(no subject)

[my_window_seat]

The whole Social Security thing.

What it seems like Bush is forgetting - or maybe never really understood in the first place - is that his plans to privatize this and anything else he can get his craven little mitts on really will only further disintegrate an extremely vital element of this little thing we call society.

Privatizing Social Security, while it means having more control over your own money (not a bad thing in and of itself), means that we are all one step farther away from being a part of the people around us. Giving a little something of our own to someone else in order to insure that the quality of life for everyone is improved, thus indirectly improving our own as well.

Every time someone bitches about paying taxes, I have to bite my tongue to keep from reminding them that for all the waste and incompetency involved in many governmental systems (as there is in any system, so STFU already, okay?) - it's there for a reason, and it makes your life better even if every damn dollar isn't going directly into your damn pocket.

Don't have kids? Paying for a decent public educational system still means that the kids in the neighborhoods near yours are going to be occupied with something besides slashing your tires and breaking into your house.

Drive a car? The roads you drive on are paid with taxes, so unless you levitate over them on a magical unicorn to get to work everyday, STFU about paying taxes.

Flush a toilet? Turn on the tap in the kitchen? Unless you have your own personal water source intergalatically teleported to you from a galaxy far, far away, my tax money and your pays for that cool blue stuff. Shut up. Just SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Social Security.

If I wasn't afraid that it would be taken seriously and set some kind of reality-tv-noir precedent, I'd sue the government to get all the money I've put into it, because I damn sure won't be seeing any of it, EVER.

But someone would take it seriously. A lot of people would no doubt take it seriously, and probably even follow suit. In fact, I'll be surprised if it doesn't happen, sooner rather than later.

What people don't seem to consider at all is that being involved only in their own welfare and security fails to take into account that they share the planet with a hell of a lot of other people other than themselves. And that letting someone else live in a way that makes it necessary to make choices between food and medicine is going to impact them, whether they realize it or not.

It's all alive. It's all connected. It's all intelligent. It's all relative.

I may hate most human beings, but I realize that pissing on humanity isn't going to improve the quality of it anytime soon.

You don't have to be compassionate to be a pragmatist.

Sigh...

Comments

[johnnybrainwash.livejournal.com]

Paying for schools doesn't just keep the kids off the streets. It's also paying for the privelege of living in a society that educates its children. Want a doctor when you get sick? Want to know that the bridge you're driving across won't collapse? Want the populace to be literate enough to understand warning labels or know (sometimes) when their government is lying to them?

Or you could say you're paying to live in a society that brainwashes its children and forces them into its molds. But that's a whole 'nother argument.

[my-window-seat.livejournal.com]

Or you could agree with both of the above statements, and so dedicate yourself to infiltrating the crappy system in order to inject it with a much-needed bit of 'think for your own damn selves, you little shits!' attitude.

Um.

Or something like that.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

One of the main aims of the hard right is to destroy the notion of a society.

The Situationalists had a slogan that ran "We live in a society, not an economy." The right wishes to reverse this.

[johnnybrainwash.livejournal.com]

Yep, one of the most insidious Ayn Rand-isms is something to the effect of: there's no such thing as a society, only a collection of individuals.

[my-window-seat.livejournal.com]

::chuckle::

I still haven't managed to mentally reconcile how I can enjoy her books so much and still hate the illogical extensions that her philosophies can be extended to.

It's a puzzler, but damn, I still love Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead!

[my-window-seat.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

When I have some more time, I'll do a rant on this whole trend of running everything according a business model - especially my hatred for this attitude as regards education.

Fuck. I can feel my temperature rising just thinking about it.

But that's another rant for another time.

Off to work...

[elegantdreams.livejournal.com]

Just thought I would drop in and say I love you, not least for the fact that you can think for yourself, but that is only one of many things that made me feel the need to tell you.

[my-window-seat.livejournal.com]

I can't tell you in how many ways I am glad to know you, because I am very tired and very stupid right now.

You are - you. If I could only find the words to tell you how important it is that you are exactly who you are and the way that you are - then I'd be a brighter bear than what I am.

Love you. Really love you, sweetie.

[doomfrog.livejournal.com]

"What people don't seem to consider at all is that being involved only in their own welfare and security fails to take into account that they share the planet with a hell of a lot of other people other than themselves. And that letting someone else live in a way that makes it necessary to make choices between food and medicine is going to impact them, whether they realize it or not."

that's exactly the problem, and it's a stituation that's been purposely cultured by various sources. take my pet peeve, commercials aimed at children. when i was a kid, commercials tried to get you to ask your parents to buy you stuff, with the undertones that you'd better ask nicely or you'd never get that new doll/action figure. now, commercials try to get you to demand stuff of your parents, because adults are obviously all idiots and you know much better than them, so stop behaving and make them do what you want.
also, pay close attention the next time you see a commercial for a children's cereal. watch carefully when they show the complete breakfast. many cereal commercials include pancakes, fruit, milk, and juice in the complete breakfast that they are a supposed part of. well, duh. a handful of nuts and bolts is part of a complete breakfast if you add it to a complete breakfast.
commercials may well be the biggest contributor to the downfall of our society. they are a relentless part of everything you do in a day, whether it's taking a walk, riding the bus, listening to the radio, or going grocery shopping. and they're carefully designed to have an emotional impact on you, so you'll think about the commercial after it's over. even worse, they cause you to want to share the commerical with others. in this way, the message reaches even those who haven't seen it.
damn, i rant way more in your journal than i do in my own. your beautiful paranoia sets me off.

[my-window-seat.livejournal.com]

My beautiful paranoia...

I like that. I think I'll keep it.

And commercials - now you know why I have not watched television in over ten years, aside from indirect exposure when at other people's houses.

It's damaging, evil stuff.

Or am I just being paranoid...?