Thursday, January 30, 2014

What Shrewd We Do

Not a day goes by without some egregious crime being committed at the hands of the very people who we've assigned to uphold the law.  Cops have the most shock value of them all due to their direct application of force, while legislators and magistrates specialize more in moral distastefulness.  In both cases, however, there is a commonality - that is that they share a lack of intelligence.

Years upon years of shaming intellectualism - like high school drama - for in favor of celebrating superficial attributes such as athleticism, looks, and celebrity status, have finally led to us becoming a nation of sheep ruled by wolves.  We are incapable of choosing "the right person" for the job because the idea of "right" has become distorted and more importantly the idea that we choose is laughable.  Everybody knows nowadays that the most authoritative jobs with the most inherent power are never up for grabs - you have to know someone, you have to be "connected."  Presidents especially.  In a favoritism society, like ours, after a few generations becomes dependent on the very methods that have caused its failure.  The only way to break free is for the minority to revolt...

Po-pos and pols are simply out of control.  Every election year we hear the same debates about left vs. right, and the same old trivial nonsense ends up driving hundreds-of-millions of people to vote for who they think is the lesser of two evils.  In the end we get the status quo government and everyone goes back to bitching about it.  (Just an idea... STOP VOTING FOR EVIL!).  Then some people take to the streets claiming they didn't realize what they were voting for and that's when the uniformed enforcers show up with a license on force to make you shut up.  Seriously, this cycle goes back hundreds of years without any variation.

Well its time to try something different.  Its time to bring back intellectual debate.  Its time for a revolution of ideas rather than rhetoric.  And its time to challenge the status quo.  No longer should we ignore the abuses of power just because our uncle was a cop, or because we think the other party has done worse, or because we believed them when they said it was for our own good.  We, as a society, have informational power now and its time we use it.

I believe that cops are trigger happy, or brutality happy, not because they are evil but because its what they know and love.  Its what they are trained to do and its their nature to be aggressive when confronted, not to shy away.  How often do you think cops are tested on their ability to think outside the box in comparison to their ability to fight outside the box.  That doesn't make them bad, but it can mean that they might sometimes use force too quickly - and that is bad.  Because if they are upholding the law, then the very act of doing so should require them to do it in a way that is the most lawful.  No matter how good a songwriter is, they don't get credit for plagiarism.  They do get punished, if caught, and rightfully so.  But why then are cops not always punished for breaking the law?  Even if they were able to catch a bank robber in the act, that doesn't make it okay to pocket a few bucks from the vault on the way out.  But that is what we see and hear on a daily basis.  Officer so-and-so was only beating that man senselessly because the duties of his job are stressful and the moment was tense, so we are giving him a pass.  Due to his courage "the bad man" is in jail now.  

I believe that politicians help themselves not because they are always evil, although some certainly are, but because they mistakenly believe that by furthering their own pursuits they are fulfilling the needs of their constituents.  They believe that by giving themselves more power, they will then be able to wave the magic wand to help those who they've made promises too.  The problem is that in order to get said power, they have to promise everything to everyone.  Anyone can see that when the time comes, some of those promises will have to be broken.  And after enough promises are broken, maybe they'll then elect someone else with promises, and the cycle begins again.  Without even getting in to the inherent problems that exist when exchanging political favors, it should be obvious to any practical mind that this system needs to change.

SOLUTION:  Its time to face the po-pos and pols with intelligent questions and stand pat with demands for what we know is right.  Forget about whats on the surface for a minute and find your arguments in the first principle.  This revolution has already started with the 'cops on camera' movement.  This is a great thing as it forces cops to answer for their actions and it prevents them from using brutality or aggression in doing so.  We will not beat police brutality with force, we will only win with mindful and peaceful ideas.  And we will not end the political theater with more votes for political theater.  Continuing to vote for the lesser of two evils means that we will continue to elect evil.  If there is not a candidate that represents peace and freedom for all, then we must choose to opt-out.  Voting is only worth something if its cast for what you truly support.  Sometimes the best vote however is not voting at all.  In either case, we need to educate ourselves and encourage the intellectual debate that fosters true progress and derails this broken system cycle we've become so addicted to and dependent on.

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