Individuality is an ideal loved by most Americans, and flaunting it is welcomed when done by the exceptional. But how individualistic are people, really? You could say Americans stand out as individualists, and I whole-heartedly agree when we're going on American stereotypes. When a culture and legal system is so welcoming of the ideal of individuality, magic can often happen, such as when an artist reaches full bloom, or a charismatic figure moves and motivates the masses in a positive direction.
I had a Chinese student of mine, a young man, native of Jiangxi, give a formal speech recently, as I have all of my students do each semester of Oral English. He went through moving speech about "fear," and how his greatest fear was losing a family member. He told us of a traumatic childhood experience, finding his mother sick and asleep with a bottle of poison in hand, as she had tried to commit suicide. His father got her help and she pulled through. He didn't let on much more about his mother, other than that she is fine now. His speech lasted for about five minutes, followed by fifteen minutes of question asking by myself and his classmates. He ended his time on the stand by writing a Mark Twain quote on the board that read:
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
He asked me why one would think they are so special to question the majority like that. Why would anyone be so exceptional to the majority?
I gave him a simple real-world example of how the majority could be mislead, harking back to the old faithfully ridiculed Adolf Hitler and his manipulation of the German people. Perhaps mentioning the carrying out of several Mao Zedong policies would be a bit too risqué for a university run by the Chinese Communist Party.
I also tried to assure him that the majority is often right, but that charismatic leaders can make a big difference in the lives of those who look up to or fear them. This can apply to entire countries, small villages, classrooms, and private dinners.
This whole topic got me interested in a good ponder. In my experience of growing up and adulthood, people often follow other people, and not ideals. People may have beliefs, but this is often bent or swayed when the most confident person in the room has that kind of power. This is usually most pungent in childhood situations, where you see bullying and the egging on from the kids on the sidelines. I'd say you get the same behavior in a whole lot of adults in this world too, but it's more subdued because we have to act like adults.
Individuality is touted by Americans and loved by those who admire America. That's if we're judging on stereotypes and ideals. Go to most populated parts of America and put a true individualist performer that doesn't have the charm of a star in front of a mixed group of common people and you're sure to get a fair share of criticism, and more likely than not, a rude reaction. But again, that's if we're judging on stereotypes. Take away the face-to-face interaction and you get a situation like on most youtube video comment sections: harsh words and mindless insults.
This brings me a to a bigger sense of self that everyone wants to belong to. Most everyone wants to be a part of a group. This is just human nature and it's not going to go away as long as we're human. We became human by communicating intelligently and developing tribes. We all want that tribe to be on our side, out there protecting us, wrapping us up in a safe bubble. With agriculture, tribes grew into villages, villages grew into cities, a whole bunch of history later, we have nations dominating the world.
In America, nationalism and patriotism were a lot more fashionable back in the day. It started to peter out as the cold war ended and became regarded as something mostly ignorant rednecks and professional wrestling fans lavished in. But maybe that's just another stereotype of what liberal elitists might think.
9/11 gave us a nice patriotism refresh, but just went in all the wrong directions with the proverbial "prison style gang-raping" of our Bill of Rights, the unnecessary warfare, and the seething discrimination of really Muslim looking Muslims. This helps make patriotism unfashionable once again, and the meaning of true patriotism isn't really being put into question by many of those who live it and criticize it, so it will be left in the hands of those who flaunt it the hardest.
This brings me back to tribes turning into nations thing. We really want that tribe back, but how can we do that when we're living in such populous countries with so many unfashionable people? Our solution tends to be finding a category for ourselves. Americans love categories. We love to categorize our ethnic backgrounds when we fill out our college applications. We like to categorize our age groups. We love categorizing things we put in our mouths, especially when they have distinct flavors, from sweet to sour to salty. Categorizing is just so natural when you have to distinguish one thing from another. But how should we really take to categorizing our individuality?
That whole college application thing always rubbed me the wrong way. I'm white and I come from an affluent family, but more so in global per capita terms. This, on paper, isn't going to do me any favors on getting in to college, but hey, I have that great affluent background that's giving me a leg-up. Plus, I'm white. And I'm a male. Sounds like the greatest leg-up a person could ask for. But that's when we're judging on stereotypes.
Not only do I have all of these stereotypically great conditions for myself, I also have an international background, going to an American high school in Tokyo. This puts me in a very international and ethnically mixed environment. I had this when I was at an American elementary school Taipei as well. This environment, along with a good education, assured that I would not have issues of racial discrimination. Everyone to me is a person. I don't like to treat people I meet for the first time much differently whether they are male or female, ordinary or exceptional, black, white, yellow, red, brown, able bodied or not. I find that people like to be treated like people, and I find that I like to treat people like people. I don't like walking on eggshells and I don't like beating the bush either, so I try to avoid it as much as possible.
When I have all of these people that I see as peers getting a leg-up on their college application because of their skin color or even vague ethnic background, I find it rather unfair, and very un-American in the sense of the American ideal of "equality." But of course, international school kids are a very small minority of the ethnic make-up of the pan-American college student-body. But minorities are supposed to matter in America, right?
When you start grouping Americans into ethnic categories, you start to see patterns. You see the Asian minorities excelling in the academic and monetary fields, with Big Whitey as a runner up. And you see blacks and hispanics dominating much of the less desirable fields. History and social conditions need to be taken in to account here. America has a rough history of violent discrimination (including that thing the Confederate Flag represents) and this should never be forgotten. We've come a long way since all of that. Racism and sexism hasn't gone away, but it's dissipated quite a bit.
It's the 21st century. We have role-models in the media of every color, creed, gender, body-type, you name it. We have a black president. We have female CEO's running multi-national companies. A lot of progress has been made. Much of this progress was made through the passionate pursuits of leaders in whatever category that wasn't getting their piece of the pie, or worse, getting their piece of the pie force gagged out of them.
These categories formed for a good reason, just like the idea of American independence formed for a good reason, and like how labor unions formed for a good reason. And like Mark Twain's message recited by my student, maybe this is the time Americans "pause and reflect."
I think most people in America have great opportunities for self-improvement, and who doesn't want self-improvement, really? Most people have some kind of goal they want to achieve or some kind of insecurity they want to overcome. What is something most people need for self-improvement, and even the expression of individuality? They need support.
Support comes from your people. Your group. It could be your family, it could be your friends, your team, your organization, your cartel. Sometimes family isn't enough for people, or their family isn't giving enough, or they may not even have a family. This is when your outside groups are necessary for support. And what's a safer way to have support than having a vague category you can belong to for simply being a certain color, or having a certain sexual organ? This requires no further requirements. It doesn't need the social wit to maintain friendships, the skills required to be on a team, the ideas and know-how needed for an organization, and the boldness of being a drug trafficker.
People like to join these categorial groups because they can identify many basic things about themselves with other members of the group. They can also differentiate themselves from the others who may seem undesirable. Basically, these people have found the tribe they've been missing.
Now that people have categorized themselves and joined a group, they can promote their new identity in many ways. For example, they can talk about how hard it is to be a part of that group. The daily struggle they have, putting up with all the jerk-offs and tyrants who discriminate against them. Then they can also talk about the great things their group provides the world with. They can tout the exceptional talents of their members. They can have a group to call their own and identify with.
Now that they have their tribe, they have shown that they are not of some other tribe who they may find less important or desirable, or maybe they just want to differentiate themselves from others somehow and remain equal. And once you start generalizing or critiquing someone's tribe, you know you're in for a world of trouble if this tribe is extra sensitive. Going on statistical facts, you can say "this," "this," and "this," about my tribe, but you better not dare bring up "this" about my tribe or I'm going to be really offended!
The sensitive tribes are often sensitive because of historical issues tied to modern societal problems. We've seen enough hate and unfairness toward women, blacks, immigrants, etc. But there's other tribes who are sensitive for other reasons. You have the "fat tribe" who is sensitive because they don't like to be called fat and that being fat is generally seen as physically unattractive (I wonder why?). You have the "misunderstood teenager tribe" who is just so misunderstood that they need to act out. There's a lot of tribes out there, and they all have their grievances.
