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Nov. 1st, 2007 07:40 amI know it's a little bit until the actual election season, but even with the small amount of influence we actually have on who it is that runs the country - it's still a small part that requires a lot of thought, and lot of research, and some real soul searching, before we place those votes.
We've had a rough run these past few years, and I'm sure it's a run that has included plenty of dishonesty, unfairness, and flat out wrongdoing on a number of people's parts. Not only on the president's, but on those surrounding him (I honestly don't think he's intelligent enough to have thought up half the nasty things he's done. Either it's puppetry, or maybe the problem is that he just HASN'T thought it up and through).
We have before us quite a few candidates. These candidates can be our great relief or our total undoing. I won't publically announce who I'd vote for - and at this point I don't even know, we don't have the information out there yet.
I am hoping it's time for some real changes in this country. Or maybe it isn't that we need NEW changes, we need old changes. We need the education, bravery, and discipline that this country was founded on. There is a difference between CAPITOLISM and CONSUMERISM. I'm all for the former, the latter is what is destroying us - and unfortunately those are two terms that are often used interchangably that honestly mean two different things. Capitolism is a gear that has worked wonders for many countries and something that this country worked GREAT on. The problem is that you need DISCIPLINE to make it work. You need people that know how to control their impulses, and you need people ready to not only deal out consequences (consequences, not punishments) and follow through with those consequences (a major key here: follow through). Those are the things that made this country work so well.
When people became soft, wimpy, lazy, and uneducated, THAT is when we fell apart. That is when debt rose out of control, crime went rampant, and we took a turn for the worse. Nothing was ever perfect, but we could float it, because the majority was doing well, and because of that, they were more inclined to lend a helping hand to those in need. Now, we see so many fear tactics from the media, along with the reality of trouble we are in, it puts everybody in a position where they are rushed and stressed, they don't want to help out their fellow neighbour, their health plummets, their concentration plummets, they are in a cycle of wanting more and more. It's a consumerist society and not a capitolist.
Capitolism done right isn't about just buy buy buy. It's about allowing how the market is doing to dictate how well the society is doing. We see the markets doing well, and we know the society is doing fairly well. We see it plummeting and we realise that maybe something needs to change and we can look and see: is employment low, is there a disease spreading, is there a crisis, and so on.
Greed is a product of consumerism, not capitolism. The consequences of a disciplined capitolist society usually steer people in the right direction, but when you take away the consequences, people continue to consume, which cause them to become addicted to the "rush of the buy", until they can't stop and dig themselves into a hole. Accountability is key here - our society has too many safe guards in place that allow people to skate by.
Our legal system has become a word game. Too often when someone makes a mistake they put the blame everywhere else, until nobody wants to deal with arguing out what is right and just, they just want to be done with situation. The media flames these cases all over the place until everybody wants to take advantage of similar situations, causing a total breakdown in morality and hard work.
So often I've been working somewhere and told somebody that what they want me to do is against our policy, and their retort is "well how was I supposed to know?" or "Nobody told me". Maybe nobody did tell them, but maybe they should take some responsibility for themselves and find out before they expect something.
I hope this next election is a change for the good. I fear the direction we're heading. Society and mankind deserves better than this.
We've had a rough run these past few years, and I'm sure it's a run that has included plenty of dishonesty, unfairness, and flat out wrongdoing on a number of people's parts. Not only on the president's, but on those surrounding him (I honestly don't think he's intelligent enough to have thought up half the nasty things he's done. Either it's puppetry, or maybe the problem is that he just HASN'T thought it up and through).
We have before us quite a few candidates. These candidates can be our great relief or our total undoing. I won't publically announce who I'd vote for - and at this point I don't even know, we don't have the information out there yet.
I am hoping it's time for some real changes in this country. Or maybe it isn't that we need NEW changes, we need old changes. We need the education, bravery, and discipline that this country was founded on. There is a difference between CAPITOLISM and CONSUMERISM. I'm all for the former, the latter is what is destroying us - and unfortunately those are two terms that are often used interchangably that honestly mean two different things. Capitolism is a gear that has worked wonders for many countries and something that this country worked GREAT on. The problem is that you need DISCIPLINE to make it work. You need people that know how to control their impulses, and you need people ready to not only deal out consequences (consequences, not punishments) and follow through with those consequences (a major key here: follow through). Those are the things that made this country work so well.
When people became soft, wimpy, lazy, and uneducated, THAT is when we fell apart. That is when debt rose out of control, crime went rampant, and we took a turn for the worse. Nothing was ever perfect, but we could float it, because the majority was doing well, and because of that, they were more inclined to lend a helping hand to those in need. Now, we see so many fear tactics from the media, along with the reality of trouble we are in, it puts everybody in a position where they are rushed and stressed, they don't want to help out their fellow neighbour, their health plummets, their concentration plummets, they are in a cycle of wanting more and more. It's a consumerist society and not a capitolist.
Capitolism done right isn't about just buy buy buy. It's about allowing how the market is doing to dictate how well the society is doing. We see the markets doing well, and we know the society is doing fairly well. We see it plummeting and we realise that maybe something needs to change and we can look and see: is employment low, is there a disease spreading, is there a crisis, and so on.
Greed is a product of consumerism, not capitolism. The consequences of a disciplined capitolist society usually steer people in the right direction, but when you take away the consequences, people continue to consume, which cause them to become addicted to the "rush of the buy", until they can't stop and dig themselves into a hole. Accountability is key here - our society has too many safe guards in place that allow people to skate by.
Our legal system has become a word game. Too often when someone makes a mistake they put the blame everywhere else, until nobody wants to deal with arguing out what is right and just, they just want to be done with situation. The media flames these cases all over the place until everybody wants to take advantage of similar situations, causing a total breakdown in morality and hard work.
So often I've been working somewhere and told somebody that what they want me to do is against our policy, and their retort is "well how was I supposed to know?" or "Nobody told me". Maybe nobody did tell them, but maybe they should take some responsibility for themselves and find out before they expect something.
I hope this next election is a change for the good. I fear the direction we're heading. Society and mankind deserves better than this.
