There was a deal on Valentine's Day about a Billion Women Rising.
(Ed: what happened?)
Nothin'.
A few days before that there was a deal on We Won't Take It Anymore regarding the NSA.
(Ed: what came of it?)
Nothin'.
Both of the causes are good. Things should be fair for women. Obviously. People don't want perv cops from the NSA looking in our underpants. Fair enough.
But ranting doesn't do anything.
In fact, I don't believe I've ever seen a recording in which Noam Chomsky has even raised his voice, much less got angry, and he has worked harder and longer for peace and equality than most people alive.
Causes are so common that they have Web pages which have long lists of them. There are charities for everything from rescuing African babies to saving chipmunks. There are protests, uprisings, and conflicts coming from everywhere.
But there isn't much unity in anything.
My interest is in what happens when the causes unite for the people. We've seen what the rich will do and we've seen it for millennia. They will make slaves drag rocks to build pyramids, they will put children into coal mines, and they will flog the living hell out of you to make it seem like it was all your fault.
There's a rich man who made a fortune at a young age and then he set about to give it away. He amassed nearly seven billion dollars but then decided it was ridiculous as there was no way he needed so much. For the last ten years he has been going about building hospitals, schools, etc, etc. He gives money so poor kids can go to college. It's incredible as this guy is a walking, talking saint.
Obviously he's a saint and that's a magnificent thing but the point is the difficulty he has had giving that money away. It has taken him ten years of determined effort and it's still not gone. (Forbes: Chuck Feeney: The Billionaire Who Is Trying To Go Broke)
And you seriously think that increasing a tax on the rich will affect their lives in any perceptible way. Right.
Again I emphasize that I don't mean Johnny Appleseed who has been planting apple trees all his life. He's worked hard, got married, raised some little whippers and maybe saved up a couple of million bucks. Don't screw with Johnny Appleseed as he's good people. The rich I mean can throw millions around like it's a confetti storm for a returning astronaut.
However, focusing only on taxing the parasites won't solve the problem as that turns into just another rant on just another day. The actual focus is that a lot of people are fucking starving and it's a rich fucking world. They starve for food, they starve for spirit, and most of all they starve for opportunity.
My nephew went off to college and got a degree in history. In the old days, that meant you would end up in sales and that's ok. You've got to survive and history doesn't pay the rent. Today, however, my nephew looks around and there's nothin' there. Of course there's something and he just hasn't found it yet but it's much, much harder than it once was even for a kid who has put in the time. He is one example of many as I can point to a very long line of high-performance kids who are being absolutely wasted in pointless bullshit jobs that will never go anywhere.
My ol' Dad once whined that he thought the entire generation was lost to drugs. Perhaps it was but that's a different subject. In my view, it's an even greater tragedy when a generation is lost to apathy.
It may not seem to be apathetic for a billion women to rise but the apathy is going into it knowing not one damn thing will come out of it and, as you saw, nothing did.
The only strength is in unity.
Everyone should have equal access to the misery of marriage.
Equal pay for equal work.
Everyone should have food and medicine.
Everyone should believe whatever the hell they want without worrying being blown up by some asshole who believes something else.
These things are self-evident and yet you would have at least four causes out of them, five if you count people arguing on Facebook as to whether unity is even necessary.
There is only one cause and it's the people. When that is recognized and people rise up as one, there will be change. Until that time, there will only be talk. Maybe there will be periodic flare-ups that cops will easily crush but nothing will change ... but ... as one, we can change anything.
The point isn't so much that Martin Luther King had a dream but rather where is yours. There were so many people in Washington when he gave the "I Have a Dream" speech that you couldn't see the ground. That's what happens when people unite.
(Ed: what happened?)
Nothin'.
A few days before that there was a deal on We Won't Take It Anymore regarding the NSA.
(Ed: what came of it?)
Nothin'.
Both of the causes are good. Things should be fair for women. Obviously. People don't want perv cops from the NSA looking in our underpants. Fair enough.
But ranting doesn't do anything.
In fact, I don't believe I've ever seen a recording in which Noam Chomsky has even raised his voice, much less got angry, and he has worked harder and longer for peace and equality than most people alive.
Causes are so common that they have Web pages which have long lists of them. There are charities for everything from rescuing African babies to saving chipmunks. There are protests, uprisings, and conflicts coming from everywhere.
But there isn't much unity in anything.
My interest is in what happens when the causes unite for the people. We've seen what the rich will do and we've seen it for millennia. They will make slaves drag rocks to build pyramids, they will put children into coal mines, and they will flog the living hell out of you to make it seem like it was all your fault.
There's a rich man who made a fortune at a young age and then he set about to give it away. He amassed nearly seven billion dollars but then decided it was ridiculous as there was no way he needed so much. For the last ten years he has been going about building hospitals, schools, etc, etc. He gives money so poor kids can go to college. It's incredible as this guy is a walking, talking saint.
Obviously he's a saint and that's a magnificent thing but the point is the difficulty he has had giving that money away. It has taken him ten years of determined effort and it's still not gone. (Forbes: Chuck Feeney: The Billionaire Who Is Trying To Go Broke)
And you seriously think that increasing a tax on the rich will affect their lives in any perceptible way. Right.
Again I emphasize that I don't mean Johnny Appleseed who has been planting apple trees all his life. He's worked hard, got married, raised some little whippers and maybe saved up a couple of million bucks. Don't screw with Johnny Appleseed as he's good people. The rich I mean can throw millions around like it's a confetti storm for a returning astronaut.
However, focusing only on taxing the parasites won't solve the problem as that turns into just another rant on just another day. The actual focus is that a lot of people are fucking starving and it's a rich fucking world. They starve for food, they starve for spirit, and most of all they starve for opportunity.
My nephew went off to college and got a degree in history. In the old days, that meant you would end up in sales and that's ok. You've got to survive and history doesn't pay the rent. Today, however, my nephew looks around and there's nothin' there. Of course there's something and he just hasn't found it yet but it's much, much harder than it once was even for a kid who has put in the time. He is one example of many as I can point to a very long line of high-performance kids who are being absolutely wasted in pointless bullshit jobs that will never go anywhere.
My ol' Dad once whined that he thought the entire generation was lost to drugs. Perhaps it was but that's a different subject. In my view, it's an even greater tragedy when a generation is lost to apathy.
It may not seem to be apathetic for a billion women to rise but the apathy is going into it knowing not one damn thing will come out of it and, as you saw, nothing did.
The only strength is in unity.
Everyone should have equal access to the misery of marriage.
Equal pay for equal work.
Everyone should have food and medicine.
Everyone should believe whatever the hell they want without worrying being blown up by some asshole who believes something else.
These things are self-evident and yet you would have at least four causes out of them, five if you count people arguing on Facebook as to whether unity is even necessary.
There is only one cause and it's the people. When that is recognized and people rise up as one, there will be change. Until that time, there will only be talk. Maybe there will be periodic flare-ups that cops will easily crush but nothing will change ... but ... as one, we can change anything.
The point isn't so much that Martin Luther King had a dream but rather where is yours. There were so many people in Washington when he gave the "I Have a Dream" speech that you couldn't see the ground. That's what happens when people unite.
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