I find that a lot of these non-ethnic-non-gender tribes tend to have grievances that stem from personal insecurities. There's a lot of fat people out there that are comfortable with themselves and don't get so sensitive when their fatness is aware to those around them. They go on with their lives as individuals, and live happily. But then you get these advocacy groups, trying to get more fat roles (tempted to write "rolls") on TV and make being obese sexy. Sorry folks, but being fat is going to be seen by most as physically unattractive because it simply doesn't look good. Moreover, it shows that you are most likely not in shape, perhaps hinting that you don't care too much about your appearance, which people tend to find unattractive, as attractive people tend to care about their appearance to some degree. It also shows that you probably won't live long, which in human biological communication means you ain't sticking around for the family. But the bright side is, there's all of those creepy obese-fetish guys I keep seeing on day-time TV talk show clips. They'll make you feel sexy.
It probably sounds like I hate fat people or something. I used to be fat when I was in middle school, so I've earned my stripes. I will talk freely about being fat just like black folks in America can freely say "nigga." I've seen what "fat tribe" has to offer, and it wasn't for me, so I have made it an effort to not be fat anymore. It's possible without developing an eating disorder, believe it or not.
This brings me to another tribe I could sign up for if I choose. I'm not only a white guy with an affluent background. I'm a balding white guy with an affluent background. Hair loss is a sad thing to see on your own head, and many find it extremely unattractive. A lot of women are quite unforgiving if a man is bald. How could a woman be attracted to a bald man? Well I'm married, so there was at least one. She's hot too, so I'm pretty lucky. And what do I do about my baldness? Have I joined "bald tribe" with the likes of Larry David? I choose not.
I don't think Larry is so serious about the whole bald thing. It's definitely a grievance for him, but look how successful he is. Should the guy really be complaining about it at this point? That kind of indignity he felt made much of what his comedy is to us, so maybe it was a blessing? He's not the kind of guy who would have focused his resources on some kind of bald man advocacy group, and I sure as hell would never do that.
So what's really holding back all of these bald, fat, ugly, big-eared, long-nosed, overly-freckled, abnormally large thighed (another tribe I could join but choose not to), buck-toothed, gap-toothed, stained-tooth, pimple faced, big nostrilled, hairy-backed, easily odorous, sweaty, loud-mouthed, ultra-introverted, spastic, nervous, stupid, willfully ignorant, stank-breathed, overly-extroverted, day-time TV watching people? Probably themselves.
People with some kind of physical or personality characteristic that many may find unattractive are going to have a more difficult time getting ahead in the world. If you're a universally recognized beauty, it will probably be a lot easier, in many fields at least. That's where personality is important for those who are not universally recognized beauties. If you have a personality, people can like you for that. Beautiful people can be liked simply because they are nice to look at and a bunch of people want to have sex with them. Those who are not so universally desirable on the atheistic end have to develop a more desirable interior. How has anyone gotten ahead in the world otherwise if they didn't inherit it or use their physical sex-appeal?
From listening to many people's grievances about being a woman or being a certain ethnicity in this day and age, I find that a lot of the time it's probably more about the way they carry themselves as an individual. And how would a white guy from an affluent background know that? Because I live in China and I get discriminated against for being a foreigner and for being white on a daily basis. I know racism well because I can officially join the "I'm a victim of racism tribe" too. I get the positive racism such as "America is great and so are you!" and "oh you have blue eyes (actually green) and yellow hair (actually reddish brown) and you are so handsome!" to the negative racism such as "you are stupid because you are a foreigner" and "you are stupid because you are an arrogant American" and "[we're talking mad shit about you and we think you can't understand because you're a foreigner] (but I actually do understand Chinese so I know what you're saying you racist lout)" and "you can't come in to this bar because you are a foreigner, and we don't take kindly to foreigners in these parts" and the classic, "foreigners and Chinese have much different thinking and you could never possibly understand China or my Chinese-ness."
I find a lot of the foreigners in China also like to have all sorts of grievances about xenophobia when it's often just their lousy personality traits that bring on the negative reactions they mistake for racism. I see it with many of the foreigners in Nanchang: the negative-Nancy's of Nanchang, the loud-mouths of Nanchang, and the I-sleaze-on-local-girls-way-too-blatantly foreigners of Nanchang. Maybe the discrimination has more to do with their behavior rather than their background.
This reminds of my last semester at Hampshire College in the spring of 2008, when certain people of certain ethnic groups were up in arms about discrimination on campus from certain administrators, and I mean low level administrators as well. Some people in those positions at Hampshire treated me rudely whenever I saw them. I was much more shy and passive back then, so maybe that got on their nerves, and they were just lousy people to begin with, so they were rude to me. Perhaps they weren't so racist after all to those others who were treated rudely. Maybe they were just being rude because they were rude people to begin with. Joke is really on them since they probably lead a pretty miserable life, being rude during their boring day job in a cold landscape such as Massachusetts, only to go home to a spouse who is also presumably rude. But we're back on stereotypes again.
I had ethnic friends at Hampshire, who were actually foreigners rather than Americans, and they had great positive personality traits, and they had absolutely no grievances at this time. This, along with how I was treated by these so-called racists made me pretty skeptical of these grievances at one of the most liberal colleges in the world.
Basically, people who have take up this phony-tribalism need to pause and reflect on what's really going on, and it's time for everyone to look at who they are as an individual. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Don't be in denial about it either. People think it regardless. People might even talk about it behind your back. You ought to just face it straight up and work with what you got. Stay positive, stay motivated, and remember to be an individual when the tribe starts acting funny. Don't let your self-esteem get too low, as this will just lead to being disrespected, which can come in the form of racism/sexism or presumed racism/sexism.
Everyone needs an identity. We have our individualistic characteristics, but we also need that tribal factor that's missing in modern society. We live in too populated a world to have actual tribes for all and maintain peace at the same time. At bottom, we need to belong to something bigger, and there are many groups we can join to have this feeling. It would be prudent for all Americans to look in the mirror and see what's holding them back as an individual before they claim sexism, racism, classism, etc.
Once we put ourselves in groups and come to believe that one group is holding another group back, it's going to make it a lot harder for the group being "held back" to overcome the psychological implications of being "held back." If someone is holding you back, it may seem pointless to even try. Unless you're extremely motivated, especially driven from negative affirmation, then you may not even bother to try and get ahead because some other group is just going to hold you back anyway. Then you might start mistaking discrimination about your individual characteristics as racism, sexism, classism, etc. and just get angry at the world. Another psychological nightmare.
It's time for America to start thinking more individualistically, but at the same time, recognizing that we are actually all a part of something bigger. We share a country in an ever competitive world, and times are changing fast. We are all American and that is something we can be proud of despite our uncouth history. But let's get real here, most of the world has an uncouth history, America is just on top right now (but maybe not for much longer) so it is much more apparent. And although racism and sexism has dissipated, it still exists in America, and to an extent most of us would probably wish was much smaller. But we have to face the reality that as long as people look different, have different sex organs, have different cultural characteristics, there's always going to be some kind of discrimination from the ignorant. The best we can do is regard that kind of discrimination as lowly rude behavior, much like we do with everything else we consider lowly rude behavior.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Aspergers & Autism: Evolution of the Collective Human Psyche?
If anybody has read the news lately or listened to what's important from elitist celebrities, it's the rise of aspergers and autism. From what I've seen in the news lately, it seems if you're going to have a second child, it's pretty likely they're going to grow up with autism.
Aspergers and autism isn't anything new, but it looks as if it's become a lot more prominent in recent years. Why is this? Are we better at diagnosing it? Is it something in the water? Is our American diet of over-processed food causing the trend? Is that thing about inoculations actually accurate?
There's also a lot of claim that many influential people throughout history had the syndrome judging by their behavior compared to the symptoms of the syndrome. These include Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Mark Twain, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Jefferson, Carl Jung, Andy Warhol, and even Michael Jackson. Many influential people today are also speculated to have aspergers, such as Bill Gates, Woody Allen, and Al Gore.
It's been my belief for several years that it's a human evolutionary trend that causes aspergers and autism. I haven't been that vocal about this because people tend to act weird when you bring up "mental disabilities." And I believe this is because they aren't really exposed to this sort of thing in their everyday lives. At least they're not aware of it.
I have a brother with high-functioning autism. And "mental disability" is not something I would attribute to my brother. In fact, depending how you look at each individual, you could say anyone has a "mental disability." There's egotism, there's addiction, there's neuroticism, there's over-anxiousness about certain things, there's various obsessions that people take up as hobbies. When broken down to how these things affect people's personal lives, all of them could be considered "mental disabilities." Otherwise, we'd be perfect machines working perfectly together in unison. It's these quirks we find in human beings that actually brings about change and evolution.
