History is a giant fractal of human stupidity

I often hear people complain in dismay about the state of the world today as though today was so much worse than in the past. Either these people don’t know rudimentary history or they’ve been shielded from reality. Our fictional horror flicks are nothing compared to the carnage found in history. People have devised ways of torture and murder that will make you vomit. It’s enough to make you ashamed of your species. I once heard an atheist say he thinks people are basically good. No. Humans are basically evil. History is our report card. It is drenched in blood and gore and there is simply no way to rationalize it.

Even from an overview standpoint, recorded history reveals a perpetual state of violence. Sometimes we call it war. Sometimes we call it raids. Sometimes people call it domestic abuse. When we’re involved we use terms like military engagement or conflict or the extermination of manifest destiny. We can’t study war without the lens of propaganda.

I can only surmise that something is inherently wrong with humans. What possesses a person to look at their neighbor (whether village or nation) and think “yea, I’m going to go over there, kill the man, rape the woman and take the kids, house, land and any other resources for myself?” What kind of person even considers such a thing? Apparently the majority from around the globe. It’s bad enough that this has been the norm for thousands of years but it continues to this very day. Are we diseased in our souls?

People talk and write about “great” civilizations. What determines the greatness of a civilization? Is it really their architecture and engineering and size or scope of their empire? Or is it their compassion? Is the Roman Coliseum impressive because of its engineering or a disgrace because of the barbarism that occurred within? Is a military “genius” still a genius if his military campaign was to conquer? Are civilizations really great when they are built via slavery, oppressive taxes and military domination? Is winning at all costs truly victory? Does this describe only historical empires and other nations or the U.S. as well? You know we’re busted.

Humans tend to have this universal psychosis that whatever group they’re born into is somehow superior to others, deliberately ignoring the fact that they could have been born at any time and place into any group because it’s not something anyone can control. Isn’t that just self-evident? How can there be racism, or sexism, or ultra nationalism? How can a country founded on the belief of inalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have treated the Native Americans as they did (and still do), build itself on the back of slavery and indentured servitude, not give women the right to vote until the 20th century, and have millions of abortions performed on demand? Anyone who claims to respect the Bible should remember Numbers 35:33 "… bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.” Sounds like a general rule to me. But, of course, the last thing most people really want to hear is that they are guilty of atrocious behavior and accountable to their Creator who can destroy their soul. Nope, don’t want to think about that. Many self-proclaimed religious people in the U.S. don’t want to even give up the SUV to save a polar bear.

I think property taxes should be greatly reduced but I do think that a percentage of those taxes nationwide should go to Native Americans. I think every Native American with the desire and intellect to do so should have full scholarship to any public university they choose. We owe them. We owe them big time. We took their homes and their livelihoods. Many live in destitution because we took what was theirs. As far as possible public lands should be given back to the tribes to which they traditionally belonged at the time of conquest. (Yes, conquest.) I’ve actually heard supposedly intelligent people say that the Native Americans weren’t “doing” anything with the land so somehow that makes it ok for us to cheat them out of it or that the coast to coast subjection and dominion was inevitable. How would people like it if the Chinese came over and said they didn’t agree with what we were doing with the land and began genocide? It’s not like we aren’t outnumbered or anything, right?

We excuse our own behavior. We elevate hypocrisy to stratospheric heights. We need to decide what our values are and stand by them. No, we don’t like that. We are a nation that developed atomic weapons, used them (the testing at the Bikini islands remains a national sin) and entered a nuclear arms race with another Superpower but we think we have some moral right to prohibit other nations from doing the same. Do we think we are “good enough” to be responsible with nuclear weapons but no one else is? The U.S. did the same thing when Native Americans were prohibited from owning guns. Do we really believe that we are so superior that the rest of the world requires our supervision? We can’t even balance a budget. Isn’t that a basic level of responsibility? Isn’t that what is expected of every child given an allowance? People profit from war and debt and death and therefore it continues.

Any “vanilla” person who thinks slavery doesn’t still strongly affect race relations to this day has their head up their ass. Virtually every “white” person said Obama’s election had nothing to do with race while the “black” people obviously saw the opposite. And they STILL don’t get it. The same thing goes for those who think the war in Iraq isn’t over oil. We’re running low on fuel so we’ve got to take someone else’s because that’s the way of the world. History is a stuck record and we’re apparently too stupid to see it. What happened to every major world power in history that had diminishing resources, ballooning debt and military overreach? They fell. Hard.

