Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Good Morning America

the sourmonkey has landed...

As I type, I'm listening to the album The Altogether by Orbital. I definitely recommend it. Buy it, and check out the first track (Tension) next time your in the car. Turn it up loud. Make sure your on the highway.

I noticed on my page counter that many people have stopped by during my move blackout, but few have left comments. I'm curious... who are you people? Why thou speaketh not? Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm boring. Oh well, I'm going to continue to post my thoughts on life regardless of what the world thinks. This whole blog thing provides a rare outlet for me. On top of that, since I've started "surfacing" the web (don't I sound cool), I've realized that the internet is a beautiful tool for enhancing open and diverse communication. So, let's go people. let's communicate.

Back to the rare outlet comment. I've had a lot on my mind lately, so I've got this gush of thoughts waiting to be unleashed. I'll try to make it easy on ya...

TOP 11 GUSHES OF THOUGHT
(other people's list go to ten, mine goes to eleven).

11-Rush Limbaugh is a moron.

10-AM talk radio is a joke. It's only an "art" if the conservative shock jocks are engaging the American public in an ideological practical joke. Then they'd all comic geniuses. Otherwise, they'll basically evil.

9-I haven't listened personally, but I hear Air America is also a joke. The liberal shock jocks are probably trying to out "shocky jock" the opposing conservative shock jocks oh, I'll stop...

8-The "liberal media" should give me a radio program. I'll keep it real...

7-I can't believe Republicans support Bush.

6-I can't believe Conservatives and Liberals can't accept Ralph Nader into the Presidential campaign. I've heard BOTH sides say they like him and they "idealistically" support him. Come on people. All you have to do is vote your heart!

5-Another topic the conservatives and liberals agree on is climate change. The conservatives hestitate to say it, and the liberals jump at the chance, but our environment is changing. Of course, it always has changed. ENTROPY- wears the world away! At some level, everyone agrees that climate change is a natural part of planetary evolution. No one really know how it will effect our world or when, but for me, the point of emphasis rests in the fact that our economic stability is directly tied to our environmental stability. At best, human society will adapt to climate change as long as it occurs slowly over time following "patterns" of history. Worse case senario, it happens rapidly. Wouldn't it be good to find out which is more likely to happen?

4-On my sourmonkey home page you can find a link to an academic site focused on "anthropoetics". Somewhere on the site I read an article on the anthropological "origin" of human thought. At one point, there is a quote that reads something like, "social (scientific) progress blossoms during times of peace, and stagnates during times of war."

3-We went to Iraq for oil. Isn't this obvious by now? Once they admit this, conservatives say, "okay, but Iraqi oil will only be GOOD for global economy AND the Iraqi people." Of course, the issue is bigger than this, and growing, but this is a fact, and one worth remembering. It basically implies that we chose to go to war, as permitted by the Bush doctrine, for arbitrary reasons disguised within the illusion of a threat to national security.

2-The problem with perception is that it is subjective. Words are only a symbollic reflection of reality. They are a limiting factor to understanding reality on Earth. Society is complex. Why do Liberals think differently than Conservatives? They don't, they just think they do. That's why we Americans have the lesser of two evils to choose from. We polarize our politics because our perception of reality is limited. Because we experience much of our "reality" through semantic information, like words... we only see "part" of the story. We take sides, usually the "good" side, and oppose and stigmatize the "bad" side.

1-The problem with understanding the reality of Iraq (among other niches) is that we're excerising violence under limited intelligence, seriously. Human lives are lost because other people sending them to death can't think outside of the box.

0- I really like the little picture of Earth below. It reminds me that life is miraculous, and we should take care of it. I've been called all kinds of names for saying crap like this, but honestly, if feeling this way makes one "offensive" then one should decapitate one's head. One isn't using it anyway.

-1-Anarchy is stupid. So is economic imperialism. Anarchy is social entropy. Economic imperialism yields cancerous consumption. Both are blind. Every human life depends on other human lives. (everyone likes to compare liberals and conservatives, I thought I'd do something different...).

-2- for every proton, their is an anti-proton; for every electron, their is an anti-electron; for every bad, their is a good; for every Einstein, there's a Dubya.

