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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (148062)	5/23/2001 7:53:50 PM
From: Original Mad Dog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Excellent post.

To: greenspirit who wrote (148062)	5/23/2001 8:23:09 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie	Respond to of 769670

Michael, I agree with your post completely. I do believe that it is a little bit more insidious than that. I believe that the motive is important in looking at why the government encourages us to see ourselves as victims. I believe that it is the pursuit of power over us. Whenever we ask the government to solve a problem for us, we give the government power over us. It costs us, not only with our hard earned dollars, but in our personal integrity, since we give up the notion of personal responsibility. It behooves the politicians scrambling for our tax dollars to keep us thinking that we are helpless so that we all stand up and say "Something must be done!!!", Instead of actually getting out there and doing something about it ourselves. If charity is important to us (as a population), then we should get our collective butts out there and give a few dollars. We don't need an intermediary (the government) to collect the money and decide where it should go for us. The government is quite simply overhead. If having a comfortable retirement is important to an individual, they should learn how to save and invest. Social security is the biggest ponzi scheme around. Living in California, it is amazing the spin that the state government has put on the energy crisis out here. The are pointing to the cause as being the deregulation of the utility industry. Of course, there was never any real deregulation. How can you deregulate the wholesale side and not deregulate the retail side. The state basically forced the private utilities into a money losing situation (though PG&E and Edison went into it willingly). Of course, if you have state power (Department of Water and Power), there are no rolling blackouts. The state isn't subjected to the same rules as the private power distribution companies. So, Instead of completing the deregulation process to solve the problem, the state wants to go even further and pretty much take over the entire power distribution business in California. More power (pun intended) for the State. Whenever the government or a politician says that they know what is best for me, or how best to spend my money, or that I need the protection that they can provide, I ask myself what piece of my soul they want in return. And I don't care if they are democrats, republicans or independents. Of course, I am one of those librarians JMHO, JXM

To: greenspirit who wrote (148062)	5/23/2001 8:47:20 PM
From: SecularBull	Respond to of 769670

That should inspire some soul searching, assuming that the intended reader is truly interested in improving the human condition. ~SB~

To: greenspirit who wrote (148062)	5/23/2001 9:08:31 PM
From: George Coyne	Respond to of 769670

Well stated, Michael.

To: greenspirit who wrote (148062)	5/24/2001 2:16:09 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 769670

Excellent post and Thanks to both you and JXN! Sometimes I wonder why I/we spend time on SI....and then when we can see posts the caliber of these, it becomes clear!

To: greenspirit who wrote (148062)	5/24/2001 10:56:57 AM
From: Don Pueblo	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 769670

I was going to write a long thing about that same post, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. Scumbria's only two salient points are these (as I see it): 1. All human beings have something unpleasant they must hide, and any human being can be coerced into criminal activity. (Recall his "Give me $50 million and I can make 'anyone' lie under oath." or whatever it was.) 2. A human being is, in the final analysis, the victim of circumstances beyond his control. What I find interesting about that mindset are two things. First, it assumes that everyone on the planet has done something wrong/bad/illegal and is currently keeping it a secret and would be in some sort of trouble if it were found out, and second, there is some force or facet of nature or something that is more powerful than any person's individual will. These two ideas fit nicely together. It can all be summed up in one sentence - "It's not my fault." (I couldn't help myself, you would have done the same thing under the same circumstances, it's a disease, I can't control it, etc., etc.) The underlying concept also presupposes that all people are dirty. You have to assume that I am dirty, or the argument doesn't work. This is an old religious idea, and I don't like getting into debates about religion - but here is my point: If I am in fact dirty and am hiding something, and if I am in fact running my life off this idea that it's not my fault, then every other argument about how dirty everyone else is makes total sense. It's accepted as a "fact". You can't argue it! The "problem" is that once somebody has fallen for that, it is impossible to accept the possibility that they are not a victim. If you accept the fact that you can control your life and you are in control of it, then you have to assume responsibility for not only the good things you have done and can do, but the bad things you have done - and that's where the argument breaks down on a philosophical level. Some people do something bad and realize it's wrong and get straight and get clean, and some people don't. It's pretty hard to get clean if what you did was "not your fault" in the first place. The "It's not my fault, it's your fault!" people cannot accept the idea that there is anyone in the entire world that can control their own destiny, because they would then have to admit that it might be possible for them, too.