Posts Tagged ‘government’

Thanks to YouTube and my fellow contributor to this site Harpuia, I’ve started watching Indoctrinate U. It’s a student film about how public universities in the United States are acting more as indoctrination centers than educational facilities as they are supposed to be. It’s pretty disturbing, watching supposedly rational people acting so knee-jerk about social issues because of what they’re taught in college, and it strikes a distinct chord with me because I did drift significantly from my conservative heritage just in the one year I attended the University of Oklahoma.

However, I didn’t drift as far left as some of the people shown in that film. Whether due to a factor of my inquisitive nature or the short time I was a college student, I didn’t drift any further than moderate. If anything, I dropped off from any solid political leanings due to my cynicism. Looking at this film, I consider myself to be extremely lucky. I also have to wonder just how the idea of “liberal thinking is the only thinking worth thinking” became considered such a good idea.

I mean, history tells us that cultural uniformity is more often a destructive force. The most successful civilizations, such as the Greek and Romans, allowed their people to flourish in their gifts. The Renaissance was so awesome because so many talented people in many different areas of expertise popped up almost all at once and began to change the world, starting from where they were. On the flip side, a sense of cultural uniformity lead to events like the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust.

Not only does history warn us about the dangers of uniformity, so do literature and cinema. “1984″, “The Giver”, “Brave New World”, and many others all say that when we give up our individuality and our freedom, we become less than human. So too do movies like “Equilibrium”. That specific movie centers around a world where “peace” has been created through the death of emotion caused by a drug called Prozium, but that “peace” has to be maintained through strict laws and the violent destruction of anything emotion-provoking and anyone who is acting emotional. Alas, that kind of dystopian future is more likely to happen in this day and age than one would realize.

Are there unifying ideals that are not destructive? Yes, there are. The idea of becoming a better human race is indeed noble and should be striven for, but not at the cost of what makes human. What makes us different from animals is that we are all unique individuals, capable of figuring things out in our own way, although in some ways we may need the help of others to help us get started. Ultimately, though, each person has their own path and must find it in their own way. If we fail to truly embrace diversity, either suppressing or artificially enhancing it (the latter of which ends up acting the same as suppression), we will begin to kill our humanity. Our souls, if you will forgive the terminology, should be more precious to us than any other resource, because there is nothing we can get in return for the loss of the individual.

Consider this: do all pixels on a computer screen show the exact same color? If they do, there is nothing but one solid color, which is usually a sign that something is not working properly. Beautiful images and inspiring works of art, whether image-based or text-based, are only created by variances in color and in brightness of each individual pixel. Even black text on a white screen (or vice versa) is based on variations in color and brightness. This is not a fluke, people; this is how nature works. Nature itself is heterogeneous, with oceans and deserts, forests and prairies, mountains and plains. If the entire world was an ocean, it would be a very dull world; if the entire world was a desert, it would be unlivable.

Bottom line is that in order for us to be united, we all must first be unique. This may sound like a contradiction, but it is perfectly possible, as the Earth herself shows us. We will never be a successfully united human race until we find ways to use all of our various skills, talents, and philosophies in conjunction, rather than discard them for one perceived “complete” ideal. Look at the United Federation of Planets in the Star Trek universe. Their unity was only made possible because of the sharing of gifts, not only between human ethnic and social groups, but between races of intelligent beings throughout the galaxy. That is true unity. The social homogeneity being taught at our universities is a false unity…and a dangerous one.

The more I talk a look at what’s going on with our Congress, spending ourselves further and further into debt, the more I realize how politics as usual has run its course. Unfortunately, our elected leaders seem to refuse to accept this and keep trucking on as if their political extremism is doing everything but killing this country in a slow and agonizing manner. Democrat Nancy Pelosi has, in her time as Speaker of the House, gotten away with suppression of debate on at least two occasions, all seemingly out of spite for the Republicans and so she can accomplish her goals on her time schedule. Today’s Democrats, as well as a large group of their supporters on the Internet, seem to be more concerned about lording over their current control rather than about actually getting what really needs to be done done. They’re bullying everyone, including moderate Dems, just so they can get their way.

My fellow Americans, this should not be.

Such behavior is destructive and is doing more harm than it is good. Instead of doing what needs to be done, such as bringing the people who have mismanaged OUR money to justice (Congress included), each individual Congressperson is more concerned with looking self-important and pushing an agenda rather than trying to actually make a real difference. This is why we’ve had multiple bailouts so far, none of which have worked. Congress, in their black-and-white tunnel vision, has lost sight of the ever useful proverb: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

An aside on the bailouts: if the problem is that money is being squandered, does it not stand to reason that throwing more money at the problem will only result in more money being squandered? And isn’t that what we’ve seen happen from the companies like AIG who have been bailed out? The bailout has only served to pour a firehose on the problem of mismanaged money by allegedly smart but apparently greedy people. There should be prosecution, not deluge after deluge. Take the buckets away from the people who are pouring water into the boat.

Returning to the original point: a mindset of “we are right; you are wrong, and we will slap you around until you agree with us” has been causing pain, not healing. What little Congress has managed to get done has only proven to be either a waste of time or, worse yet, worse than the disease it was intended to cure, much like a prescription pill’s side effects. Our country is dying, both in terms of domestic security and in international perception, and why? Because we are letting the political extremists take over.

We are a far cry from the level of political extremism as seen in other countries in the past, where political dissidents were silenced permanently for disagreeing with what was happening. However, it is not unlikely that the United States could well get to this point, though I don’t know how soon. But we can change our course, and we still have time to leave this highway to peril. We haven’t reached the last exit yet. But we’ve got to start changing things now, and we have to do it by insisting that those who are hellbent on pushing their own agendas, those who are determined to be divisive and bullies rather than uniters and peacemakers, those who are extremists should leave office. We do not need people like them in charge of us! Whether they are liberal or conservative, it doesn’t matter; speak with your vote and tell them where they can go (hint: not Congress). The time for extremism is over. If America is to survive at all, we have got to let go of our egos and our selfishness. And we have got to let go of those who know nothing but to be egotistical and selfish.