Crisis @ MindSay

This is an elaboration to a comment I made on a post by namastelaoshi 

Before starting, I'll state that I am not a Bush supporter, I am neither Republican or Democrat, and I am not encouraging you to go bludgeon businessmen with their own briefcases(though that would be nice on youtube).

Blaming Bush for the economic crisis, I think, is similar to blaming a fireman for a mugging. In free-market capitalism, it isn't the president's job to regulate the economy. According to the constitution, he is Chief Diplomat, Commander in Chief, Chief Administrator, Chief Legislator, Head of Government, and Chief of State. He can help the economy, but it isn't what he was supposed to be elected to do.

The problem, as I see it, is that socialism has been incorporated into a liberal democracy. I have nothing against social democracies, mind you, they can work quite well for small nations. In the US, though, I very often see people living off of welfare, and then bitch about such and such candidate implementing socialism.

I think what I'm trying to say is this: Liberal democracies(nothing to do with liberal vs. conservative) do not protect you from the downsides of life, they only give you the liberty to go for the upsides, and if you get sick, lose your job, etc... and theres nothing to help you, tough shit. Social democracies give you freedoms to do whatever you'd like as in a liberal democracy, but also give you protection from the major pitfalls in life(healthcare, unemployment, etc...). Those are the ones that intervene in the economy.

The U.S. is a Liberal Democracy. Because of this, it has the lowest tax rates of any developed western nation. It is not the government's job to protect the economy, or to bail it out when it fucks up. Free trade will (supposedly)fix itself in time. Honestly, I don't think you can place blame on Bush or any of the government for the crisis, though it IS their informal duty to manage such a crisis after the fact. Blame him if you want for the deficit(I do), but unless you convince America its socialist, you can only blame the actors in the American economy for the crisis.

I do find it kind of funny, though, that so many people think the US isn't at least partly socialist at this point. A number of people I spoke to before the elections stated that they wouldn't vote for Obama for the sole reason that he is a socialist. They were always surprised when I told them the idea of the state funded college they were attending, retirement checks, medicade, welfare, food stamps, etc... were wholly socialist.

The things that get me the most are the people like my uncle, though. He recieves a disability check monthly. His "wife" does also, as well as a compensation for her ex-husband who was a soldier KIA in 2002 I think. The three children she has each recieve a compensation, as well as my uncle's one child, a child-support regiment, and I think, a large helping of food stamps. All-in-all, it totals several thousand monthly, which, in my opinion, is a whole lot of money for doing a whole lot of nothing. They are in no way, shape, or form, good parents or productive members of society; neither parent works, two of the three young ones are barely literate, and all of them except my cousin(the oldest) are bordering on neglect.

Before I rant on further, though, all of this is to make a point. Their entire livelyhood is based on the fact that they can mooch off of a socialist system(s) in a modified liberal democracy. I don't set policy, so that isn't my problem. What bothers me about it is that they supposedly deplore socialism, they swear up and down that socialism and communism are identical, and they rant and rave against any politicial figure that supports it.

To cap off all of this, if you want this changed, if you want the government to actually be responsible for the economy rather than just throw money into the hole, start a referendum, and actually do something. All it takes is one little constitutional amendment.

In any case, if you've gotten this far, I'm up for spirited debate if you disagree with me.

I have this tendency to vent my emotions, every time some incident occurs that affects others on a global, national, or societal level, by means of writing down every ounce of my thoughts. Today I write about an event, actually a series of events – triggered by what was visibly a mere gun-shot, but swiftly evolving into a number of shots, a couple of bomb blasts, unnumbered casualties and riots activated by frustration – that occurred last evening. It left my country, not only with the loss of a lot of treasured lives but unleashed on us the frustration of thousands of people across the country who took to the streets proclaiming their anger for the assassination of the politician who they were supposedly “religiously devoted” to.

