Hokum's Razor

Hokum’s Razor

It is as fine as frog’s hair the difference between an educated citizenry and the ability of those in power to control those that are educated. The tipping point between complacency and moral outrage is a very fine line indeed. I’ve lived through the last 50 years as a distracted yet interested observer. Education is, after all, a life long endeavor and the greatest equalizer. The trick is to know what to observe, study, and learn opposed to what you are being fed, manipulated by, and placated by as you go through your life minding your own business.
The propaganda is subtle but the corruption is complete. Morals and values are replaced with painted on patriotism and misplaced loyalty. Yet these are how Americans want to follow their leaders. Things that may once have been a part of our republic and its values are misplaced when we expect them from the extreme end of capitalism and the manipulation of religion. We have a country of fundamentalist fanatical consumers.
I don’t remember when the turning point was for me, around my mid-thirties perhaps, when I realized that there was a drastic diminishing return with regards to my happiness and my debt load. I had been caught up in the marketing and advertising to the point where the seasons of my life were defined by the things I owned. A snowmobile, ski trips, and ice fishing for winter. Fishing gear, a canoe, and travel in spring. A boat, a motorcycle, a sports car, and so many other things for summer, and all of the above in the fall, but the service I had to put into supporting all those things diminished rather than enhanced my life.
I turned away from the pursuit of material goods as a way of defining who I was. To my credit card companies I’m a free loader, only using my cards to make purchases and then paying off the total amount. To others I may appear as being cheap or frugal owning electronics and vehicles until they stop working and can’t be repaired. And to listen to our Presidents Bush, and I’m sad to say, Obama I’m not much of a patriot because my first impulse is not to go out and make purchases to give the economy a boost. Though I have made purchases as my needs demanded for durable goods.
The primary factor in any equation for capitalism is growth. Listen to any economist and growth is the key healthy indicator for any sector. And this single factor is behind every negative aspect in our society and the planet.
When traffic patterns, vehicle fuel consumption, the destruction of public transportation, and speed limits are considered, all of them contribute to the need for more fuel, more oil, more gas stations, more tires, and more repairs.
When scientists develop food sources through gene manipulation and other methods to increase yields, the cost goes down visibly, but the cost on the planet in the use of fertilizer, land, and water is unseen and not taught to the public. Another aspect of this, not immediately visible is the growth in the global population. Where, in the past, population was a factor of naturally available food sources and organically grown crops, population is now out of balance with the natural ability of the planet to support it. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is a result of contaminants and run off from upriver. Another contributing factor has been the levee system that prevents silt, a natural by product of flooding, from nurturing the delta groves.
Electrical generation has been a factor of demand also. Larger homes need more lighting, cooling, and heating. Larger homes need more construction material, more furniture, and more maintenance. Everything is designed to encourage consumerism, capitalism’s extreme. But it does promote growth.
With larger homes, cars, boats, and toys more insurance is needed, more protection, and more attention. The loans necessary to buy them also cost more money. A home purchase for 150K can wind up costing twice that with interest over thirty years.
Larger people also need more care and maintenance, especially if they’ve been fed the processed foods we eat and use tobacco products, all approved and sanctioned by our leaders.
The citizens in this country are nothing more than the support system for corporate greed. Regardless of the patriotic rhetoric, religious overtures, and outright manipulation all of who we are and what we do is a designed to enrich a very small percentage of people. The deck is stacked against morality, simplicity, and common sense.

Yes, disillusioned...

