I’m a bit busy doing actual reporting (shocker!) this weekend and so the blog will be a little slower than I’d like. Yes, I know I said I wasn’t a journalist. Things change.
I’m working on a couple of stories which are eating much more of my time than I’d like, and since I wanted to try something new and different here anyway…
So here’s something to think about and discuss: What’s the largest problem facing humanity today? How might we begin to move toward a solution for that problem? Yes, I think big. You think big, too, and see what you can come up with.
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Scott
May 21, 2006
I think that is a complex question. As there are many big things that contribute to a larger issue. One problem that I think has been a major reason for the corruption of Governments throughout the world is our Central Banking System (known to us as “The Fedâ€). By being a part of that system the government has been exposed to control by “foreign interests”, and it has concentrated an excessive amount of the nation’s financial strength into one single institution. Just look at Zimbabwe, where because of the Central Bank, they now have an inflation rate of over 1,000 percent, just because they printed too much paper currency! The Central Banking System has been at the root of corruption at all levels of Government and Corporations; it has funded every War to all Countries involved, all the way back to WWI. (I’m sure Hitler was thankful for that)
Another thing that I feel is a huge problem is globalization. Not just the globalization of businesses, but of government as well. It’s a real life game of risk, with the goal of world domination and the creation of a single government to rule (Which I believe will be the future role of the United Nations). When did the American Government suddenly earn the right to force our ideals on other countries? That’s not Democracy, it’s called Socialism, and people should be very uneasy about it because little by little our God given rights are being stripped away from us. The U.S. is becoming what our Forefathers fought so hard to get away from, and the scary thing is that we will have nowhere to run.
There is also the issue of outsourcing, which I feel is working against us as well. Because CEO’s want to save a few bucks, and make the shareholders richer, outsourcing has resulted in the huge boom of the economies of India and China, which are not only buying up our resources as well as global resources, but now also have the financial strength to buy American companies. This is where the problem comes in. China’s minimum wage has tripled in the last 2 years. And when it is no longer cost effective to produce products or services in other countries, they will already own America’s Major Corporations with the money we gave them, controlling many of the resources that we have taken for granted. If China doesn’t like a U.S. policy, they can cut off the energy supply, as well as any other country could.
Now the solutions on the other hand are quite simple in terms of the idea. Executing the solutions however is when the complications come in. First we need to remove ourselves from the Central Banking System. Obviously we can just pull out, it would be like shooting ourselves in the foot and packing the wound with salt. Instead, we have to wait for an opportunity such as when we go into a depression. Don’t think that we can go into a depression? Think again! The market as it stands right now is acting much like it did when the stock market crashed in 1929.
Second, we need to hold ourselves responsible for our own actions. After all, with the government the way it is we have no one to blame but ourselves. But, we have the power to change things; we have more choices than Republican or Democrat. People need to get away from the mentality of voting for the lesser of two evils. Evil is evil no matter how you slice it. So, make it a point to look for other 3rd party candidates and vote for them! Not just for President, but as members of congress, and local representatives as well.
Third, let’s remove our dependence on foreign products and energy sources. Demand alternative energies. Be happy that if you spend 5 more dollars on an American product, you are helping the American economy. Let’s also become less dependant upon our government, and stop leaching off the system. Welfare is a form of socialism, there is no denying it. There are plenty of other ways to survive, such as getting a job, or getting involved with your church, as they have played the role of helping people long before the government.
I know that I don’t have all of the answers, and I will never claim to have all of them. These are just my opinions on how we can start to get this country back on the right track again. Your thoughts and feedback are appreciated.
Sandi Harrington
May 21, 2006
In my opinion, the biggest problem facing the world today, not just the good ole’ USA, is apathy. No one cares about anything unless it affects them. THAT’s when they get upset. The old “There’s nothing I can do about it anyway:, has become all too true. All of us have sat back and watched Bush and his posse rob us blind, taken away our freedoms, mostly behind closed doors, and get away with it. If we all banded together, maybe we could stop this idiot before he ruins what’s left of this country. The REALLY scary part, to me, is still hearing people who I thought were intelligent say “My country right or wrong” or King George is only trying to protect us”. It’s this kind of insanity that’s going to destroy what’s left of our country and be the downfall of what’s left of our freedoms.
Charles Stricklin
May 21, 2006
Clearly, the lack of steak or Mexican food delivery is the most important problem facing modern man today.
