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Relatively Unfairness
May 12th, 2008I was browsing a mailer from the Cato Institute with an article by one of the most astute, and funniest, political commentators, P.J. O’Rourke.
In discussing the failings of politicians to eliminate — or even understand — “unfairness” P.J. notes that he has a 10 year old living at home who often says that something is “unfair”, as most 10 year olds are prone to do. P.J. gives the child some instant perspective and a lesson in blessing counting.
“Honey, you’re cute; that’s not fair. Your family is pretty well off; that’s not fair. You were born in America; that’s not fair. Honey, you had better pray to God that things don’t start getting fair for you.”
Almost makes me wish I had a kid so I could plagiarize P.J.
His kid probably gets fed up of this kind of patronizing remark.
The implication is that the important things in life are to be cute, rich and American, but one expects that kind of vacuous, narrow minded attitude from a yank.
America, the land of the free…’There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens”. The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289
I’d say it’s a bit risky to be born in America.
Where has America gone wrong that it has to lock up so many of it’s own people?
Mostly drug busts, which shows an unintended consequence of a flawed ideal.
As Timothy Leary said –
1.Thou shalt not alter the consciousness of thy fellow men.
2.Thou shalt not prevent thy fellow man from altering his or her own consciousness.
He also thought psychedelics were a shortcut to enlightenment.
It just makes me mad that people are not allowed to experiment with thier own minds, especially when there are so many potential benefits from it.
‘Using unusually rigorous scientific conditions and measures, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the active agent in “sacred mushrooms” can induce mystical/spiritual experiences descriptively identical to spontaneous ones people have reported for centuries.
The resulting experiences apparently prompt positive changes in behavior and attitude that last several months, at least.’
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html
At least Obama is (or was) willing to ‘rethink’ marijuana laws.
http://deoxy.org/video/wQr9ezr8UeA
I suppose I feel that the planet and the nature on it were not created by accident.
I think it more likely that it was created by intelligence, and on the planet there are made available plants that can dissolve the boundaries of one’s perceptions, and give a sense of the unity of life, how it is all interconnected. And so the understanding is that by harming anything external to ourselves, we are also harming our self.
And I think this acts as a safeguard when put alongside our technological advances. But by suppressing access to this understanding we’ve ended up creating atrocities like nuclear weapons.
I think the problem with the ‘American Dream’ is that people equate success with prosperity – ie how many SUV’s they have in their garage. Also it means having the ‘best’, most beautiful, most clever, most athletic children, which puts those children under competitive pressure right from the start.
Rather, sucess be measured by how harmoniously and how benificially you can interact with your surroundings.
I think the film ‘American Beauty’ addresses this quite well –
http://deoxy.org/wiki/American_Beauty_Excerpt
I expect the above is only so much “bunkum”, but one final link – Psychedelics and Religious Experience by Alan Watts
http://deoxy.org/w_psyrel.htm