Establishment Democrats, Progressive, Socialist, and Somewhere In Between

In recent months I’ve been discussing politics more and more with a few coworkers of mine and it was interesting seeing where our viewpoints were parallel and where they diverged. One coworker’s viewpoints leaned socialistic, the other one was more in line with the current Democratic Party and the Establishment Democrats. My viewpoints were somewhere in between those viewpoints. I definitely agreed with the Socialist that the system is corrupted and that money needs to be taken out of politics for the betterment of society. I even agreed with him that the global economic state of capitalism is the root of all the suffering because the business model is the pursuit of profit at the expense of everything else. All the wars and suffering and climate change can point towards capitalism as the cause and effect. I however, don’t have his optimism of belief that a global social consciousness will erupt out of all the economic disparity and turmoil that is currently happening. At least, not in our lifetime.

History Always Repeats Itself

Over this past week, while I was sick in bed and not being able to do much of anything except get better, I came to a realization that has finally given me inner-peace. The irony is that these same four words use to be a source of frustration at the injustice of society and the world at large. “History always repeats itself.” It used to frustrate me because it boggled my mind how today’s leaders seem to repeat the mistakes of empires and recessions past and so on. I mean if every empire collapsed within itself because of overextension and maxing out on resources that were eventually  too costly, how can we be doing the same thing again?

The reason is of course that “history always repeats itself”. Nations rise and fall. Most of them become forgotten. Few are ever remembered but the end result is the same. Same thing with people. We live, we grow old, we die. Only a few of us are remembered and only a very minute few get immortalized (at least for now). With this mind, nothing I can do will change anything and so I should cease from needless worrying.

Some may see this as fatalistic and to some extent they are right. However, at least for myself, it’s also a very realistic point of view.  Ideals are good things to sought for but the reality is never close to achieving them. Just look at socialism and capitalism. They’re both idealistically beautiful in their own way but the reality of those societies are more dystopic than utopic.  Suffering and inequality are both a part of our societal paradigms and they can never be expunged.

That is why, instead of constantly worrying about the problems of today and possible problems of tomorrow I now just try to make the best of my days.  Work to eat and enjoy comforts and pleasures whenever I can get them.  Luckily for me I don’t have any offsprings or this mindset would be a lot harder to achieve. And I am human and as such I will falter and gripe about some news headline someday.  But as long as I keep that four-word phrase withing my consciousness (history always repeats itself), I’ll find my path again and continue on my way to the end.

Regarding that promise to do an entry at year’s end…

Hey all,

I remember in a previous post I had made a promise to do an entry regarding all the weird and ironical things that had transpired over this past year; however, I’ve decided to talk about this topic in my podcast with my wife. So look forward to this discussion in upcoming episode 50 of my little podcast.

New Year’s Resolution: Take 2

A new year is here and it’s time to once again reflect on the past year and see how close or far we’ve gotten with our resolutions of yesteryear.  For my part, I came pretty close to following all of mine.  The one resolution that I faltered on was being more health conscious.  In my podcast and on this blog, I have tried to learn and pass on information that correlates with the political-societal-economical paradigms that define the world around us.  Or at least a fraction of it as there are many points of view and I only have one of many of them.

Of course mental stimulation, when it comes to academic thought, is the least hard thing for me to do as I am a constant scholar on the studies of life.  I wholeheartedly enjoy learning new things on just about any topic.  It’s the nitty gritty hard-labor of the body that I am deeply flawed in.  Because of this, I am once again putting health consciousness and fitness on my resolution agenda for 2009 and limiting it to just that.  I will of course continue learning new things as I love to seek out knowledge and to continue to mentally grow as a person.  But now is the time for me to really take physical fitness seriously.

At the age of 31, I’m not getting any younger, and of course I’m only going to be more susceptible to aches and illnesses if I continue on with my bad eating habits at my age.  Plus it just makes sense that if you live a more sedentary life, your body won’t be as agile or flexible as it used to be when you were younger and more physically active.  So here’s to being more healthy for 2009.  I’ll let you know how that goes come 2010.

Don’t let your right to vote be taken from you

I was listening to yesterday’s podcast episode of Democracy Now! when a particular news segment began to infuriate me.  They were talking about how the voting system is being rigged by both the Democrats and the Republicans to suit their needs.  I found this very appalling and felt this story should reach the masses.  I’m doing my part by mass emailing people the link to this story and posting it on twit and on the forums that I linger on.  I will also be discussing this on an upcoming podcast episode of my how and of course post the link here as well.  There is no reason people should be in the dark on this story.  Everyone should have their right to vote and not have their voice suppressed by some hucksters in the political machine.

Click on this link to the Democracy Now! news story and audio download