In my experience, people tend to not understand what it means to be autistic. They read one article or hear one story about it and don't really get a broad enough picture of the whole thing. When you live with someone as close as a brother you're whole life, you don't see a "person with autism," you see a "person." Except this person tends to not go along with many of the social norms we have adapted to growing up in modern civilization. In fact, people with aspergers often tend to be the most straightforward and honest people out there.
Larry David has been lauded for his harsh honesty and straightforwardness that he has exemplified in his works such as Seinfeld and more notably, Curb Your Enthusiasm. He claims to not be like his character from Curb in real life, at least on the surface. This is the person he wishes he could be; the person he is on the inside. The character you see on Curb Your Enthusiasm doesn't hold anything back. If he notices something peculiar or if he has a problem with something, he's going to call it out without regards to anyone's feelings. He wishes he could be like this in real life, yet this is in fact what many people with aspergers and autism are like in their day-to-day lives. What Larry David has that many of these "mentally disabled" people don't have is the charm of a comedian.
But would you feel Larry David is so charming in a face-to-face meet with him if he wasn't famous for some of the most successful comedy in TV history? Depends on your sense of humor, but I reckon many wouldn't appreciate this kind of bluntness. I recall many of the family experiences I've had growing up where I've felt so much shame for my brother's honesty. Where I've just naturally understood some of the social norms that he did not, and instead of diplomatically informing him, I was vehemently critical of his behavior and tried to shame him for it. That I felt so embarrassed for something I didn't do and wanted to punish him for it some how. But looking back at many of these situations, does it really matter if he was that honest and socially unaware in the greater scheme of things? As it happens, he called out a lot of the dickheads we wanted to be closer friends with who were actually nowhere on our side to begin with. He questioned people from the get-go that weren't really going to be supportive of us as friends in the future. His brutal honesty and straightforwardness often had it right all along.
In our current situation in America, we have politician after politician who avoid questions with their talking points and their go-to sensitive issues that make people forget about the question at hand. These are democrats, republicans, tea party members, libertarians, and socialists--they all do it. They want to avoid the truth of things in order to make themselves look better in front of a large audience who probably aren't paying enough attention to realize they just avoided a question that actually has some relevance on where they stand on very real issues. We have folks so ready to fight about the little details of things just because they are divided by party line, that they avoid the straightforward questions and the honesty we need to face in order to progress as a country, or a people as a whole.
Perhaps the human race could use more people that are so blatantly straightforward and honest as those with aspergers and autism. These are vital voices who question the status quo without any worry of shame, as it's in their nature to do so. After growing up with my brother and looking back at all of my experiences with him, he's been so right about many things that were looked down upon by me and others at the time. Perhaps it's this honesty that myself and much of the human race are afraid of.
We have etiquette to protect us from too much honesty. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, except it often goes too far. There's a lot of things I have done that I was not aware of, but if people had been more straightforward with me about (like my brother), I could have saved myself a lot of confusion by being aware of these things and growing from the knowledge of them.
With Earth's growing population that is excepted to reach 7 billion soon, attached with our current global economic system and energy consumption habits, we can not sustain ourselves as a people. There are the extreme-darwinists, who many of which are in the closet, that believe we should weed out the "weak" by letting them die off. They have their plan, but that doesn't go in accordance with the majority of human beings that want to live and prosper. We're a growing population on an island that is becoming smaller and smaller, yet we don't have a plan to sustain our global community.
Yet we do have a plan. At least many of our brightest and most compassionate have come up with plans to sustain the global human race. It's our politics that are getting in the way. it's the lack of honesty and straightforwardness in our politics that are misleading the public. We leave out the facts of the situation if it doesn't support our cause. We avoid the matter at hand to make someone else look bad so we look better in comparison. I would love to see ONE mainstream politician abandon that kind of human behavior so they could actually start a new wave of collective thinking. It seems as if those with aspergers and autism were already leading in this sort of thinking from the get-go.
We've seen that evolution does a lot of strange things to species according to the environment they've been put in. It's also my belief that homosexuality is an evolutionary trend set to cut-down on population, as homosexuals tend not to have their own children. It's just natural that a population as big as the human race will destroy itself as long as it consumes the way it currently does or did in the past. No population of animal ever grows too big because there just isn't enough resources to keep it alive. We couldn't have a population of 7 billion, let alone 1 billion as hunter-gatherers.
Humans have adapted on such a sophisticated level that we have avoided food shortages with agriculture, we have avoided plagues with modern medicine, and we have avoided barbarism with education. We can also avoid our own self-destruction if we can actually address what's important for us as a species in the future and not put petty politics in the way. We can maintain such a large population just as we have for centuries with science and technology along with the compassion and humanism that has gotten us this far already. Why let trivial matters get in the way of that?
Those who speak out against homosexuality tend to have religious backing. I can see where they're coming from when looking at it scientifically, but only very simplistically. Sex between gay men is a lot more risky in spreading disease, which is dangerous for the human race. Except we have modern medicine to combat that, along with the scientific developments that will make us more impervious as long as people care enough to invest in it. And perhaps the gay community can tone down the hedonistic sexuality they often express when we have developing children "in the room," but then again, the same should be said for heterosexuals. Kids really don't need to be growing up thinking it's okay to be philandering around at their age like our TV shows illustrate, but then again, it's just a reflection of where we are right now. Philandering, whether gay or straight, is going to be unhealthy even with protection and modern medicine. Rubbers aren't keeping away herpes or genital warts, are they?
I'm not one to want to limit the actions of consenting adults or one to want to limit what's shown on TV, and I'm especially not one to want to limit those with opposing views, but perhaps we can grow in to a more sensible people to grow out of the situation we're in at the moment. Perhaps it's that brutal honesty we need to evolve as a species.
Aspergers and autism isn't anything new, but it looks as if it's become a lot more prominent in recent years. Why is this? Are we better at diagnosing it? Is it something in the water? Is our American diet of over-processed food causing the trend? Is that thing about inoculations actually accurate?
There's also a lot of claim that many influential people throughout history had the syndrome judging by their behavior compared to the symptoms of the syndrome. These include Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Mark Twain, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Jefferson, Carl Jung, Andy Warhol, and even Michael Jackson. Many influential people today are also speculated to have aspergers, such as Bill Gates, Woody Allen, and Al Gore.
It's been my belief for several years that it's a human evolutionary trend that causes aspergers and autism. I haven't been that vocal about this because people tend to act weird when you bring up "mental disabilities." And I believe this is because they aren't really exposed to this sort of thing in their everyday lives. At least they're not aware of it.
I have a brother with high-functioning autism. And "mental disability" is not something I would attribute to my brother. In fact, depending how you look at each individual, you could say anyone has a "mental disability." There's egotism, there's addiction, there's neuroticism, there's over-anxiousness about certain things, there's various obsessions that people take up as hobbies. When broken down to how these things affect people's personal lives, all of them could be considered "mental disabilities." Otherwise, we'd be perfect machines working perfectly together in unison. It's these quirks we find in human beings that actually brings about change and evolution.
In my experience, people tend to not understand what it means to be autistic. They read one article or hear one story about it and don't really get a broad enough picture of the whole thing. When you live with someone as close as a brother you're whole life, you don't see a "person with autism," you see a "person." Except this person tends to not go along with many of the social norms we have adapted to growing up in modern civilization. In fact, people with aspergers often tend to be the most straightforward and honest people out there.
Larry David has been lauded for his harsh honesty and straightforwardness that he has exemplified in his works such as Seinfeld and more notably, Curb Your Enthusiasm. He claims to not be like his character from Curb in real life, at least on the surface. This is the person he wishes he could be; the person he is on the inside. The character you see on Curb Your Enthusiasm doesn't hold anything back. If he notices something peculiar or if he has a problem with something, he's going to call it out without regards to anyone's feelings. He wishes he could be like this in real life, yet this is in fact what many people with aspergers and autism are like in their day-to-day lives. What Larry David has that many of these "mentally disabled" people don't have is the charm of a comedian.
But would you feel Larry David is so charming in a face-to-face meet with him if he wasn't famous for some of the most successful comedy in TV history? Depends on your sense of humor, but I reckon many wouldn't appreciate this kind of bluntness. I recall many of the family experiences I've had growing up where I've felt so much shame for my brother's honesty. Where I've just naturally understood some of the social norms that he did not, and instead of diplomatically informing him, I was vehemently critical of his behavior and tried to shame him for it. That I felt so embarrassed for something I didn't do and wanted to punish him for it some how. But looking back at many of these situations, does it really matter if he was that honest and socially unaware in the greater scheme of things? As it happens, he called out a lot of the dickheads we wanted to be closer friends with who were actually nowhere on our side to begin with. He questioned people from the get-go that weren't really going to be supportive of us as friends in the future. His brutal honesty and straightforwardness often had it right all along.
