Recently, an interview was conducted between comedian Russell Brand and The BBC's Jeremy Paxman. The discussion turned to Brand's views on the current political climate, consisting of an idealistic call for "massive redistributions of wealth" and the structural dismantling of the current political system, as well as a general rallying cry for social revolution. As could be expected, this generated quite a fair bit of buzz on social media sites among the college-aged demographic.
I've given this subject some amount of thought, as there are several angles worth considering when approaching the message delivered.
For the sake of being inflammatory, I will first discuss my problems with Mr. Brand's arguments, beginning on the petty end of the spectrum.
From my perspective, the biggest issue is a lack of depth in Brand's understanding of the social constructs he is discussing.
I've heard many of the same arguments made in very similar fashion during my days in undergraduate studies (mostly by students after their first semester of introduction sociology courses).
Russell Brand is, to my own understanding, ideologically cut from the same cloth as a freshman year university student during winter break. He has heard enough organized academic discourse on the subject to piecemeal together several $5 words that begin with the same letter, but is far enough removed from the reality which he is discussing to display overabundant bravery and authority in his claims without the burden of functionality.
This follows a troublesome trend in American political discourse; that of an excess of "Problem Identifiers".
Every person with access to a microphone and an audience in the country seems to be falling over themselves to point out issues, discuss the root causes of the issues ad nauseum (i.e. who's to blame), and proclaim the way things "should be". The big problem with this is that rarely does anyone ever walk up to a problem with a measure of common sense and propose a practical, tangible solution.
That wouldn't make for sexy talking points.
It seems much simpler and safer to write an observed problem on a chalkboard, circle it with permanent marker, and continue to slap the board with a yardstick.
To this end, I completely agree with Russell in his absolute disgust with "the lies, treachery, deceit of the political class that has been going on for generations now and has now reached a fever pitch" and an American people "not being represented by that political system".
As a matter of fact, I agree with every word he says regarding the lack of responsibility displayed by elected leaders to serve the will of the people whom they are intended to represent.
However, I fundamentally disagree with him on how to address the atrociously negative trends in our political system.
He references several times the economic disparity within our culture, and the creation of an "underclass". By this, I'm assuming that he is highlighting the fact that both wealthy people and impoverished people exist in society.
There has always been rich and poor.
There will always be rich and poor.
There are reasons for this.
This is not a new concept.
Economic distinction is an inherent aspect of any society, and you cannot legislate wealth to those who don't have it. This has never proven to be an effective long term solution. You can provide opportunity for people to work their way to a better quality of life. In my opinion, the most effective way of accomplishing this is to remove as many obstacles as possible (including government intervention) and let people achieve what they are willing to work for.
Additionally, it has been shown that government restricting/punishing corporations for existing rarely, if ever, promotes positive social development.
Corporations were small businesses that were more fruitful and grew and advanced. They employ people, and they provide services. They should be held accountable for their actions, but not reprimanded by federal entities for being a corporation.
Brand calls for a revolution. I call for a returning to the foundational principles that our nation was built upon.
Instead of legislating our perception of "fairness" or "deserved economic equality" at the expense of those who have attained monetary success, we need to attack the problem with solutions that are tactile and long-term. Money can be spent, but instilled and established values can shape a country.
Instead of attempting to create a "socialistic egalitarian society", we need to promote and create a culture of individuals who adorn the mantle of personal responsibility for their lives and surroundings.
To my understanding, this is the most effective way to create a system of extended benefit for all willing and able to be involved.
Brand then goes on to discuss the mechanism of "profit", and how it is the corrupting force within our society.
I will touch on this in my next post.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Writing
I woke up one morning and realized that I enjoy writing.
Always the finished product, and less often the process.
Ernest Hemingway said, "There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges."
However, I always find personal fulfillment and satisfaction in the act of creating something that I first had to envision.
I am going to attempt to adhere myself to a more disciplined structure of writing, which will involve this webpage.
I tried this in the past, by trying to think of the blog as a form of journal. That actually served as a deterrent for me because I'm not big on sharing, and because my life is not all that engaging.
The current course of action will be to write informed bits on current events, social constructs, political studies, etc., both for practice and for fun.
My goal is to say something worth saying, if I can.
Always the finished product, and less often the process.
Ernest Hemingway said, "There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges."
However, I always find personal fulfillment and satisfaction in the act of creating something that I first had to envision.
I am going to attempt to adhere myself to a more disciplined structure of writing, which will involve this webpage.
I tried this in the past, by trying to think of the blog as a form of journal. That actually served as a deterrent for me because I'm not big on sharing, and because my life is not all that engaging.
The current course of action will be to write informed bits on current events, social constructs, political studies, etc., both for practice and for fun.
My goal is to say something worth saying, if I can.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
fear of risk
For the first time in a long while, I feel like writing things down again.
Something that I have been thinking over lately are the institutions of fear and courage.
These are often thought of as opposites, as light and dark are. Many have heard the argument that regards darkness as simply the absence of light, rather than the opposing force.
A somewhat similar relationship can be drawn between fear and courage, although it is a much less cause-and-effect, and much more extrinsic in nature.
As I have previously written:
-Fear is simply an emotional factor that provides a limiting influence.
-Courage is the ability to act in spite of the presence of fear.
