Reply #7: Yes. And we need to also build a culture of heroes.

[Gregorian]

If you saw the Daily Show last night, with the Stanford psychology prof., then you saw one of the better interviews they've had. And they touched on something that I've always always known was true. I've spent my life observing evil and good. I can hear you groaning now. But I have. I've watched good people turn into monsters. And I've seen monsters turn into good people.

What we are seeing is that evil (and good) is a flux. It's not just getting rid of Mussolini in the White House. It's not a war on any physical entity. As I've always said, there must be five people in the whole world who actually should be in jail. And I have to laugh, because my favorite group of people where I just moved is the "chaingang" of guys who work the forest here. Minimum security, orange jumpsuits, working on downed trees, and stuff. I ride my bike by them every day. All I get is "What's up bro?", and peace signs, and smiles, and just a bunch of great people. They stole a car. They beat up a wife. They did really bad stuff. But THEY are good people. In fact, even Dick Cheney is a good man. I know it's hard to imagine.

We're in need of proper laws, common sense laws. And this is where I don't know. Because it's proper oversight that doesn't let Abu Graihb's (hm, spelling?) happen. Does a three strikes law work? I think it's too far down the road of badness, evilness, to do anything. I think it must come from within an entire society. Parents on down. Presidents on down. This truly is a trickle-down concept.

But we've valued money and things over people and beauty and silence. Silence? How did that one get in there? And not just phony values. But something that the whole society values. We don't value shit! We're afraid! We're weak and scared (to use a tortured metaphor from a Twisted Sister lyric). We must be awarded (valued, not rewarded) for being GOOD. I think we all know what good is. It isn't starting wars. It isn't cheating. It isn't snickering at Carla Faye Tuckers.

I know it's incomplete and vague. But it's the right direction. And it almost requires dismantling modern society. It might even mean we have to stop consuming and driving around like rats in automobiles. It might. It might not. But we have to be open, and be willing to sacrifice, if we want this thing to work.