WCGreen
WCGreen's JournalWhat does it really say about our society that we have allowed every holiday to be turned into
yet another opportunity to sell crap.
How shallow do we appear to the consumer experts to think that every minute waking hour is to be spent on contemplating purchasing some kind of crap with no chance to ponder anything deeper than what shiny pretty thing I can snag for a cheaper price.
Perhaps if we really are more than that, we would never have let ourselves become so distracted.
We are slaves to consumption.
A few years ago, I started to really look around to see what was important to me.
Over the years, I have scaled down my wardrobe, cut back on my incessant collecting of things and got rid of a mess of stuff that I just didn't need any more.
Good lord, I had over sixty ties! I now have five and I do not care if they are the right length, the right width and the right fabric.
Don't get me wrong, I still love to buy things. But big things, things that make me happy to have. I bought a good guitar and a good keyboard, I was once in a band, and I have been getting much joy and comfort from taking the time and learning about my instruments and how to play them as well...
What I mainly concerned about now, I guess, is that so many people in charge of our political and economic think the only way we can get ourselves out of this Malaise, is for us to start spending again.
Maybe it's time we stop looking at ourselves as meerly consumers and start thinking about the true value of a life well spent.
After all, if your live is all about spending, about mindlessly accumulating things rather, than than perhaps you have wasted your time on this earth.
All I can really say is I want my life to be more than that.
I'm not banking on an afterlife, but if there is, I am pretty sure that those of us who never contemplated anything deeper than how I can get my hands on a ........ all will be well, then you may be condemned, like Sisyphus to keep pushing up that hill and falling back just to start again....
My tax rate today is partially determined by the deduction allowed for religious organizations.
Simple. What they do not pay in taxes via deduction of contribution has to be made up some way. Therefore, my taxes are a bit higher.
I get that. It is one of the “costs” of living in a free society. The wants and needs of people I do not support or even agree with are subsidized through higher taxes for me.
We are, if anything, overly forgiving when it comes to the goings on behind the cloak of religion.
As much as I would like it, I do not have a freedom from religion.
If I did, there would be no tax deduction for contributions to religious organizations.
Do not get me wrong. I know that the overwhelming number of religious folks out there do wonderful things for millions of people.
So I bite my tongue, especially now that I am older and not so quick to shoot off my mouth about how I feel about religion.
It is what a good citizen does in a society that protects the freedom of expression. Whether I agree with what people choose to do does not really matter.
Why?
Because we live in a free society that worships the idea of freedom.
So these attempts by some from the tax deductible supported industry of religion are to restrict choices of some people when it comes to their health concerns are an affront to any person who truly believes we live in a free society.
Especially when their main desired outcome is to demand less freedom of choice to other Americans.
Again, I have no problem with what anyone believes, who anyone people worship and how they do their worshiping.
What I expect from someone here in the 21st Century is that they recognize that they live in a dynamic free modern society that allows them great freedom to do as they please.
We go so far as to subsidize all of them from the poverty-cloistered nun to the billionaire televangelist. As long as they pretend that there is worshiping going on, we turn a blind eye.
All I am asking is that these people recognize my freedoms as well.
Beause, after all, we live in a free society.
And that simply means you have freedom and I have freedom.
I do not try to undermine your freedom to believe what you choice to believe.
All I ask is the same consideration from you.
Because, after all, we live in a free society.
We will allow you to remain poor and sick....
Exists, really, while we, meaning the 1%, will remain wealthy and rich...
Isn't that what they are really saying?
Sure they lulled us into thinking that the pie is always going to get bigger, it's how they convinced us the first few time to go along with their Supply Side delusion.
But now with all the evidence out there about peak oil, peak food, peak everything, how long are the rest of us going to stand buy while hundreds of million American's suddenly find themselves on the outside looking in at the very secure and very private gated communities...
They are still at it, with this global warming is a hoax, we can just drill our way to the Shopping Mall, we should never doubt the power of a "free" market. (BTW, the only free in that allusion is that a free market allocates accordingly when all it does is end up in one pile controled by a few people.)
This is really what we are going to see in our lifetimes as the Southern part of the Northern Hemisphere dries out and forces millions of people north. This idea of setting up a barrier is to test the efficacy of a secure border to stop the inevatable migration north.
I keep looking around the world and see everything churning, boiling, rolling around and around and all I can think about is that the Future is going to suck because of these reality deniers with their very deep pockets and their very large megaphone...
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Gender: MaleCurrent location: Cleveland Ohio
Member since: 2003 before July 6th
Number of posts: 45,558