In our current situation in America, we have politician after politician who avoid questions with their talking points and their go-to sensitive issues that make people forget about the question at hand. These are democrats, republicans, tea party members, libertarians, and socialists--they all do it. They want to avoid the truth of things in order to make themselves look better in front of a large audience who probably aren't paying enough attention to realize they just avoided a question that actually has some relevance on where they stand on very real issues. We have folks so ready to fight about the little details of things just because they are divided by party line, that they avoid the straightforward questions and the honesty we need to face in order to progress as a country, or a people as a whole.
Perhaps the human race could use more people that are so blatantly straightforward and honest as those with aspergers and autism. These are vital voices who question the status quo without any worry of shame, as it's in their nature to do so. After growing up with my brother and looking back at all of my experiences with him, he's been so right about many things that were looked down upon by me and others at the time. Perhaps it's this honesty that myself and much of the human race are afraid of.
We have etiquette to protect us from too much honesty. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, except it often goes too far. There's a lot of things I have done that I was not aware of, but if people had been more straightforward with me about (like my brother), I could have saved myself a lot of confusion by being aware of these things and growing from the knowledge of them.
With Earth's growing population that is excepted to reach 7 billion soon, attached with our current global economic system and energy consumption habits, we can not sustain ourselves as a people. There are the extreme-darwinists, who many of which are in the closet, that believe we should weed out the "weak" by letting them die off. They have their plan, but that doesn't go in accordance with the majority of human beings that want to live and prosper. We're a growing population on an island that is becoming smaller and smaller, yet we don't have a plan to sustain our global community.
Yet we do have a plan. At least many of our brightest and most compassionate have come up with plans to sustain the global human race. It's our politics that are getting in the way. it's the lack of honesty and straightforwardness in our politics that are misleading the public. We leave out the facts of the situation if it doesn't support our cause. We avoid the matter at hand to make someone else look bad so we look better in comparison. I would love to see ONE mainstream politician abandon that kind of human behavior so they could actually start a new wave of collective thinking. It seems as if those with aspergers and autism were already leading in this sort of thinking from the get-go.
We've seen that evolution does a lot of strange things to species according to the environment they've been put in. It's also my belief that homosexuality is an evolutionary trend set to cut-down on population, as homosexuals tend not to have their own children. It's just natural that a population as big as the human race will destroy itself as long as it consumes the way it currently does or did in the past. No population of animal ever grows too big because there just isn't enough resources to keep it alive. We couldn't have a population of 7 billion, let alone 1 billion as hunter-gatherers.
Humans have adapted on such a sophisticated level that we have avoided food shortages with agriculture, we have avoided plagues with modern medicine, and we have avoided barbarism with education. We can also avoid our own self-destruction if we can actually address what's important for us as a species in the future and not put petty politics in the way. We can maintain such a large population just as we have for centuries with science and technology along with the compassion and humanism that has gotten us this far already. Why let trivial matters get in the way of that?
Those who speak out against homosexuality tend to have religious backing. I can see where they're coming from when looking at it scientifically, but only very simplistically. Sex between gay men is a lot more risky in spreading disease, which is dangerous for the human race. Except we have modern medicine to combat that, along with the scientific developments that will make us more impervious as long as people care enough to invest in it. And perhaps the gay community can tone down the hedonistic sexuality they often express when we have developing children "in the room," but then again, the same should be said for heterosexuals. Kids really don't need to be growing up thinking it's okay to be philandering around at their age like our TV shows illustrate, but then again, it's just a reflection of where we are right now. Philandering, whether gay or straight, is going to be unhealthy even with protection and modern medicine. Rubbers aren't keeping away herpes or genital warts, are they?
I'm not one to want to limit the actions of consenting adults or one to want to limit what's shown on TV, and I'm especially not one to want to limit those with opposing views, but perhaps we can grow in to a more sensible people to grow out of the situation we're in at the moment. Perhaps it's that brutal honesty we need to evolve as a species.
Friday, August 12, 2011
5 Things to Make America Better, Stronger, Smarter, and Justifiably #1
Our ever globalizing world is, in fact, making it a flatter environment. We're going to have to compete a lot harder with other nations economically, and we're not ready for it. We're not unified enough to do it, we're not disciplined enough to do it, and most worrying of all, we're mostly not aware of this. Here is a list of propositions to prepare America for the inevitable. A world where we're going to have to work a lot harder and come together a lot more to make anything of ourselves as a nation.
1. Mandatory Military & Survivalist Training For High School Graduates
Though it sounds like a fascist throwback to mandatory conscription, it's really not. Many of our youth in America don't have the discipline to hold on to a simple job, stay out of legal trouble, or finish college. Those who do have the discipline to do those things wouldn't hurt to learn a little more by undergoing military and survivalist training during a summer holiday one year during or after high school.
Youth in America for generations have lived in an environment where alienation is acceptable, where self-reliance is unnecessary, and lack of discipline glorified. Not everyone is a casualty of this environment of course, but bringing our youth together for several weeks of basic training could do wonders for us as a people.
Our youth would feel like one unit during this training; that they are all in it together as equals. All the nonsense social hierarchy in high school will be thrown out the window for these several weeks. Our youth will be challenged in ways many of them though not possible. This would boost their confidence and self-esteem in a genuine way. It would make them look at each other in a different light, at least temporarily eliminating cliques and prejudicial assumptions.
Survivalist training would put our youth in touch with nature and how to use it to survive. Our youth would respect our natural environment after undergoing several weeks living in the wilderness almost self sufficiently. And if the shit ever does hit the fan one day, they would be better prepared to survive in a global catastrophe.
Another thing about this training is that it would force our youth to become fit and in shape. We're becoming fat and lethargic, and that needs to end. Many don't know how to get started when losing the weight, or think it's too late. This would give them no choice but to lose weight and start living a healthier lifestyle.
What we need to start:
We need strong confident leaders ready to whip our kids in to shape. Adults ready to teach self-reliance and discipline. Adults ready to solve problems and teach our youth to rely on themselves to solve problems.
2. Emphasis on Healthy Lifestyle by our Health Care Industry
A healthy populace doesn't sound profitable to our health care industry. This all needs to change. We need to stop relying on drugs to treat our every ailment or annoyance. We need to eat healthier so we have more energy, smaller waistlines, better skin, and cleaner digestive tracts. We need to exercise and get in shape so we're not so chunky, sluggish, and depressed.
I notice that when I see a doctor for being sick, the only dietary suggestion they make is "drink plenty of fluids." Plenty of fluids? Dr. Pepper okay? He's a doctor, right? Why aren't they giving dietary suggestions to make a quick recovery and to prevent the illness from returning? Why aren't they suggesting we avoid heavily processed foods? Why don't they recommend more fresh fruit and vegetables? This would vastly improve the health our nation, yet they don't do it.
Why are there so many drugs for every little thing? Depression is very treatable with exercise, good diet, and active changes in attitude. Erectile dysfunction is very treatable by the same thing. Same with sleeping disorders. Same with weight problems. Same with many skin conditions. Our doctors should be turning to these three solutions before drugs.
A healthy population could be disastrous for our private health care industry, but screw 'em. A unhealthy population is much worse in the long run for all of us as a country. We need our people to be mentally and physically capable to compete in the world, and good health is where that begins.
What we need to start:
I know government health care is a dirty word, but some prudent government interference in the industry is necessary. They don't need to take it over completely, but they need to play their part in making our nation healthier.
3. Emphasis on Critical Thinking in Education
A healthy population will make a strong population, but we need the brains as well as the brawn. I find too many people so faithful of the system without questioning the corruption or possibilities of corruption. Too many people willing to listen to biased news without examining it for what it is and looking at all the angles. Too many people so subservient to our government that is stripping away our rights in the name of hypothetical security.
How can any true American support the Patriot Act? This is the exactly what our Founding Fathers and revolutionary brothers and sisters were fighting against. What is the point of being the United States of America when we're tossing away the Bill of Rights, the document that so clearly defines our culture and way of life. Meanwhile, President Obama resigns the thing this year without barely a peep from the media. Why aren't more Americans as upset as I am about this?
