Saw Jesus Camp tonight at Images Cinema. It basically documented my experiences growing up in the Assemblies of God churches and the camp I went to. It made me very angry to see these children so indoctrinated. I wish someone would have stood up for me and allowed me to not go to these camps. The amount of blatant brainwashing in them is simply abhorrent.
The rest of the audience’s reaction was very much calmer, perhaps more scientific, but also less realistic. When the after-show speaker talked about how there is a culture war, many people in the audience were offended by the use of the word. I say they need to wake up and stop being so wishy washy. A war has been declared, and in order to fight it we have to acknowledge it. Trying to ignore it by calling it something else does no good.
Wow, something finally makes sense. Jim Kunstler, longtime peak oil doomsday prophet, has always rubbed me wrong. Until now, I always felt it was just myself not liking to think about his rather dark predictions of the future after peak oil. Rationally, however, I do believe we’re on the road to a big problem with peak oil, so logically, my dislike of Kunstler didn’t make sense. Now however, Andrew Nimelman has posted a wonderful essay that poses the question ‘Is Jim Kunstler a Neo-Con?‘. The answer, according to this essay, is yes - although he is in denial about it. Aha! Now the pieces fit together for me! The basic neo-con world-view to me is so alien and (IMO) wrong that I instinctively cringe whenever I meet someone who espouses these beliefs.
Of course, this is only speculation. I however agree with the analysis - it just fits too well.
None of this is to say that the peak oil crisis won’t be a crisis. I’m still looking for solutions for my own life as well as the nation’s. I do refuse to despair however, I suppose I’m too much of an optimist for that. And if I’m wrong, well then I guess that’s when it helps to be prepared and accepting of change. Bend like the willow, don’t snap like the oak.
Haven’t posted in awhile, but I just wanted to point out that thirty-thousand.org has a lot of great things to say about our House of Representatives. I’m all for increasing the size of the House to more accurately represent the people’s views.
Published on April 26, 2005
in Politics.
I think I’m onto something here, but I’m not sure if it’s phrased correctly:
Conservatives legislate individuals based on the morals of society,
Liberals legislate society based on the morals of the individual.
Now, granted, conservatives’ idea of the ‘morals of society’ are probably pretty different than my own, but it’s something..
Saw this movie last night (see title), it was pretty good. It was kinda depressing and hope-inspiring at the same time. Really though, overall, I suppose it was depressing. Trying to fight these huge stores is nigh impossible. Especially since even if they don’t come to your home town, the internet is already there. You can mail-order just about anything you can imagine. Really what keeping these people out amounts to is depressing the buying power of the poor and technologically backward.
I suppose it’s more of a problem of globalization than anything. As long as companies can find cheaper labor, they’ll move their production facilities there. What we really need is some sort of even playing field across the globe, with people earning similar wages worldwide for similar work. I don’t think it’s something that can be solved by politicians either, with their tariff wars and trade negotiations. I think the only thing that could possibly solve this problem is a general reconfiguration of the way people think and live.
Seeing how this is pretty much close to impossible, I’m going to remain depressed about the state of the global economy.
Although instantaneous global teleportation would make a huge change.. I think that’s the true solution to globalization - remove the travel barriers (and language too, I guess). Information already travels instantaneously, and you can see how much things have changed since that’s come about. It’s half of what’s caused this globalization crisis.