-Both fear and courage can manifest themselves in varying degrees and through various circumstances.
My considerations have rested, more specifically, on the fear of risk. It is something that I have found within my own life. I assume that I am in innumerable company when I say this, but this fear has been a limiting factor to my experience since I have been capable of making decisions.
I don't necessarily mean to represent a traditional sense of fear in this discussion. It is more of a general lack of willingness to engage in risk, or even seriously consider action that may invite risk.
To the best of my abilities, I attempt to shape my life in a box that I would, by observation, deem to be acceptable. This is fairly common and completely understandable. Exploration seems to be a foregone conclusion in an age where you can click a few buttons and digitally tour the Peruvian coast. There is just such experience to be gained by those who are willing to reach out for it, and I often look back and regret wasting time and opportunity in the past. My goal is to live presently so that I won't look back in five years with any regret.
Now to clarify, I'm not of the opinion that everyone should run out and try to be the next Steve Jobs, or get double tat sleeves on a whim. I simply believe that there is no reason to sit around idly wasting potential and possibility in exchange for temporary comforts and feelings of security. There is great joy in placing intent effort in to something that captures your heart or encompasses your passion.
I did not intend to draw parallels to the act of love.
But I will. There are parallels to be drawn.
C.S. Lewis struggled with fear of risk in his early life, particularly in the realm of love and relationships. He later laid down some wisdom on the subject:
You may be doing others a disservice by allowing yourself to be limited by fear of risk.
For further thoughts to this affect, please see the quote by Marianne Williamson in my previous post below.
If you have the means, get the desire. If you have the desire, get the means. If you have the means and the desire, get moving. See what is possible.
Thanks.
Something that I have been thinking over lately are the institutions of fear and courage.
These are often thought of as opposites, as light and dark are. Many have heard the argument that regards darkness as simply the absence of light, rather than the opposing force.
A somewhat similar relationship can be drawn between fear and courage, although it is a much less cause-and-effect, and much more extrinsic in nature.
As I have previously written:
-Fear is simply an emotional factor that provides a limiting influence.
-Courage is the ability to act in spite of the presence of fear.
-Both fear and courage can manifest themselves in varying degrees and through various circumstances.
My considerations have rested, more specifically, on the fear of risk. It is something that I have found within my own life. I assume that I am in innumerable company when I say this, but this fear has been a limiting factor to my experience since I have been capable of making decisions.
I don't necessarily mean to represent a traditional sense of fear in this discussion. It is more of a general lack of willingness to engage in risk, or even seriously consider action that may invite risk.
To the best of my abilities, I attempt to shape my life in a box that I would, by observation, deem to be acceptable. This is fairly common and completely understandable. Exploration seems to be a foregone conclusion in an age where you can click a few buttons and digitally tour the Peruvian coast. There is just such experience to be gained by those who are willing to reach out for it, and I often look back and regret wasting time and opportunity in the past. My goal is to live presently so that I won't look back in five years with any regret.
Now to clarify, I'm not of the opinion that everyone should run out and try to be the next Steve Jobs, or get double tat sleeves on a whim. I simply believe that there is no reason to sit around idly wasting potential and possibility in exchange for temporary comforts and feelings of security. There is great joy in placing intent effort in to something that captures your heart or encompasses your passion.
I did not intend to draw parallels to the act of love.
But I will. There are parallels to be drawn.
C.S. Lewis struggled with fear of risk in his early life, particularly in the realm of love and relationships. He later laid down some wisdom on the subject:
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.
I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God’s will than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness. It is like hiding the talent in a napkin and for much the same reason ‘I knew thee that thou wert a hard man. Christ did not teach and suffer that we might become, even in the natural loves, more careful of our own happiness. If a man is not uncalculating towards the earthly beloveds whom he has seen, he is none the more likely to be so towards God whom he has not. We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it."
You may be doing others a disservice by allowing yourself to be limited by fear of risk.
For further thoughts to this affect, please see the quote by Marianne Williamson in my previous post below.
If you have the means, get the desire. If you have the desire, get the means. If you have the means and the desire, get moving. See what is possible.
Thanks.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
A Few Favorite Quotes
"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
"It is a tragedy of the first magnitude that millions of people have ceased to use their hands as hands. Nature has bestowed upon us this great gift which is our hands. If the craze for machinery methods continues, it is highly likely that a time will come when we shall be so incapacitated and weak that we shall begin to curse ourselves for having forgotten the use of the living machines given to us by God."
-Mahathma Ghandi
"Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."
-Bruce Lee
"Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will none the less get something that looks remarkably like it."
"The three great things are: GOOD HEALTH; WORK; and a PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. I may add, nay, must add, a fourth—SINCERITY. Without this, the other three are without avail; with it you may cleave to greatness and sit among the giants."
-Jack London
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
-Marianne Williamson
"At one point in your life, you'll either have the thing you want or the reason why you don't."
-Andy Roddick
"There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers on our progress except those we ourselves erect."
-Ronald Reagan
"All our words from loose using have lost their edge."
-Ernest Hemingway
"The fearless are merely fearless. People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave."
-James A. LaFond-Lewis
At one point in your life, you'll have the thing you want or the reasons why you don't.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andy_roddick.html#2daVqTe7jFusbhBC.99
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andy_roddick.html#2daVqTe7jFusbhBC.99
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