What we need to start:
We need education to put more emphasis on critical thinking so our people can learn to read between the lines. So our people can see beyond all the fear mongering we're bombarded with on a day to day basis. So we ask more questions rather than shutting them down in the name of false-patriotism.
4. Emphasis on Math and Science in Education
We're falling behind in the world in math and science. China's population is over four times our size and they crush us in this arena. We're generally better than them in thinking outside the box, but we also need to excel in math and science in order to stay on top in the high-tech sector. We need the inventive minds as well as the know-how to create such inventions.
Right now, the world economy depends on high-technology to grow. If we want our country to thrive, we need to be the purveyors of high-tech. We need to be inventing things that change the world in a positive way. We need to get on top of renewable energy so our world politics aren't so tied down by depending on foreign nations for our energy needs. Nations where much of their people hate us.
What we need to start:
Our schools need to create more incentives for studying math and science. There is so much emphasis and reward for sport, and there's nothing wrong with that. We just need to also focus our energies and resources in this area as well. More mathlete competitions with higher rewards. More science competitions with higher rewards. More teachers with the ability to connect with their students and make these subjects more accessible and interesting.
5. Emphasis on Money Management
We are superb debt accumulators. Our government overspends and our general population overspends. The Chinese government recently stated that we need to live within our means, and they are absolutely right. Doesn't mean we have to follow them by example, we just need to get in touch with the common sense of managing our money properly.
The first several weeks of entering college in 2004, I get dozens of credit card offers. Why does a college student need so many credit cards? I don't want to restrict business, but something has to be done about the incredibly easy access there is to credit. Easy credit means easy debt accumulation. And add college drinking habits into the equation, and one more drink or one more "whatever" on that credit card doesn't seem like a bad idea.
College really plays into the topic when talking about much bigger debts. College costs so damn much, it puts our youth in serious debt right when they're ready to join the work force, often not getting the glamorous jobs they thought would. Not sure where to go here, but something has to be done about the cost of higher education for our own good as a nation.
Where to start:
Economics and money management needs to be taught as a mandatory subject in middle school and high school education. Students need to understand how the greater economy works and they need to understand how to manage their own money in this global economy. Otherwise, we're in for debt crisis after debt crisis and an eventual complete lack of credit, collapsing our country from the inside out.
These five things are a good start for making our country better, stronger, smarter, and justifiably #1. I think morality is a major point that needs to be emphasized in our current situation, but it's a very subjective subject. It's hard to create government solutions for this, and it's really on the parents to teach this sort of thing. Whatever your creed or lack thereof; Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, Confucius all had some pretty good ideas going for them.
1. Mandatory Military & Survivalist Training For High School Graduates
Though it sounds like a fascist throwback to mandatory conscription, it's really not. Many of our youth in America don't have the discipline to hold on to a simple job, stay out of legal trouble, or finish college. Those who do have the discipline to do those things wouldn't hurt to learn a little more by undergoing military and survivalist training during a summer holiday one year during or after high school.
Youth in America for generations have lived in an environment where alienation is acceptable, where self-reliance is unnecessary, and lack of discipline glorified. Not everyone is a casualty of this environment of course, but bringing our youth together for several weeks of basic training could do wonders for us as a people.
Our youth would feel like one unit during this training; that they are all in it together as equals. All the nonsense social hierarchy in high school will be thrown out the window for these several weeks. Our youth will be challenged in ways many of them though not possible. This would boost their confidence and self-esteem in a genuine way. It would make them look at each other in a different light, at least temporarily eliminating cliques and prejudicial assumptions.
Survivalist training would put our youth in touch with nature and how to use it to survive. Our youth would respect our natural environment after undergoing several weeks living in the wilderness almost self sufficiently. And if the shit ever does hit the fan one day, they would be better prepared to survive in a global catastrophe.
Another thing about this training is that it would force our youth to become fit and in shape. We're becoming fat and lethargic, and that needs to end. Many don't know how to get started when losing the weight, or think it's too late. This would give them no choice but to lose weight and start living a healthier lifestyle.
What we need to start:
We need strong confident leaders ready to whip our kids in to shape. Adults ready to teach self-reliance and discipline. Adults ready to solve problems and teach our youth to rely on themselves to solve problems.
2. Emphasis on Healthy Lifestyle by our Health Care Industry
A healthy populace doesn't sound profitable to our health care industry. This all needs to change. We need to stop relying on drugs to treat our every ailment or annoyance. We need to eat healthier so we have more energy, smaller waistlines, better skin, and cleaner digestive tracts. We need to exercise and get in shape so we're not so chunky, sluggish, and depressed.
I notice that when I see a doctor for being sick, the only dietary suggestion they make is "drink plenty of fluids." Plenty of fluids? Dr. Pepper okay? He's a doctor, right? Why aren't they giving dietary suggestions to make a quick recovery and to prevent the illness from returning? Why aren't they suggesting we avoid heavily processed foods? Why don't they recommend more fresh fruit and vegetables? This would vastly improve the health our nation, yet they don't do it.
Why are there so many drugs for every little thing? Depression is very treatable with exercise, good diet, and active changes in attitude. Erectile dysfunction is very treatable by the same thing. Same with sleeping disorders. Same with weight problems. Same with many skin conditions. Our doctors should be turning to these three solutions before drugs.
A healthy population could be disastrous for our private health care industry, but screw 'em. A unhealthy population is much worse in the long run for all of us as a country. We need our people to be mentally and physically capable to compete in the world, and good health is where that begins.
What we need to start:
I know government health care is a dirty word, but some prudent government interference in the industry is necessary. They don't need to take it over completely, but they need to play their part in making our nation healthier.
3. Emphasis on Critical Thinking in Education
A healthy population will make a strong population, but we need the brains as well as the brawn. I find too many people so faithful of the system without questioning the corruption or possibilities of corruption. Too many people willing to listen to biased news without examining it for what it is and looking at all the angles. Too many people so subservient to our government that is stripping away our rights in the name of hypothetical security.
How can any true American support the Patriot Act? This is the exactly what our Founding Fathers and revolutionary brothers and sisters were fighting against. What is the point of being the United States of America when we're tossing away the Bill of Rights, the document that so clearly defines our culture and way of life. Meanwhile, President Obama resigns the thing this year without barely a peep from the media. Why aren't more Americans as upset as I am about this?
What we need to start:
We need education to put more emphasis on critical thinking so our people can learn to read between the lines. So our people can see beyond all the fear mongering we're bombarded with on a day to day basis. So we ask more questions rather than shutting them down in the name of false-patriotism.
4. Emphasis on Math and Science in Education
We're falling behind in the world in math and science. China's population is over four times our size and they crush us in this arena. We're generally better than them in thinking outside the box, but we also need to excel in math and science in order to stay on top in the high-tech sector. We need the inventive minds as well as the know-how to create such inventions.
Right now, the world economy depends on high-technology to grow. If we want our country to thrive, we need to be the purveyors of high-tech. We need to be inventing things that change the world in a positive way. We need to get on top of renewable energy so our world politics aren't so tied down by depending on foreign nations for our energy needs. Nations where much of their people hate us.
What we need to start:
Our schools need to create more incentives for studying math and science. There is so much emphasis and reward for sport, and there's nothing wrong with that. We just need to also focus our energies and resources in this area as well. More mathlete competitions with higher rewards. More science competitions with higher rewards. More teachers with the ability to connect with their students and make these subjects more accessible and interesting.
5. Emphasis on Money Management
We are superb debt accumulators. Our government overspends and our general population overspends. The Chinese government recently stated that we need to live within our means, and they are absolutely right. Doesn't mean we have to follow them by example, we just need to get in touch with the common sense of managing our money properly.
The first several weeks of entering college in 2004, I get dozens of credit card offers. Why does a college student need so many credit cards? I don't want to restrict business, but something has to be done about the incredibly easy access there is to credit. Easy credit means easy debt accumulation. And add college drinking habits into the equation, and one more drink or one more "whatever" on that credit card doesn't seem like a bad idea.
College really plays into the topic when talking about much bigger debts. College costs so damn much, it puts our youth in serious debt right when they're ready to join the work force, often not getting the glamorous jobs they thought would. Not sure where to go here, but something has to be done about the cost of higher education for our own good as a nation.
