Tuesday, January 24, 2006
wrong priorities
Well, Alito looks to be a shoe-in, Canada seems to be headed down the tubes... Argentina anyone? Actually, I have no idea if Argentina is a good country to be in or not. American news reports almost nothing about Argentina. Which makes me think, it must not be a bad place at all...
People have been talking about the rise of the religious right for a long time now, and talking about how it was a backlash against the moral laxity of the 60's and 70s. Since this backlash started back in the 80s we've had some 25 years of it. And since the phenomenon it supposedly was a reaction to only lasted 20-25 years, maybe we're ready for the next sea change -- back to a more liberal, tolerant, civil rights focused bent. One can only hope!!
Unfortunately relgious fundamentalism and extremism seems to be on the rise all over the world. And I'm afraid it is going to get worse before it gets better, with rampant commercialism and nationalism, and people killing and hating based upon nothing more than the language one speaks, the clothes one eats, the beliefs one holds dear.
It seems like so many unimportant things come before human life, and particular before ensuring that all humans can live with a dignity that goes beyond mere survival. It is shameful, what we are wreaking in this age. Completely shameful. One wonders how priorities can get placed on such unimportant matters! Like Trump, who is suing an author for $5 billion because he claimed Trump's net worth is not what Trump claims it is. Who the heck cares whether he's worth 150 million or 10 billion -- he ought to give enough of it away that he's got enough to live decently and be done with it. Or how about the billions of dollars that's been spent on plastic surgery in this country? I'm not talking reparative surgery after someone has been severely burned or in a terrible accident, I mean the kind that is supposed to keep you younger looking or sexier. How can you justify liposuction when children's stomachs are bulging not with fat but malnutrition?
It's quite enough to make one want to go hide in a cabin in the woods and never talk to a human being ever again. ¶ 11:13 PM
People have been talking about the rise of the religious right for a long time now, and talking about how it was a backlash against the moral laxity of the 60's and 70s. Since this backlash started back in the 80s we've had some 25 years of it. And since the phenomenon it supposedly was a reaction to only lasted 20-25 years, maybe we're ready for the next sea change -- back to a more liberal, tolerant, civil rights focused bent. One can only hope!!
Unfortunately relgious fundamentalism and extremism seems to be on the rise all over the world. And I'm afraid it is going to get worse before it gets better, with rampant commercialism and nationalism, and people killing and hating based upon nothing more than the language one speaks, the clothes one eats, the beliefs one holds dear.
It seems like so many unimportant things come before human life, and particular before ensuring that all humans can live with a dignity that goes beyond mere survival. It is shameful, what we are wreaking in this age. Completely shameful. One wonders how priorities can get placed on such unimportant matters! Like Trump, who is suing an author for $5 billion because he claimed Trump's net worth is not what Trump claims it is. Who the heck cares whether he's worth 150 million or 10 billion -- he ought to give enough of it away that he's got enough to live decently and be done with it. Or how about the billions of dollars that's been spent on plastic surgery in this country? I'm not talking reparative surgery after someone has been severely burned or in a terrible accident, I mean the kind that is supposed to keep you younger looking or sexier. How can you justify liposuction when children's stomachs are bulging not with fat but malnutrition?
It's quite enough to make one want to go hide in a cabin in the woods and never talk to a human being ever again. ¶ 11:13 PM