When it comes to abortion it’s not really about whether or not it is legal or illegal although that is a basal moral temperature of our culture (we’re on life support). The real problem is why are there millions of unwanted pregnancies in the first place and why are there millions of women who are willing to kill their babies? They’ll do it whether it is legal or not. Is an orgasm worth killing for? That’s the root question but no one wants to face it because we don’t like the answer. But we will face it one way or another. The message that abortion on demand sends is that people are disposable if they get in your way. Doesn’t anyone notice that school shootings became more common once the Roe vs. Wade generation’s youngest children started to reach high school age? The same message is reflected in youth suicide. Death is perceived as an answer. According to history it always has been. Can’t we embrace life and birth control? Can’t we learn the difference between self-defense and aggression? Can’t we respect others as much as we respect ourselves? Is it really not humanly possible or is it just that the people who can often end up as fodder for those who can’t?

Ron Paul is right

I’ve just finished reading “The Revolution – A Manifesto” by Ron Paul. I highly recommend it to everyone no matter who or where you are. Ron Paul is the only politician I’ve heard/read who has a clue. Not only does he have a clue the man is brilliant. It’s encouraging (and shocking) to find a politician with whom I agree with on point after point. It’s even more encouraging to find out that there are millions and millions of Americans who agree and always have. There is hope for America yet.

From what I’ve seen the rest of politicians seem to be deluded. They seem to think that their primary job is to get re-elected and second to pretend to try to solve problems by making more laws and spending more money whilst telling us how hard they are working and how big the problems are blah, blah, blah. Any problems solved? No. Problems exacerbated? Yep. Deliberate? Probably. Job security and all that. A parallel is going to a typical doctor who prescribes drugs that mask one problem and cause another for which you return to the doctor to get more drugs. He has a perpetual job while not solving the problem while you get bled dry and sicker.

If anyone is more clueless than most politicians it’s the media who reports on (or sucks up to or ignores) them. To be fair, I know that some of them (a minority) are extremely intelligent – smart enough to be keenly aware that the media is first and foremost a business. In addition many are rude. I guess that’s good for ratings and readership. Simon Cowell of American Idol is proof positive of a ratings-magnet jerk. Honesty is one thing, cruelty is another. But who cares about people, right? It’s all about the money. Broadcast journalists invite someone they disagree with on their program under the pretense of discussing an issue but only give them two or three minutes on air during which they talk over them, ask leading questions and ridicule them. If they agree with their guest it’s just three minutes of gratuitous butt kissing. Pathetic. Why do people agree to go on those shows? Self-loathing? Why do people watch those shows? Masochism? Ignorance? Nothing else on the other 200 channels?

Doing the right thing takes courage – apparently that’s not something most people have. It requires the honesty and humility to admit to wrongs and failures. It requires putting an end to systems that we have become comfortable with. It requires making amends to people we have wronged. It requires giving up things we can’t afford. It requires confronting the mega wealthy and powerful who have profited at our demise. Toe to toe, nose to nose – somebody’s going down. We love to watch it depicted in movies but no-fucking-way will your average person emulate heroic behavior.

We are a country of hypocrites. We frown on and punish physical retaliation in our culture. If two kids get in a fight at school both of them are punished – not just the one who started it. Schools preach some BS such as “Might doesn’t make right.” Well, somebody needs to alert the U.S. Government to that bit of clever poetry. We especially like movies where the good guy is a real maverick who gives a finger to the neutered establishment so he can go out and thoroughly kick some bad guy ass – the more drawn out the better. Oh, yea! We love that! We can talk the talk, baby. Our mouths and our bumper stickers. We send our troops overseas to 130 foreign countries, for what? To bankrupt the U.S. and make enemies around the world who resort to terrorism because they are majorly pissed off because WE ARE TRESPASSING. How fucking stupid can we be? It’s about money and power (Iraq = oil, Afghanistan = heroin) but not yours and mine. When it hits the fan it’s going to bury the poor and middle class first not the decision makers in suits and the plastic people in the media. Just like it’s the soldiers with modest backgrounds most likely to come home in body bags not the son of a Senator.

Here’s a micro dose of common sense to begin to avert the impending disaster:
1. Return to the Constitution. (One of my major pet peeves is when I hear someone say “If you don’t like it you can leave” as if they are so special they have the right to draw that line in the sand and you are an inferior ingrate. It’s such an arrogant cop out they should be deported for a year. Well I think if any non Native [non Indian] American doesn’t like the Constitution they can leave because unlike most silly ass arguments the Constitution is the foundation of our country.)

2.End pseudo wars such as the “war on drugs” and the “war against terrorism.” They are not legitimate wars. They are people-eating propaganda. They are not winnable. You can’t go to war against a tactic or a vice.

3. Bring home all American troops from overseas.

4. End the income tax and dissolve the IRS.

5. End the Federal Reserve and return to gold/silver standard.

6. End the FDA.

7. End the Department of Education.

8. End/reverse all “executive orders.” We have a Congress for a very good reason.

9. End all foreign aid. Individual Americans should decide for themselves who they want to give money to.

10. Balance the budget. (Duh.)