Where to start:
Economics and money management needs to be taught as a mandatory subject in middle school and high school education. Students need to understand how the greater economy works and they need to understand how to manage their own money in this global economy. Otherwise, we're in for debt crisis after debt crisis and an eventual complete lack of credit, collapsing our country from the inside out.
These five things are a good start for making our country better, stronger, smarter, and justifiably #1. I think morality is a major point that needs to be emphasized in our current situation, but it's a very subjective subject. It's hard to create government solutions for this, and it's really on the parents to teach this sort of thing. Whatever your creed or lack thereof; Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, Confucius all had some pretty good ideas going for them.
Monday, August 8, 2011
It's Wake Up Time America
It's time we wake up, my fellow Americans. It's time we stop blaming each other for our collective problems. It's time we stop and listen to each other and find a constructive path to take us to the greatness we can achieve. It's time we stop letting the corruptive powers pit us against each other in a game of red guys versus blue guys. It's time we take back our Constitution and Bill of Rights from the jackals that are mangling it and carry out what's been written in those documents that defines our culture as Americans. It's time we dismantle the American Empire and look inward to bring the American Republic to the heights that it can attain. It's time we lead by example, rather than demand out of self-interest. It's time for the United States of America to be reborn in the 21st century and achieve the legitimate #1 status we often claim to hold.
I'm not trying to patronize you, America. I'm not suggesting we be apologetic for all of our many sins. I mean for us to turn over a new leaf, to start over fresh, and to let sleeping dogs lie.
We, the American people, have been mislead for decades. We have been mislead by our own leaders. Our government and our business leaders. The powers that be have embraced greed over country that has brought us to the very situation we're in now. Pride over practicality that is further dividing us with dogmatic political ideology rather than pragmatic leadership. War over peace that is destroying the lives of not only our soldiers, but their families, let alone the countless souls abroad our government writes off as collateral damage.
Our dysfunctional two-party political system that has been bought by big business needs to answer to the American people.
This big government that spends frivolously on maintaining Empire and large-scale warfare that has time and time again done no one any good.
This big business, or as they liken themselves, "the job creators," demands we maintain their historically low taxes for what? So they can do what they allegedly do best? Create jobs? Do they mean expanding their tentacles overseas to hire foreign workers who will work for less than what our own illegal immigrants will work for? Is that what we want our job creators to do?
Shall we continue to let the lobbyists control Washington, so that our purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain resemble the wastelands imagined in everyone's mind of hell? So that our food becomes less like food, so that our children grow into fat cancerous shells of human beings?
Our country is on a path of self-destruction, and our leaders are either unaware or apathetic to the situation at hand. We have let ourselves be manipulated by the powerful super-rich who have self-serving agendas. The capitalistic system they have sold to us, where by default, only the few can achieve the American Dream isn't taking us to where we thought it would. The riches aren't trickling down as projected. The globalist capital holders will try and stomp anyone who tries to reach their level by any means necessary.
They seduce us with the dream of living in their gluttony, and will easily use that power of seduction to pit the middle-class against the poor, to make the red guys bite the blue guys, and to eventually turn us into a couple of desperate mangy dogs who will devour each other for the last edible source we can find.
It's time we wise up to their tactics and bring the bite to them. They have sold our jobs to slave-like workers in the third world. They have collaborated with our government, the World Bank and others like them to bankrupt developing countries into serving our thirst for oil. And worse, they, along with our government, have sold war after war to us in the name of freedom and democracy in order to make themselves rich, while our soldiers come home disfigured, disturbed, or in body bags, and their battlefields left in rubble smeared in the blood of innocent lives. And for what? So they can rebuild these war zones with their own contractors for their own personal gain?
They become rich by destroying and rebuilding foreign lands and by pillaging resources from these lands. We continue to see our energy costs totally dependent on these factors, when we could instead be investing in something sustainable, local, and clean.
Why did the Bush Administration decide to invade Iraq when it clearly had no ties to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden?
Why did Halliburton, the World's second largest oilfield service corporation, who was presided by Dick Cheney before he became Vice President to Bush, get awarded a 7 billion dollar contract to go to work in Iraq after the war?
Why did the Bush Administration award the Bechtel Corporation, America's largest engineering company, with the first major contract in the reconstruction of Iraq?
Why is it such a coincidence that two of Bechtel's top dogs, George P. Shultz and Caspar W. Weinberger, also worked for President Ronal Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush as their Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense?
Why did the Bush Administration put one of Bechtel's chief executives, Riley P. Bechtel, to serve on the President's Export Council?
Why did the Bush Administration specifically seek out the demise of Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, who had protectionist policies on Venezuela's oil-fields, when there were so many other dictators out there reigning with an iron fist?
Why did President H.W. Bush bomb and invade Panama in the late 80's just to take out one unruly dictator, while hundreds if not thousands perished, while again, there are plenty more dictators in the word with similar traits?
Why were so many right-wing dictators (who make Chavez and Noriega seem like humanitarians) supported by our own American government in the name of anti-communism during the Cold War?
Why did such deceitfulness like the Gulf of Tonkin Incident lead us into a war to nowhere in Vietnam?
Why did President George W. Bush sign the Patriot Act, a law that pisses on our Bill of Rights by taking away some of our most essential rights as Americans, that we hold as the pinnacles of our freedom and culture?
Why did President Barack Obama sign the extension on the Patriot Act this year, when he was supposedly going to represent "change" from the direction Bush took our country?
Why was President Obama awarded a Nobel Peace Prize while maintaining two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Why has Obama brought us in to a third war by bombing Libya, when again, there are plenty more dictators out there, and plenty more anti-government movements going on in the Arab world?
Why has our congress made such little progress in the past couple years when we have China catching up to us economically with their openly tyrannical government?
The more our citizens and government bicker pettily and don't get anything done, and the more we waste on warfare, and the more we sell our souls to big business and their self-serving deregulation and globalization motives, the deeper our country sinks in to a hole we won't be able to dig ourselves out of.
Meanwhile, we have China on the rise, and the whole World is beginning to look up to them. We had the whole World look up to us before, and those tides are turning. Should we let a country with an illegitimate oligarchy that tyrannically controls its people and business be the model for success? Is that what we already are?
It's wake up time, America.
I'm not trying to patronize you, America. I'm not suggesting we be apologetic for all of our many sins. I mean for us to turn over a new leaf, to start over fresh, and to let sleeping dogs lie.
We, the American people, have been mislead for decades. We have been mislead by our own leaders. Our government and our business leaders. The powers that be have embraced greed over country that has brought us to the very situation we're in now. Pride over practicality that is further dividing us with dogmatic political ideology rather than pragmatic leadership. War over peace that is destroying the lives of not only our soldiers, but their families, let alone the countless souls abroad our government writes off as collateral damage.
Our dysfunctional two-party political system that has been bought by big business needs to answer to the American people.
This big government that spends frivolously on maintaining Empire and large-scale warfare that has time and time again done no one any good.
This big business, or as they liken themselves, "the job creators," demands we maintain their historically low taxes for what? So they can do what they allegedly do best? Create jobs? Do they mean expanding their tentacles overseas to hire foreign workers who will work for less than what our own illegal immigrants will work for? Is that what we want our job creators to do?
Shall we continue to let the lobbyists control Washington, so that our purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain resemble the wastelands imagined in everyone's mind of hell? So that our food becomes less like food, so that our children grow into fat cancerous shells of human beings?
Our country is on a path of self-destruction, and our leaders are either unaware or apathetic to the situation at hand. We have let ourselves be manipulated by the powerful super-rich who have self-serving agendas. The capitalistic system they have sold to us, where by default, only the few can achieve the American Dream isn't taking us to where we thought it would. The riches aren't trickling down as projected. The globalist capital holders will try and stomp anyone who tries to reach their level by any means necessary.
They seduce us with the dream of living in their gluttony, and will easily use that power of seduction to pit the middle-class against the poor, to make the red guys bite the blue guys, and to eventually turn us into a couple of desperate mangy dogs who will devour each other for the last edible source we can find.
It's time we wise up to their tactics and bring the bite to them. They have sold our jobs to slave-like workers in the third world. They have collaborated with our government, the World Bank and others like them to bankrupt developing countries into serving our thirst for oil. And worse, they, along with our government, have sold war after war to us in the name of freedom and democracy in order to make themselves rich, while our soldiers come home disfigured, disturbed, or in body bags, and their battlefields left in rubble smeared in the blood of innocent lives. And for what? So they can rebuild these war zones with their own contractors for their own personal gain?
