down some fat on, but hey, a bus is a bus, man, and we like our cars.
We also have some redeeming Virtues. The myth promoted by Other Land media is that we lack introspection. In fact, because of our civilly proscribed freedoms of thought, word, assembly and discourse, we debate the ethics of materialism and consumerism and Catholicism and Secularism, etc. constantly. We self criticize far more than our detractors criticize us. Our laws and history have an abundance of compassionate examples of the humaneness in our culture.
When our harping & carping & blaming & gaming get suspended, it's a voluntary thing, a national coalescing of resolve that warns the freshly threatening pack of hungry or angry wild humans to pursue less dangerous prey. We defend, with money, sweat and blood, and graft, our lives, ideals and our petty wants.
We work on our imperfections, which is a slow process because nations lumber along by virtue of their size. Bringing a conservation ethic into our culture is a healthy first step because it only pares fat, not proteins and carbs or even sweets.
We owe it to ourselves to tell the national parties that greater, even radical, conservation efforts are a non-partisan issue of national self-interest. It beats killing and ducking. It beats sending the paperboy to the frontlines to die. It beats supporting the corruption of the S&Ls and Enrons even when some days it's hard to discern if there really are standards in standard business practices.
I'm all in favor of hearing criticism where constructive solutions are added, even in wartime. Sustainable healthy markets can exist with low-fat consumerism. The only President who really made a modest stab at promoting that conservation effort was Carter, some 25 years ago. The others since have been utter failures. Designating wilderness areas and aiming to protect endangered species is insufficient. We consciously elect to endanger the human teenager especially, worldwide, when we neglect a much greater conservation ethic than exists today.
Our politicians will represent our will, when we establish the goal. Diligently. But part of our symbiotic ecosystem needs the gadfly pestering us to remind us of the need for fresh vaccinations against Type-A Complacency Viruses.
The same ecosystem has no need to submit to anyone, though, ever... except to our own common sense. |