Yes I’m disillusioned. It isn’t about where to live or what country is better than America. That tactic is the type used to distract people from the facts of what has happened here in the USA. We were a republic founded on basic human tenets that have been evolving in western society for thousands of years. Our democracy was a culmination of human clarity with regards to human dignity.
It has become a polarized country where the extremes of the political spectrum dictate the course of our future. Both sides claim to be sanctioned by god and trust that they have the right to impose their beliefs on others. The truth, the way forward, is as it has always been a moderate, middle of the road compromise that takes the best of both sides of the discussion to maintain our core freedoms and beliefs.
It is amazing to me that the argument becomes, “where else would you live”, or “America is the greatest country in the world”, which is just hyperbole designed to galvanize weak minded, ignorant people, that have no understanding of history or are incapable of thinking for themselves. During their education the importance of history is never explained to students and how it gives context to our place in time. The USA is just the latest of places of which people felt the need to migrate to. It used to be where hunting grounds were teeming with animals, or where learned men gathered to listen to each other’s ideas, or where people could just live without the threat of others invading them.
In our short history of just over 200 years, we wiped out entire native civilizations, fought a war over state’s rights (their right to enslave people), despoiled our own air, water, and land, waged wars based on lies, convinced everyone that owning things is more important than being sensible and honorable, and corrupted the very values and freedoms this country was founded on to nurture.
In every discussion about our economy the word “growth” is the core factor for the good health in this regard. It is repeated until any that listen to it become inculcated with the message. It is a form of brainwashing, used to great effect by Rovian neo-conservatives, to justify its ulterior motives, which is to subdue, control, and manipulate the citizens of this country into subservience. Unchecked growth in nature most times results in nature pushing back in ways that the growth does not anticipate. In humans it is cancer, in economies it is recessions and depressions, in nature it results in the massive die off of the offending entity after it has depleted the host environment.
What I am most offended about is the drumbeat of capitalism, entrepreneurship, and consumerism. That these activities are the epitome of human evolution and their ends justify all means. This attitude is the driving force behind the destruction of public transportation, the super sizing of homes, and the Hummer, which in turn has culminated in our dangerous dependence on foreign energy sources. This dependence then justifies the military industrial conglomerate that is tasked with maintaining, protecting, and usurping those supplies. In turn the consumerism that promotes growth (cancer) is allowed to flourish. The problem is for most American citizens, that we are saturated with material goods, as far as it pertains to consumer markets. The result of this is our manufacturing and electronic based services are exported and outsourced, which are euphemisms for given to other countries. This is done to create new middle classes that are not saturated with material goods and they become the new viral consumers. It is also the reason why illegal immigrants are tolerated and allowed to continue. It is also the reason why all the regulations earned by our American labor are not enforced overseas, along with the lack of controls in the manufacturing process, and the destruction of the labor movement in this country. Thus growth for corporations in every sector is maintained while the standard of living diminishes for a majority of American citizens, and supposedly the standard of living in other countries is improved. If we were to try to lift the rest of the world to the apex of our standard of living, well it just isn’t possible, nor in retrospect should it be an aspiration.
Yes I’m disillusioned.

What would Jesus Charge, Socialized medicine advocate, or Hippocratic Heretic

For all the arguments against President Obama's health care reform it caused me to consider the many aspects of Jesus's teachings and professions.
What would Jesus charge to heal the sick, as he did, and what would the patient's co-pay be? What the heck would the code be for Lazarus? Would Lazarus have to pay for the rest of his life?

Would lepers be charged more because they were lepers? Did Jesus refuse to heal those that could not pay? Did the purported prostitute Mary Magdalene have employer provided health care? How much of Judas' 50 pieces of silver go to health care?

Did Romans, because they were roaming, have to pay more because they were out of network? And are they the ones responsible for the roamin' charges on cell phones? And did Jesus refuse outright to treat Romans because they crossed over the border illegally?

What would Jesus think, as a carpenter, of splinter groups of Christianity? And since he made crosses, was this technically a pre-existing condition for him?

As a Fisher O'men, (amen), did he qualify anyone as a dangerous catch? Would he have thrown anyone back? And do you think he would eat seafood from the Gulf of Mexico after the spill and release of oil?

As a Bouncer (money changers), could he have healed himself if he had thrown his back out, and if not, who the heck would he go to see, not a Pharisee I'm sure, to get healed?