They become rich by destroying and rebuilding foreign lands and by pillaging resources from these lands. We continue to see our energy costs totally dependent on these factors, when we could instead be investing in something sustainable, local, and clean.
Why did the Bush Administration decide to invade Iraq when it clearly had no ties to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden?
Why did Halliburton, the World's second largest oilfield service corporation, who was presided by Dick Cheney before he became Vice President to Bush, get awarded a 7 billion dollar contract to go to work in Iraq after the war?
Why did the Bush Administration award the Bechtel Corporation, America's largest engineering company, with the first major contract in the reconstruction of Iraq?
Why is it such a coincidence that two of Bechtel's top dogs, George P. Shultz and Caspar W. Weinberger, also worked for President Ronal Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush as their Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense?
Why did the Bush Administration put one of Bechtel's chief executives, Riley P. Bechtel, to serve on the President's Export Council?
Why did the Bush Administration specifically seek out the demise of Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, who had protectionist policies on Venezuela's oil-fields, when there were so many other dictators out there reigning with an iron fist?
Why did President H.W. Bush bomb and invade Panama in the late 80's just to take out one unruly dictator, while hundreds if not thousands perished, while again, there are plenty more dictators in the word with similar traits?
Why were so many right-wing dictators (who make Chavez and Noriega seem like humanitarians) supported by our own American government in the name of anti-communism during the Cold War?
Why did such deceitfulness like the Gulf of Tonkin Incident lead us into a war to nowhere in Vietnam?
Why did President George W. Bush sign the Patriot Act, a law that pisses on our Bill of Rights by taking away some of our most essential rights as Americans, that we hold as the pinnacles of our freedom and culture?
Why did President Barack Obama sign the extension on the Patriot Act this year, when he was supposedly going to represent "change" from the direction Bush took our country?
Why was President Obama awarded a Nobel Peace Prize while maintaining two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Why has Obama brought us in to a third war by bombing Libya, when again, there are plenty more dictators out there, and plenty more anti-government movements going on in the Arab world?
Why has our congress made such little progress in the past couple years when we have China catching up to us economically with their openly tyrannical government?
The more our citizens and government bicker pettily and don't get anything done, and the more we waste on warfare, and the more we sell our souls to big business and their self-serving deregulation and globalization motives, the deeper our country sinks in to a hole we won't be able to dig ourselves out of.
Meanwhile, we have China on the rise, and the whole World is beginning to look up to them. We had the whole World look up to us before, and those tides are turning. Should we let a country with an illegitimate oligarchy that tyrannically controls its people and business be the model for success? Is that what we already are?
It's wake up time, America.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Alex, The Promoter: Women's Day Special
Been a while since Alex has sent me a worthwhile promotion. But on Women's Day this week, he left me a gem.
Today is March 8,beauty girl day, today,a good reward her or him!Tonight our Ship bar & AD698 specifically designed the hot mysterious "Ladies power party " for you,enjoy the privilege and luxury gift,Miss drink
Today is March 8,beauty girl day, today,a good reward her or him!Tonight our Ship bar & AD698 specifically designed the hot mysterious "Ladies power party " for you,enjoy the privilege and luxury gift,Miss drink
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Electro Showing Its Face In American Popular Music
About a year ago I noticed a shift in American popular music. David Guetta released that song with Akon, “Sexy Chick.” Though in my opinion, not a very good song, it became a hit with radio play for months. And an Electro House hit at that, but catered to the Hip Hop/R&B crowd. Three 6 Mafia followed with another Electro song, but with Tiesto on the track. Not quite as successful as “Sexy Chick,” it had a similar sound that Americans could start getting used to. 2010 was the year that welcomed Electro House into American pop music.
Lady Gaga may have been the first sign of this shift. “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” had a distinct dance music sound, but not quite Electro House. We’ve heard this sort of thing before when Madonna was making tracks like that about ten years ago. But Electro is a distinct sub-genre that’s remained quite popular in the club scene for some time. Electro grew to great popularity in the mid-2000’s internationally, with its ground zero in Europe. I thought it might have a novel appearance in American popular music at best, and “I’m In Miami Bitch” by LMFAO would have been one of these novelties, but over the past year its grown to be one of the quintessential sounds of popular music this turn of the decade, though more watered down and pop-formulaic than its European mother.
Lady Gaga and Katy Perry started this “outrageous female singer” trend that’s going strong into 2011. Ke$ha reared her face in the scene about a year ago as well with “Tik Tok,” which utilized the Electro sound as well as a healthy dose of Auto-Tune. Her hits in that followed, “Blah Blah Blah,” “Your Love Is My Drug,” and “Take It Off,” all from her album, Animal, followed in suit. And her current hit, “We R Who We R” continues this pattern. Britney Spears even had an Electro sounding song in late 2009 with “3,” and is now rocking the sound better than most with her new hit, “Hold It Against Me.”
In the Hip Hop/R&B front, the Electro sound is continuing to become very prominent. The Black Eyed Peas have been leaning towards a more club/dance sound since their 2005 Monkey Business album. “I Gotta Feeling” and “Boom Boom Pow” took it further. Both tracks were off The E.N.D. album, which shows that they were ahead of the game using the Electro sound, when “Imma Be” (which started out with a slower Hip Hop sound that evolved into Electro towards the end) became a hit a year ago as well. Then “Rock That Body” made the charts during the summer of 2010, which was basically straight up Electro House with no watering down whatsoever. They continued this trend in their next album, The Beginning, with the late-2010 hit “The Time (Dirty Bit).” The track was a pop-throwback and dirtier sounding Electro amalgam, which European Electro artist Deadmau5 claimed plagiarism of his own work. Regardless of the validity of the accusation, it further popularized his music along with the Black Eyed Peas track.
Electro music actually branched out from Hip Hop, when it was created in the late 1970’s. Afrika Bambaataa’s 1980’s classic, “Planet Rock” is probably the most recognizable of the genre. Even Dr. Dre was making that kind of music with the World Class Wrecking Crew throughout the 80’s. Just check out pictures of him from that era and his Gangsta aesthetic just melts away. A lot of Puerto Rican artists hopped on the genre in the 80’s and made it their own, known as Freestyle. It persisted even into the late-90’s with Rockell’s Freestyle hit, “In A Dream.”
It brings a smile to my face that the sound is re-emerging in Hip Hop/R&B. For the past several years, all the tracks seem to be so slow and hi-hat heavy, that I wonder how people have that much fun dancing to it, unless they’re all sipping syrup. That kind of Hip Hop is great for the car and the strip club, but what about the dance floor? The Hip Hop these days is definitely making it a lot more fun out there.
The Far-East Movement came out with a pretty rocking Electro Rap track in 2009 with “Girls On The Dance Floor,” but it didn’t see much play outside of the clubs. “Like A G6” really put their name out there in the Fall of 2010 when they reached the top of the charts, along with collaborators Dev and The Cataracs. Since, Dev and The Cataracs put out their own single, “Bass Down Low,” which had a similar sound. The Cataracs have just released a song with Snoop Dogg called “Wet,” and though not an Electro track, we’ll probably see a lot more from them this year.
Flo Rida has always had a very club/dance friendly sound, with beats ranging from 120 to 130 bpm. And now he too has worked with famed European Electro artist, David Guetta, on the track “Club Can’t Handle Me.” His new Electro influenced track with Akon, “Who Dat Girl,” which has only peaked at 29 on Billboard’s Hot 100 will probably become a bigger hit in the next month or so. Perhaps the music industry overlords are waiting for the most strategic time to put it on the top.
Usher changed up his style a lot in 2010 and is banking off of this new Electro trend. “OMG” reached massive popularity during the summer. It seemed highly unenthusiastic to me, but the Electro effect was in full effect and watered down as to be expected. “So Many Girls,” which wasn’t quite as successful as “OMG” had a more authentic sound to it. And later in 2010, Usher’s track with Pitbull, “DJ Got US Falling In Love Again,” maintained that Electro cut with baking soda sound.
Pitbull, of course, plays a big role in this emerging new sub-genre of Hip Hop/R&B, albeit being a Reggaeton artist. He, like Flo Rida, has always had a club/dance sound, and he put the Electro in full effect with 2009’s “Shut It Down” featuring Akon. His latest cheese ball hit with T-Pain, “Hey Baby (Drop It To The Floor)” continues the style. Taio Cruz, though not an American (or Puerto Rican), has attained a lot of popularity throughout the past year in the States, and he too is thick in the sound with tracks like “Break Your Heart” which featured Ludacris, “Dynamite,” and “Dirty Picture” which featured Auto-Tune Electro-Pop princess, Ke$ha.