But what sort of way is this, to prove one’s love and dedication? Burning up cars and trucks, breaking shops and people’s faces, terrorizing others around you – it all symbolises a nation submerged so far deep into frustration that it would take nothing less than a supernatural force to drag it out before it drowns. And what we do within the boundaries of our lavishly decorated homes, while watching this on TV is shake our heads with disappointment at the conditions of our country. Curse the politicians, curse the people, curse the country, then have dinner and plop down on our beds for a good night’s sleep. Oh and then when we cannot find the excuse for the occurrence of the event – cannot find enough witnesses to blame it on – we blame it on Islamic extremism. Yes of course, our brother by religion Osama sitting in some god forsaken cave of Afghanistan – the Director of world wide terrorism – is always ready to take the blame! Some video or the other miraculously appears out of no where just in time to prove to the world that it has INDEED been Al-Qaeda that blew up some random truck in a random part of the world. It is this kind of a supernatural force – one that conjures up videos on the nick of time and knows EXACTLY how to manoeuvre the media – that our country needs to steer itself towards sanity.

We are a nation, numb – devoid of any feeling whatsoever towards the agonies constantly being inflicted on our society as Pakistanis and as Muslims. Every time an incident occurs that could be classified as miles apart from humanitarianism, our television channels are bombarded with the most retarded of songs and video clippings to commemorate the loss of whatever it is that has been lost. Television channel logos go black and white to represent the supposed grief our nation feels. Three days later, it is back to the same old half clad girls prancing on television to sell the most unnecessary of products and worthless TV shows that make our lives miserable rather than easy. If we were not so numb, such events would have easily triggered an unstoppable revolution that would have reached far and wide affecting us positively and leading this nation-gone-astray closer to sensibility. I am not saying that we live forever inundated by the tears of grief for the destruction around us, keeping aside everything else. Life has to be taken as it comes, but at the same time what is happening should NEVER stop affecting us. Things need to be done individually and collectively. It is exactly events like these that caused the Third Estate in France to rebel and bring about a revolution, discarding the monarchy, corruption and uneven distribution of wealth that plagued the country. Burning and breaking what belongs to our country and people is not what will lead to the revolution. It is intelligently using our strength as an unstoppable mob to bring down the selfish, power-thirsty individuals that are constantly struggling to force us into a hypnosis of helplessness and poverty of money and free-thinking.

"The people who sat in darkness

have seen a great light,

And upon those who sat in the region

and shadow of death

Light has dawned."

 Matthew 4:16 

 

Why do so many of us experience deep dispair in our lives?

Why do we seem to struggle through crisis after crisis

without celebrating the fact that we already made it through crisis after crisis already?

Why do we make wrong choices,

that bring pain and loss into our lives ... over and over?

Why do we struggle and strive just to have as much as  ... or more than our neighbor?

 

Are we choosing to live in darkness,

or receiving the Light?

 

Life is about choices;

About learning to make the right choices ~

Choices that lead to compassion,  satisfaction, fulfillment.

 

~ B

 

What makes you really happy?

I find myself so uncompelled to watch televisions shows because I know what is going to happen. I can predict the next scene and therefore the mystery is comepletely gone. As I think about this, why is it that in my own life I want to know it all, and better yet, I think that if i did have this knowledge that I would be happy....and the verdict is in and I am fooling no one. So now what, I am 23 in a career that most would say is successful, but yet very unfulfilling, and do not know what to do next. Is it wrong of me to think that I can be so good as to tackle a more challenging career, stocks, bonds, and being responsible for millions of dollars that doesn't even belong to me.

That's right, stock broker, I figure it is time to roll the dice and go for the win. I want to be able to wake up everyday and go to my job and say that I am excited about what is going to happen today. Please, do not get me wrong, I am not so naieve as to think that everyday is peaches and cream, but just the thought of my current career is unsettling.

I am calling this "MY QUARTER LIFE CRISIS." This is the time that i find out who I am and go get what I want. I recently read, MODITE, just an amazing post referring to the previous Governor of Texas and he said something that I hope i never forget.

"First of all, don’t be afraid to think bold and dream big, Failure is good, as long as you learn from it. As long as you don’t go cry in a corner, he said. As long as you take action from what went wrong."

This is enough to push me over the edge and get me jump started. I realize who I am and know I am capable of great things, but in the current situation I am not bettering myself. It is time to do something unfamiliar, risky, and just flat out scary!