In my time, three issues have stood out above all others and they are racism, the national debt, and globalization. Racism is something I despise. It is connected to the ignorance of civilizations going back in time as recently as the murders of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Racism is the belief that inherent principles among various human races determines cultural or individual achievement, which usually involves the idea one’s own race is superior, and has the right to rule-over others; in my view, an idea totally out of touch with reality.
Everyone has witnessed or suffered from racism in one form or another. For example, a close friend of mine was visiting the US in a store selling motorcycle goods and came across a person wearing a T-shirt which said, “I hate Jews and love ovens” written on it. He was justifiably upset at what to say or do. But this experience left him angry and disillusioned. In Canada, a T-shirt like this could be considered a hate crime. White people, people of African descent, Asian people, Muslims, Jews or Christians, all are human beings who need the basics of human existence i.e., shelter, food, clothing, education, and a hope for the future.
As a student of philosophy and undetered by obsessive religious beliefs, I feel free to speak my mind on such issues as racism, money, and the future of humanity. And perhaps what I’m about to say may unintentionally offend, but that is not my purpose. In recent news, the problem with the Horn of Africa and Somalia can be defined in simple terms: No education or birth control for women, religious obstinacy, pirates at sea, and war that has lasted forever. Yet, donation boxes for Somalia asking for cash at the local liquor store or shopping mall continue to appear, even after local governments have donated millions, with no effort to demand accountability and responsibility from those people in the region.
Furthermore, I am saddened by the turn of events in recent history which has transformed the global investment landscape into an unpredictable maze of money madness, with stock markets in New York and Toronto up 200 points one day, and down 400 points the next.
Indeed, what are we to do and who has the answer? Well my good friends the answer is simple: Keep some cash in the house, consolidate your loans, and pay back your debts. There is no “magic bullet” here; “bite the bullet” is a better cliche to keep in mind and live-by for the next ten to fifteen years at the very least. Stop over-extending yourself beyond your means.
If you think all you owe is what’s written at the end of your monthly mortgage statement, then you are very wrong. You owe more than you think, specifically towards the national debt. And best believe, the revenue agencies in your country will hunt you down forever for every last cent, unless you are Greece. Thanks to the failure of globalization, that second job, if you can find it, will not help enough to make a significant dent in your personal debt.
We have in mild terms crucified ourselves; by this I mean, sacrificed ourselves for the betterment of developing nations, who are now better equipped to overcome us, or even threaten us militarily, such as China. What an accomplishment, the envitonmental fascists better known in the West as the Green Party must be so happy with their carbon tax on gasoline that will ripple through the economy increasing the cost of everything; and where they have convinced the US government to subsidize fuels like Ethanol, a fuel that cost more carbon to produce than it’s worth; or have held society back for the last forty years from developing safe nuclear technology; or from building much needed modern oil refineries and pipelines in North America.
Let’s not forget their latest effort to stagnate a forward thinking society by brainwashing people into believing Global Warming can be fixed. Planet Earth has been warming for the past 15,000 years. Look out your window, does the gas-filled automobile look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon? I wonder how much money Saudi Arabia has invested in North American environmental groups? Oh, it’s great to be free, free to listen to the bullshoot people talk about on North American cable TV, radio, and satellite; free to do, free to be, while we watch our standard of living fall and the War on Terror continue. So this is the New World Order.
Well, this is your life, and right now you are being sucked into a vacuum of complacency by left-wing Green leaning politicians and right-wing bankers, to a place where you are willing to accept everything without the will to fight for anything. You have become a has-been, a lost cause; less than a fighter, more like a mouse who follows the smell of cheese, rather than eat of it. Someone who accepts what he has, rather than what he is destined to achieve by the force of his own will. You are peasants in paradise destined to be deflowered.
Composer, teacher, and music educator Wynton Marsalis sums it up better than I. He says, “I have absolutely no idea what my generation did to enrich our democracy. We dropped the ball. We entered a period of complacency and closed our eyes to the public corruption of our democracy.”
It is a sad day, the fight is lost; the corporations, real estate developers and bicycle lanes have won. There is no hope anyone will ever allow us to live a full life with true freedom ever again. Say hello to Big Brother and the CCTV that comes with it. And remember, there is one entity that will always take care of you and your every need and pain, not a friend or relation—but the state. And if you trust in that, than you are a bigger fool than you think.