-3- but then, there's: ENTROPY- WEARS THE WORLD AWAY!

-4-*this post brought to you by

ENTROPY- WEARS THE WORLD AWAY!



8 Comments:

Blogger Tom said...

Okay, so I couldn't disagree more with point #3 ((I know what you are thinking... you're shocked and surprised)I also disagree with more then just point #3, but this is where I chose to start). I don't believe that we went to war for oil. I don't believe it is fact. I do believe that the view is perception.

Point #2 - I don't think the "end goals" of liberals and conservatives are all that different. What is different is how those ends are achieved. I don't think either group has the right solution to all the problems. I'm not sure that we will every have political party that does. I don't know that I believe that I'm choosing between the lesser of two evils (although I say this often) as much as choosing which one I believe has more of the right solutions (but not all). I do long for a time when we we won't have to choose between the lesser of two evils. We've had great presidents in the past and I hope for one in the future.

#1 - How much more human life would have been lost had we not gone to Iraq? I know its not the reasons given for the war, but can you honestly say that you wish that we had left Saddam in power?

#-5 - Its a bit late and I have to work in the morning, so I'll quit here.

#-6 - your list of 11 was actually 16.... just making sure you knew.

Cheers

1:28 AM  
Blogger sourmonkey said...

Thanks for posting Tom!

Yes, I know my list exceeds 11, It's kinda like a pint of beer that overflows, I get all this excess fluff because I didn't stop the tap in time. Oh well.

I respect your opinion on Iraq, although I think that if you really broke it down, you'll find we went for oil. We can agree to disagree, I guess, and above anything else, I hope we give the Iraqi people what they want, which is truly what they deserve. I personally didn't like Saddam;s rule in Iraq, which is why I'm so angry that the U.S. supported him in the first place (in the eighties). Honestly, Saddam's rule was in decline, and his army was crippled by the U.N. sanctions (as revealed by the U.S. 2003 invasion). It's a tragedy that "innocent" people were dying or suffering under his rule, but "dethroning" Saddam by use might also cost several thousand "innocent" Iraqi lives.

Regarding how to deal with dictatorships without the use of force, I hate to say it, but we should offer economic and international trade benefits for governments compliant with U.N. human rights laws. It's working with China, to an extent, and being thaT North Korea is on the brink of total economic collapse, it might work with them as well.

Of course, I'm just speculating, and I'm open to being wrong, but I think the more people talk about things like this, the sooner we can leave our "violent" tendencies to history.

5:51 PM  
Blogger Tom said...

I'll agree that we went to war on bad intel and that without that intel we probably wouldn't have gone (we will probably disagree on where the blame lies for that, so we'll just leave it at that). However, I don't think Saddam's rule was caving quickly enough. Had we not gone in, he would most likely still be in power.

I'll agree with the economic/trade benefits. I think that can definitely produce some positive results. However, I think the opposite should hold true for the lack of human rights.

6:30 PM  
Blogger sourmonkey said...

There were many outcomes from the U.N. sanctions on Iraq. Saddam's military might was crippled, but Saddam was relatively untouched. The people of Iraq suffered greatly has they couldn't get adequate medicines and the overall social infrastructure fell into decay. I'm hesitant to say the sanctions were a success and not a disaster, but they weakened Iraq's military might and made Saddam less belligerent (with respect to his neighbors). Anyway, I do feel that, in light of our developing global economy, the best insentive any country has to abide by international human rights laws is the promise of full cooperation and integration with international markets.

Well, I realize that I'm simply re-iterating what's already been said, so I'll finish here. Without getting neck deep into philosophy, our world is constructed (or destroyed) by the decisions we make. To war or not to war? That is the question. The truth is that violence is never necessary, although often it is the easiest way to achieve an end. The more we excercise our minds to solve a problem, especially regarding social conflict, the brighter the future of human civilization will be.

This is just what I think about... often, which is why I write about it. I intended to explore this a bit more over the next few weeks, so keep reading and please post your thoughts.

Thanks Tom for your input, when I get more time I'll be sure to venture over to your blog for a delightful read.

Gabe

11:14 AM  
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11:14 AM  
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11:14 AM  
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