Frustration

The recent absence of any new posts by me isn't a reflection of my interests in politics. Actually, it is quite the opposite. I keep up with politics as much as I used to, and that is the reason I haven't posted.

I used to think that if I made logical arguments I could change something. I don't think I can though. At least, not the people who really need to be convinced. The people who despite any evidence, despite all reasoning, despite being proved incorrect time and time again will not change their views.

Ironically, it took the historic election of the first black president to make me more cynical than I have ever been.

Why? Because nothing has changed. Because the problems are too big, too vast.

And very wealthy and powerful men don't want these problems to be fixed. They would lose far too much money.

I've been looking at problems in the country differently lately. I've been looking at them with just money in mind. Wondering why laws that make no sense cannot be changed, why injustices that have existed for so long continue to exist. And the conclusion is always the same, it's because of money.

There is a lot more money to be made if Americans are scared. If they are scared of their neighbors, if they are scared of foreign sounding diseases, if they are afraid of the government.

Security systems, prescription pills, antibacterial soaps that will only make bacteria stronger, gun sales.
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(I'm only really going to focus on one example right now, but I feel it makes my point well.)

Why rely on your immune system when there are so many products to replace it?

But once again, this makes sense. Killing all germs, trying to hard to prevent your body from doing its job will make your immune system weak. And once you actually get sick, your body will have very little defense.

(You are a bad parent if you allow your child to become sick, so be sure to sanitize everything. And believe me, the small cost of protecting your child from life will pay you back in the end.)

Which is great news for hospitals. The sicker Americans are, the more money that can be made.

Perhaps that is why our food is getting worse and worse each year. And the reason Americans are getting fatter and fatter.

Skinny healthy Americans are terribly average consumers. And remember how unpatritotic it is to be average. If you want to save this country, you must consume, and continue consuming, except more and more, like a drug addict.

And business operates on this model. This model that everything must grow. Growth! Growth! Never stopping, only growing. In a world of finite resources this would be terribly unreasonable. And selfish. And evil in face of the scarcity seen in so much of the world.

But over consumption is a virtue. It has been made into a virtue. Because if Americans don't feel guilty about eating too much, about using too many resources, about having too many children, well, the more profits there are to be made in the end.

Well, at least until the whole thing falls apart.

And, when it does, if there are any of us left, which there probably will be, well, I'm sure there will be excellent business opportunities.

Update:

I just found this article to help give me a bit of credibility here.