I've been blogging infrequently here over the last couple of years and slowly getting myself drawn in further and further to trying to join the system and get involved. Tonight I need to do a brain dump of all the thoughts that are swirling around and preventing me from sleeping. So, if you'll bear with me, I just unload these thoughts out and be ready to have a discussion with whomever wants to talk or get my own misconceptions corrected or I'll go get another alcoholic beverage and kick back and watch 12 Angry Men again.
I need to start off by asking some questions, I'm sure you may have asked yourselves these same ones but I need to understand the fundamental differences that we have with our opponents and how it deals with common perceptions and how they have been twisted in such a fashion as to render us almost impotent to deal with them.
My first question follows.
Why is it that these folks (R's, bigots, libertarians, et al) always think that there is a finite limit to ideas and concepts and yet believe that there is an infinite supply of resources that do have limits?
What I mean by that is why do they feel that there is only so much wealth to go around, or only so much justice, or only so many rights; why do people think like that? Why does there have to be a bar/limit on the amount of success that is available to anyone? Why does the concept of minorities having rights mean that the majority loses any? For example, How come there is the feeling that that when someone else has success that it somehow diminishes them? Why do they buy into this zero-sum bullshit? Rights should apply to everybody, correct? So who is selling them this "bill of goods" that it is otherwise? Why do we even allow ANY argument to even take place along these lines?
Conversely, why do people think that there's an infinite supply of oil, gas and water to be exploited when we live on only one planet (allegedly) and we know that it is not completely comprised of oil reserves and natural gas or that those resources are renewable?
Question the second:
Why do the most profitable companies in a free market economy need government subsidies, yet people wanting to start new businesses to provide additional jobs and new possibilities for success and personal service can't get loans? Why can't we think big? Why not have light rail? Why can't we improve and modify our infrastructure? Why can't we embrace the future instead of clinging rabidly to what hasn't been working for the last 30 years?
Why is the future so scary for these folks? The future is coming, everyday somebody is working on something new, changes are coming that will affect our lives, in the last five years, cell phones have morphed into personal computer extensions, social media has almost made phone calls and e-mail obsolete. If those kinds of changes walk amongst us now, why can't we develop solar and wind initiatives to reduce our dependency on coal and oil. Mind you, oil and coal will be with us for years, decades to come, but it's a finite resource and we should treat it that way and move to more renewable and sustainable alternatives. You know that, I know that, how do we make them UNDERSTAND that. Why can't we have light rail interconnecting the US like the Interstate system? Why can't we modernize our grid and dams and bridges. Why can't we find a better way to control our rivers and our shorelines from the impact of the weather?
Question the third:
Do we need to re-educate people? Is it apparent to anyone else that there is hardly any planning for the future going on
It seems like there are some folks walking amongst us who are unclear on the concepts that this country was founded upon.....things like what a federal government is supposed to do, where states rights begin and end. There is a separation of church and state for a reason, do you remember why?
Now I don't have the answers, the thing is, why isn't this part of the narrative?
my apologies for being in soap box mode, I just needed to get this down for my own sanity and purge this out of my head. The questions are rhetorical and comments are welcome, its just that sometimes you gotta type it out of your head and my time happens to be now.