Another non-American singer who has gained much popularity in the States recently is Enrique Iglesias, who I haven’t really heard anything from since that “Bailamos” song back in the late-90’s. “I Like It” featuring Pitbull was pretty Electro and heavily Auto-Tuned, and his latest hit, “Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You)” which features Ludacris, retains the flavor.
Chris Brown really surprised me this winter with his latest hit, “Yeah 3X.” It’s pretty much an uplifting Electro House track catered to American listeners in lyrical content. I think this is the track, along with Enrique’s two latest hits, that will really incorporate Electro House into American popular music. Get ready for more tracks like this to follow the pattern.
The reason this all excites me is that I’ve been waiting for Electronic Dance to become a standard form of American popular music, like Hip Hop did over ten years ago. You would think it would have earlier with many popular artists experimenting in the sound in the late-80’s and into the 90’s, but it has never really stuck. Now, with so much saturation of the sound on the radio and in music television these days, it is sure to inspire a whole new generation of artists. Music software has enabled anyone with a laptop to create a home studio, and e-piracy will even ensure the poorest kid with a laptop to start experimenting. This trend has enabled Hip Hop acts like Soulja Boy Tell’em to become popular in recent years, so why not a whole onslaught of singers with Electronic Dance music backing next? I have a feeling this new decade is going to be very club-friendly.
Lady Gaga may have been the first sign of this shift. “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” had a distinct dance music sound, but not quite Electro House. We’ve heard this sort of thing before when Madonna was making tracks like that about ten years ago. But Electro is a distinct sub-genre that’s remained quite popular in the club scene for some time. Electro grew to great popularity in the mid-2000’s internationally, with its ground zero in Europe. I thought it might have a novel appearance in American popular music at best, and “I’m In Miami Bitch” by LMFAO would have been one of these novelties, but over the past year its grown to be one of the quintessential sounds of popular music this turn of the decade, though more watered down and pop-formulaic than its European mother.
Lady Gaga and Katy Perry started this “outrageous female singer” trend that’s going strong into 2011. Ke$ha reared her face in the scene about a year ago as well with “Tik Tok,” which utilized the Electro sound as well as a healthy dose of Auto-Tune. Her hits in that followed, “Blah Blah Blah,” “Your Love Is My Drug,” and “Take It Off,” all from her album, Animal, followed in suit. And her current hit, “We R Who We R” continues this pattern. Britney Spears even had an Electro sounding song in late 2009 with “3,” and is now rocking the sound better than most with her new hit, “Hold It Against Me.”
In the Hip Hop/R&B front, the Electro sound is continuing to become very prominent. The Black Eyed Peas have been leaning towards a more club/dance sound since their 2005 Monkey Business album. “I Gotta Feeling” and “Boom Boom Pow” took it further. Both tracks were off The E.N.D. album, which shows that they were ahead of the game using the Electro sound, when “Imma Be” (which started out with a slower Hip Hop sound that evolved into Electro towards the end) became a hit a year ago as well. Then “Rock That Body” made the charts during the summer of 2010, which was basically straight up Electro House with no watering down whatsoever. They continued this trend in their next album, The Beginning, with the late-2010 hit “The Time (Dirty Bit).” The track was a pop-throwback and dirtier sounding Electro amalgam, which European Electro artist Deadmau5 claimed plagiarism of his own work. Regardless of the validity of the accusation, it further popularized his music along with the Black Eyed Peas track.
Electro music actually branched out from Hip Hop, when it was created in the late 1970’s. Afrika Bambaataa’s 1980’s classic, “Planet Rock” is probably the most recognizable of the genre. Even Dr. Dre was making that kind of music with the World Class Wrecking Crew throughout the 80’s. Just check out pictures of him from that era and his Gangsta aesthetic just melts away. A lot of Puerto Rican artists hopped on the genre in the 80’s and made it their own, known as Freestyle. It persisted even into the late-90’s with Rockell’s Freestyle hit, “In A Dream.”
It brings a smile to my face that the sound is re-emerging in Hip Hop/R&B. For the past several years, all the tracks seem to be so slow and hi-hat heavy, that I wonder how people have that much fun dancing to it, unless they’re all sipping syrup. That kind of Hip Hop is great for the car and the strip club, but what about the dance floor? The Hip Hop these days is definitely making it a lot more fun out there.
The Far-East Movement came out with a pretty rocking Electro Rap track in 2009 with “Girls On The Dance Floor,” but it didn’t see much play outside of the clubs. “Like A G6” really put their name out there in the Fall of 2010 when they reached the top of the charts, along with collaborators Dev and The Cataracs. Since, Dev and The Cataracs put out their own single, “Bass Down Low,” which had a similar sound. The Cataracs have just released a song with Snoop Dogg called “Wet,” and though not an Electro track, we’ll probably see a lot more from them this year.
Flo Rida has always had a very club/dance friendly sound, with beats ranging from 120 to 130 bpm. And now he too has worked with famed European Electro artist, David Guetta, on the track “Club Can’t Handle Me.” His new Electro influenced track with Akon, “Who Dat Girl,” which has only peaked at 29 on Billboard’s Hot 100 will probably become a bigger hit in the next month or so. Perhaps the music industry overlords are waiting for the most strategic time to put it on the top.
Usher changed up his style a lot in 2010 and is banking off of this new Electro trend. “OMG” reached massive popularity during the summer. It seemed highly unenthusiastic to me, but the Electro effect was in full effect and watered down as to be expected. “So Many Girls,” which wasn’t quite as successful as “OMG” had a more authentic sound to it. And later in 2010, Usher’s track with Pitbull, “DJ Got US Falling In Love Again,” maintained that Electro cut with baking soda sound.
Pitbull, of course, plays a big role in this emerging new sub-genre of Hip Hop/R&B, albeit being a Reggaeton artist. He, like Flo Rida, has always had a club/dance sound, and he put the Electro in full effect with 2009’s “Shut It Down” featuring Akon. His latest cheese ball hit with T-Pain, “Hey Baby (Drop It To The Floor)” continues the style. Taio Cruz, though not an American (or Puerto Rican), has attained a lot of popularity throughout the past year in the States, and he too is thick in the sound with tracks like “Break Your Heart” which featured Ludacris, “Dynamite,” and “Dirty Picture” which featured Auto-Tune Electro-Pop princess, Ke$ha.
Another non-American singer who has gained much popularity in the States recently is Enrique Iglesias, who I haven’t really heard anything from since that “Bailamos” song back in the late-90’s. “I Like It” featuring Pitbull was pretty Electro and heavily Auto-Tuned, and his latest hit, “Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You)” which features Ludacris, retains the flavor.
Chris Brown really surprised me this winter with his latest hit, “Yeah 3X.” It’s pretty much an uplifting Electro House track catered to American listeners in lyrical content. I think this is the track, along with Enrique’s two latest hits, that will really incorporate Electro House into American popular music. Get ready for more tracks like this to follow the pattern.
The reason this all excites me is that I’ve been waiting for Electronic Dance to become a standard form of American popular music, like Hip Hop did over ten years ago. You would think it would have earlier with many popular artists experimenting in the sound in the late-80’s and into the 90’s, but it has never really stuck. Now, with so much saturation of the sound on the radio and in music television these days, it is sure to inspire a whole new generation of artists. Music software has enabled anyone with a laptop to create a home studio, and e-piracy will even ensure the poorest kid with a laptop to start experimenting. This trend has enabled Hip Hop acts like Soulja Boy Tell’em to become popular in recent years, so why not a whole onslaught of singers with Electronic Dance music backing next? I have a feeling this new decade is going to be very club-friendly.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Alex, The Promoter: Anniversary Party 2011
Alex sent me this message today. Shame I won't be able to make it. I'm wondering which Chinese pop stars will allegedly be there. Where are they putting this sports car? Field?
Ups and downs, Universal ShipBar & AD698 on the way to grow your companionship, On January 20,the anniversary of our bar 2,female stars of Chinese pop music ,the field's top sports car party,more mysterious surprise gift waiting for you to come and collect!
Ups and downs, Universal ShipBar & AD698 on the way to grow your companionship, On January 20,the anniversary of our bar 2,female stars of Chinese pop music ,the field's top sports car party,more mysterious surprise gift waiting for you to come and collect!
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