I want the world to be better for everyone

I'm an economist. Now I hate economics. Don't get me wrong: it's why I am the way I am, and for that I'm thankful. Problem is this field is the study of limited resources. And this definition flies in the face of the one resource on our planet that has no limit - us. And that's only 1 unlimited resource! I want to harness these unlimited resources, because it will mean "standards of living" are also unlimited - to us! And that will mean the greed will go away. Nothing to do but blog.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Religion

My hope is churchgoers nowadays go for the social contact mostly no matter what the religion. We humans are very social. I think that's for our survival, since it'd be awfully hard to not be social and reproduce. There's no other place to go to make contact with other humans and make sober social contact without confrontation than church. I know this because I've tried. It's hard to do this at a bar, at a city council meeting, or many other places. There's no place like church. I hope this wanes as well because we're still way too cookie-cutter for our survival. I know this too, because I've "failed", stood outside the masses, and looked at them from there.

And beyond that, religion, any religion, is frightening the way it grabs hold of laws made thousands of years ago that might not have even applied then and tries to apply them now. There was a time when the Christians of the Holy Bible would not eat seafood unless it had fins or scales! Not so anymore.

Less social contact would be better for women. It would be better for the gay community, and any other group of consenting adults who are considered "different", or "odd" - the minority. Less social contact would be better for all of us. What's standing together if we can't even stand alone?

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

It's the power

Power over others is not only unnecessary, but dangerous. No person or group should ever have power over other people. People must be egalitarian or extinct.

In the Democratic U.S. even crime is almost never anything more than a power grab. We justify power with phrases such as "white collar", "felony", "misdemeanor", etc. But the problem is allowing ourselves to pursue power at all.

Monday, May 09, 2005

Is Europe the ultimate demonstration of human vanity?

It just occurred to me. Some grad students going off to Europe for a month before they start their "real job" got me thinking. Europe seems to be a popular destination. Perhaps compared to the U.S. it is far more popular. I wonder if that has to do with the fact that there really isn't thousands of years of visual history here like in Europe where it seemed the Europeans were so vain and narcissistic they built or painted some elaborate building or statue that stayed standing for years and years. While here in the land of the massacred Native Americans, there was no such narcissism prior to the massacre. In fact, before we, perhaps least vain and narcissistic of Europeans, arrived, these inhabitants lived the antithesis - from dust to dust - in peace with nature, though perhaps not always each other.

Maybe this is the feeling I get from my fellow countrymen: they are naive enough to desire the facades of old Europe despite what these facades meant at their times and places - or maybe ignorant of those meanings. I know enough about the Spanish Inquisition, for example, that to this day the Catholic church and Vatican politics angers me more with each passing year. But I'm not sure many of my countrymen know about this event. I doubt they are even aware of the Salem Witch Trials.

As an American I look to Europe for its sage advice if only because it is reminded daily of man's vanity by these facades.

I hope for the full appreciation these grad students get the opportunity to see the ugly history behind these beautiful facades they'll see. The Coliseum is surely an overwhelming sight, though I haven't seen it. I can almost hear the builders shouting as loud as they can "I'm so much better than this, than the Lions!" Not vanity, but apology. I hope the students see this.

Friday, May 06, 2005

First ever!

I'm in IT. I have been since 1997. Yet here I am, years later, finally doing a blog! I guess for many years I thought I had nothing to say. Now I think I can't hold it in anymore. I'm always writing letters to editor arguing various issues. Heck, I've kept them all! I might just retro put them here!