Will of the Few Through the Many

This Land is My Land and there are No More Words to this Song

One day I hope to purchase my own private chunk of Yosemite National Park and build a small self sufficient community while paying my flat federal tax. I will even allow some people to rent some of the land from me to start things like a hospital, fire department, and a school, but not a police force because I will be in charge of my own private security force just to make sure that everyone is well protected from trespassers. Perhaps, over time, a second school or hospital or fire department will move in and start a price war. If it is a school it will be great. I know I’m not lowering my rent so they will have to find other ways to cut costs. Hardback books to paperback book, computers to calculators, cut some sports and some of the arts, and so on; or, they could do a combination of cuts and tuition fees and that way everyone can get what they pay for. At some point there should be competing businesses for everything (maybe even my security force), and I will make sure to keep all of the good ones on one side of the community and arrange for the cheaper services to be on the other side, and the federal tax we’ve all been paying will mostly go to low bid contracts for maintaining roads and bridges. It will be my own privatized utopia. I could continue to go on with this but I am hoping you get the picture of where I am going.

Know Your Extremisms

There is a lot to be said for the concept of the public ownership as a method to combat tyranny. Now, before you paint me red, let me make myself clear when I say, I like capitalism and I think it is a good system, but I do not think that capitalism and public ownership are mutually exclusive nor do I think that either is good in its pure form (Corporatism/Fascism and Marxism/Communism respectively). I think problems begin to arise when a state begins to lean too far toward one extreme and as it stands we, the United States, are not leaning toward Communism one bit but we seem determined to run headlong toward Fascism (although the new Corporatism label is used a bit more these days possibly, and if so wrongly, to curb the strong pejorative connotations brought about by the term Fascism). I think it is important to note that a Corporatist dystopia is still a dystopia of Orwellian proportion.

Know Yourself

I must admit that as I observe the direction our country is going and take note of the changes that have occurred in my lifetime I find myself more and more leaning away from the way things are going but my general opinion of how things should be done has not fundamentally changed. Philosophically, more or less, I am standing still while the world around me seems to slip deeper into the clutches of near Fascist ideology. And, while I don’t think your average citizen in the U.S. is a Fascist and I don’t think those leading the charge toward a Fascist model are even necessarily Fascists; I do think that many are tacitly Fascists either through sheer ignorance or convenience. It is easy to turn a blind eye if you personally benefit (be it emotionally or financially) while society as a whole may suffer an ill as a result. The fact of the matter is that many in the U.S. are tacitly Fascists against their own interests. For instance, someone who votes for a candidate who shares their “moral” compass while at the same time supporting an economic agenda that is detrimental to that voter’s well being.

Balancing the Scales

I do not have all the answers to even the keel of American politics but I do have some ideas. 1) Take back the issues. Systematically take morality out of the realm of politics (in a manner of speaking) by shifting the moral question toward the disparity caused by allowing corporations unfettered growth without accounting for the socio-economic impact on the working class. 2) Educate yourself on the issue that affect your pocket book directly and shelve the moralistic hot button issues. I don’t care if you vote Democrat or Republican so long as you are voting in your best interests, and if you are doing your homework then you should realize that, generally speaking, those who support widespread deregulation of corporate restraints and corporate tax cuts are likely not looking out for your best interests. And, 3) Remember that we are all in this ship together. You may not like some of the crew but their actions still affect you and your actions still affect them so try to do what is right for the whole.

Ending the Break

OK. I have taken far too much time off so I will attempt to end my long break of not writing. Suffice to say things in my personal life have calmed somewhat and I should be able to get my head back in the game (whatever that game may be).

For this issue I will do a bit of a cheat. This is going to be the equivalent to a clip so because I am going to briefly revisit some of the topics I hit on in earlier postings.

Public Defendaz – Keeping up the Movement

My first “Solid Entertainment” post focused primarily on an underground hip hop group based in central California, Public Defendaz. First, let me say that I am honored that they liked the bulk of my review enough to post an excerpt on their Myspace page while at the same time cleaning their Myspace and making the all important music more accessible.

Public Defendaz are beginning to put up some new tracks and from what I have heard so far the newer songs hit just as hard as their debut tracks on Speedy Trial Vol. 1.

If you haven’t checked these guys out yet then please take a minute to give them a listen.

On Console Gaming – I Like Computers Too

My friend, Bax, likes to give me crap for jumping ship over to the console land of gaming and I openly admit that I would like to have a super powered gamer computer to run all the new games but for the most part, these days, there isn’t anything out for the traditional computer gamer that I am particularly excited about. If this situation changes anytime soon then I will give serious thought to buying a new computer but not until then.

For now console gaming is providing the exciting titles with an ease of accessibility that the computer gaming world simply can’t beat.

The War on Logic – Looking Closer at an Undertone

I may devote a whole post to this topic but for now I will just touch on an undertone that is present in my post titled “The War on Logic.”

There are some things that simply should not be privatized and, as much as humanly possible, war is one of them. As messy a business as war and conflict are they are meant, in theory, to serve a public good, which is why we have a military with a civilian head and a strong chain of command.

We should not be so quick to auction off those institutions serving in the interest of the public good (education, military, health care, emergency services, etc.) to those seeking profit because their margin does not necessarily serve the best interests of the populous.