Lately, I am starting to see a model that really just depresses me. I admire the fuck out of George Carlin and how he was able to completely seperate himself from what this country has become. He was able to laugh at the complete ruthlessness of the system and the people who live in it. He was able to make a joke out of how horrible and how bitter this world has become. When you look at how people are, how the world is, it is easy to see why people don’t get involved in politics.
The new prevailing theory among conservatives and, for the most part, Libertarians, is that people should be as greedy as they want to be, and screw everybody else. I find this view morally and ethically repugnant. Ayn Rand, while she had a few good ideas, had a whole philosophy that seems to have been based on greed. And now we have an entire country that endorses this viewpoint. It is tragic beyond all reason. It really is. Because, the way that I see it, helping other people and working together as a species to make the world a better place is the only reason that we are in this world at all.
I like the line that Keith Olbermann had -
Everyday since I started to think, I realized I knew a little less than I thought I did the day before about why we are all here.”
It’s a tragic statement that is true for me as well. I sit back and I look at this world, and I look at how much we are consumed by the endless pursuit of money, and the endless pursuit to do better than the other people. George Carlin had this bit about the Ten Commandments, and how the Commandment to not covet your neighbor’s goods is pure bullshit. Coveting what your neighbor has is what drives this entire nation’s economy. We are a nation that is built on the idea that we need more money, to have more and more and more.
When you think about how far we have come, how much we have done as a species, the fact that we are all so obsessed with little gree pieces of paper is actually quite amazing. We are all so consumed by our need. They say that money doesn’t buy happiness, but since it buys every single thing that is needed for happiness, I would say that it does! I would say that it does more than buy happiness. I think it buys existence at all. You cannot exist in this world if it wasn’t for money.
Every time I hear some Libertarian retard or some conservative dumbass talk about how the poor are such leeches, I can’t even shake my head in shame anymore. You see the rich, and how they are sucking the money away from everybody else. Then you see the poor and how they will fight tooth and claw to defend these people. I am beyond depressed about the modern situation in this country. I have a friend who I care about more than most anybody. She is in a really pretty pickle, because her family may lose their home. A person I know heard that the parents either couldn’t work (as one of them can’t) or can hardly find work, and instantly wrote them off as people who didn’t try enough. Stupidity, naivety, ignorance, and of a calibur that I haven’t seen in a long time. Her hardcore Fox News loving racist husband I’m sure agrees whole-heartedly.
This nation has an illness, so does this entire planet. I am with Carlin in believing there is no hope, and it is getting to the point that I don’t really care how it all turns out. The day that the major corporations and banks like BP, Goldman Sachs, and the Catholic Church took over this country, it was all over. The basic parts of human decency, like helping out your fellow man, they went out the window and were replaced by the endless consumerism that has made us all slaves to it.
I’m with TJ on this one -
So I ask all people of faith, if there is a God, how the fuck can you stomach him? His universe is a shithole!”
Greed, crime, corruption, and the endless work of those in power (not the government. Our faux government is just a bunch of patsies that our real owners, the corporate interests, can use to make whatever they want happen), and really being a bad person is just rampant in society. It is so much easier to be evil than good. Good requires rising above your natural instincts. Good requires that you are able to set aside the personal feelings about things. Good requires that you make sacrifice. And the fact is that people in this country doesn’t want to make sacrifice.
The aforementioned person, she asked me, genuinely asked me, if I would want to give money to the poor if I had a lot of money. If I was a multi-millionaire, would I want to give up that money? The general visceral tone with which she had make me feel genuinely ill. Like the idea of giving money and helping people is such a bad thing. I am now convinced that I am a better person than she is. 
I am convinced of this because I knew the answer in a heartbeat – yes. Yes a thousand times! I would give as much as I possible could! I don’t need all that wealth! I wouldn’t want it either! I want to help people. There was the single greatest speech in film from Charlie Chaplin, in the film “The Great Dictator.” I think he said it best. In fact, I will put the speech in its entirety on here, so you can know how I feel about the human race, and what I want for every, single, person -
I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible! Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one-another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one-another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich! And can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls. Has barricaded the world with hate. Has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want! Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and we feel too little.
More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent, and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men. Cries out for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all! Even now, my voice is reaching millions of people across the world. Millions of despairing men, women, and little children. Victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair! The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed. The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die! And the power they took from the people, willl be returned to the people. And so long as men die, liberty shall never perish!
Soldiers, don’t give yourself to brutes! Men who despise you, enslave you! Who regiment your lives, tell you what to do and what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder! Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men! Machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate! The unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers, don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty!
In the 17th Chapter of St. Luke it is written ‘the Kingdom of God is within man. Not one man nor a group of men!’ But in all men! You, you the people have the power! The power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful! To make this life a wonderful adventure! Then in the name of democracy, let us use this power! Let us unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world! That will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future, and old age a security! By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power! But they lie! The do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world. To do away with national barriers. To do away with greed, hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason! A world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, Let us all unite!”
That is my absolute truth. That is what I believe. That is my mantra, my existence, and the reason that I am a better person than the one I talked about, and all those who think like her.
Until next time, a quote,
“It seems as if we are taught as young children to share, and then, as soon as we let go of our parent’s hand, we are taught to stop sharing, or at least to stop prioritizing sharing. To stop sharing unconditionally.” -Keith Olbermann, Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Peace out,
Maverick