As a Speaker, Preacher, Storyteller, why didn't he ever have a Crystal Cathedral, podium, or arena? Most of his sermons seemed to have been standing room only. Would God have been his TicketMaster also?

How much of a Military did Jesus recommend when turning the other cheek?

Another Matyr to Sanity

To Tyler Clementi and his family bless you all in this time of hurt and pain. There are and there never will be anything that can heal this.

To those that preach, criticize, and condemn him for his nature, your time will come when you will have to answer for it. That which cannot be defined or described, god, will apply his levy.

To all of those that profess their beliefs through their religions be it Christian, Muslim, Judaism, Hindu or what have you, and harbor hate in their hearts for any of god's children, or foster through their support wars, your hypocrisy will stand out most of all, it is evil from the very source of all evil...and you all are more on the side of evil than that of good...

Sir Thomas More's Quote, Philosopher, Statesman, Author...Saint

"When statesmen forsake their own private conscience
for the sake of their public duties
they lead their country, by a short route,
to chaos"

Me lie, you lie, we all lie, and people die...

Since the justification for going into Iraq, WMDs, the Iraq-Al Qaeda link, and the imminent threat caused by the Saddam Hussein regime was non-existent, how do we resolve and absolve the crimes committed by our country against humanity?

If we as a people, citizens of the United States, allow murder in the name of our defense then we are not worthy of our heritage, legacy, or presumed sense of superiority.

It is not by chance that action, sanctioned by our belief in god and our self-proclaimed belief of god's belief in us, has resulted in a diminished world, diminished freedoms, and squandered opportunities to lead. When led by fearful emotions, inculcated by the steady drumbeat of leaders with ulterior motives, the result is a population of cowards who deserve not, that which was won by honorable actions, the American Legacy.

The so called political leaders, Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld with the hands of the military corporations controlling their words and actions brought us back in time 50 years, when lies brought us to Vietnam. Where is the hue and cry now, where are the brave and fearless, they linger and wallow in the mess of their possessions and the satiety of their excesses.

At what point do people become sell outs? How and when do the rationalizations overwhelm the underlying good nature of people where they can then justify the corruption they enable?

At some point the noble ideas of creating a world that benefits the most people while destroying the least amount of the world has been left far behind in our rear view mirrors in the name of capitalism. Our economic model is based on rampant unchecked consumerism in the name of promoting capitalism. And this is not to say that the best aspects of capitalism cannot be appreciated though they cannot be if they inhabit only the far end of the spectrum.

Consumerism, entrepreneurship, businesses, and corporations are representative of capitalism’s success but these exist because our system allows them, they exist because citizens have allowed them in their present form. They are not possible without the support and collusion of citizens that provide the engines that make them possible they are marketed to us, propagandized, and their value to our lives an inculcated mantra of things we can’t live without to the exclusion of everything else. It is a symbiotic relationship and ignoring this fact, taking the capitalist constituency for granted, is what brings us to the brink of anarchy.

The hubris, I need to create a word that defines prideful hubris, that the champions of capitalism possess totally ignores the contribution, resilience, and faith of the people which endure despite their exploitation. To listen to those on the far right talk all that is good in our nation resides solely in realm of capitalism.

The greatest accomplishment of this uber-capitalism is the elimination of accountability. By leaving tort reform unresolved, occasionally paying it lip service, along with escalating the costs of, and ubiquitous applicability of, insurance, the once sanitizing act of responsibility is taken out of our society as a way of identifying and eliminating corruption. The evil aspects of human nature, the worst of which are the exploitation of our fellow global citizens and earth’s resources, are now sanctioned and accommodated through the equation of costs divided by benefits. There no longer is any value to holding anyone accountable for anything. The payoff happens the parties involved are placated with monetary awards and the cost of all of it is dissolved into the vast wealth of our consuming passion labeled capitalism.