Fleeb
May 21, 2006
That’s a very deep question, of course. At least, if you want to approach it seriously.
With a question so broad, it requires an equally broad answer.
The ability for human beings to centralize any service into the hands of a few individuals contributes to the greatest harm to humanity.
This goes for banks, media, governments, manufacturers, and schooling, to name a few services we rely upon.
Some centralization is okay; it helps make that which is weak a little stronger. Problem is, when the service becomes too centralized, over too broad a geographic region, it contributes to corruption as it breeds greater power. Also, this power tends to cause the service to become less flexible, less capable of adjusting to necessary change (e.g. reduced availability of a resource, changing public opinions, or research obsoleting the service).
Monopolies over a given service are, to my mind, the most evil thing devised by us, contributing to the greatest woes we experience.
In a sense, I’m taking Scott’s answer and ratchetting it up several notches to point out some items that he missed (media [which shapes opinion by keeping citizens informed], manufacturing, etc).
Scott
May 21, 2006
Thank you Fleeb. You added something equally as important that I missed in my post. Most people don’t realize that the media is controlled by only a handful of people, and that they have an agenda as well. We assume that the information that we get from the media is the full story and un-biased, which unfortunately is not the case. There is a reason why they call what is on the T.V. and radio programming, and we take whatever we see in the news as fact without taking into consideration if it is truth, fiction or just cherry picked information to perpetuate an interested party’s propaganda.
Jason
May 22, 2006
The comment about Apathy was a good one. Another good one in my mind is personal accountability.
I heard a quote a long time ago that said:
“America. The land that Personal Accountability forgot.”
And it’s really true, and I have the perfect example from my awesome night last night
.
WWE (Wrestling) Pay Per Views have 3 tiers of ticket prices.
The most expensive ( at my event, it was $175 a ticket + ticketmaster fees ), the middle ( $75 per, which is what I paid ), and I think the cheapest was $25 per.
People new to Pay Per Views don’t know this, but you NEVER EVER throw away your ticket.
For two reasons:
1) You need it to get back to your seat. If you throw it away when you get in, what happens when you want to go buy food/drinks? Or go buy merchandise and come back? You’ll be more pissed if you miss the show.
However, here’s the real kicker. The first 3 rows of ringside seats and the first 5 rows or the other two sides of the square are ‘designer/collector padded steel chairs’. If you sit on one of them, show your ticket after the show is over, etc., you get to take it home.
People were told they couldn’t have one because they through away their ticket.
One typical blonde teenager was overheard saying “I’ll pay you for it”. Yeah, give a security member your money… I’m sure he (1) cares (2) has the authority.
When we were going up the stairs to exit the arena, we were right behind two jaded individuals that didn’t get their chairs, going off. “Yeah because you know security is FUCKING GAY.”, “they can go right on and SUCK MY DICK”.
Typical teenagers all around, really a sad sight…
Security didn’t rip up your ticket and deny you your chair, YOU threw the damn thing away yourself.
So, yeah. Accountability is my vote. Liars, thiefs, complainers, personal accountability. One nice umbrella of intollerance.
Lenny Zimmermann
May 22, 2006
I guess I’d have to say the biggest problem today is, in many ways, the same old problem we’ve always had. The constant war between modernism and coservatism (in the philosophical sense, not just the political on.) It’s just a forward thinking Aristotelean mindset against a society that tends to have a prevelantly stagnant thking Platonic mindset, IMHO.
I think most Libertarians and many liberals (especially those remembering thier classical liberal roots) tend to be pertty darned modernist in their thiking, looking for solutions always ready to move things forward, a mindset which has generally served this country, in particular, quite well since it was moved to the forefront of cultural thinking when we began this “grand experiment”. Unfortunately I think that progress is, at least, being slowed by pessimistic calls for the “good old days” while really just calling for folks to fall back into the bad old ways that did nothing to help us get this far. And getting this far is, in so very many measurable ways, really quite far along indeed. I can only imagine how much more we could accomplish if we, as a culture, can just keep working to keep our sights towards the future.
Mark Greco
May 25, 2006
If there is help, it lies in the proles….. well, I’m betting that most of us in here knows how 1984 ended.
I think you all should get your affairs in order. My biggest fear is that everyone on this list probably won’t survive too long without having a little “accident”.
That’s my real name Big Brother. Come get some.