Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A Different Direction? I'm not sure

It has been several weeks since I've put any information on this site.

Mostly I have been debating on whether I wanted to continue writing here. I don't want to be just another guy rehashing thoughts about the war (even though I despise it and disagree with it with every fiber of my being, and am literally sick every day about the continuing loss of our best and brightest Americans), or posting links, or writing opinion. Frankly, there is too much opinion - most of it shrill and loud (i.e. Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, Boortz, Glenn Beck (who is such a no talent hack - clearly he must have nude pictures of some CNN executive doing something REALLY raunchy to someone else - that is my shrill raunchiness), and most of it just wasting bandwidth or air space. In all that there is not enough thinking about solutions.

I truly believe, and have mentioned before that this country is hemorrhaging. I think that very soon we could literally be a second or third world country, and could remain one for a very long time. We think everything is OK because everything LOOKS OK. But, I think it's just like that person who gets cancer. For awhile, they look healthy and hale. Then, the cancer starts to eat them from the outside in, and the inside out. Then, you KNOW they have cancer, and you can SEE that they have cancer.

We don't care about each other anymore. We don't want to listen to each other anymore. We don't like each other anymore. We don't trust each other any more. Most Americans do not really want to learn about what is going on in the world around them. Most Americans don't even know who lives next door to them. They are content to have guys like Hannity give them their "news". With the news comes a healthy dose of fear.

That is one reason that I am a "Recovering Conservative" (there ought to be a 12 step meeting where you can go and get a chip, like you do at AA) is that all the extreme right (and the extreme left) has to offer is fear. Fear of foreigners. Fear of Muslims, Fear of anyone who is not like us (whatever that is).

A few things I learned about a few years back made me challenge every belief I'd ever had. Systems Thinking and Network Theory (two things I learned about), makes you view problems as a whole, not just in pieces. In those modes, there is no black/white/us/them/cause/effect reality. EVERYTHING is complex. Immigration is complex. The war is complex. Our economy is complex. Health Care is complex. Even the reason why gas prices are so high is complex. Nothing is simple. And if someone (like a Glenn Beck, or a Tom Tancredo) tells you it's simple, they are LYING. If it was simple, the problems would all be solved by now.

I know this seems a lot like rambling, and it probably is just more waste of bandwidth. But I want to write about stuff that I care about. Stuff that gives me hope.

The next time I write, I want to do a book review on a book I've recently finished reading called The Violin Maker, Finding a Centuries Old Tradition in a Brooklyn Workshop by John Marchese. It is the best book I've read in awhile. It was so compelling, I read it in a weekend.

I may not actually review it, but I want to.......

No comments: