Questions Without Answers: Six Vexing Topics
Like waves crashing on the shore of my mind
Where to begin? This is a bit “stream of thought.” At times I ask myself questions that seem to be unanswerable. Or are they simply difficult to answer but easy to ignore? As Jules said to Vincent in the scene Joe brought up yesterday, "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions." They recede like the tide, never fully washing away, and come back time and time again. I’ll go weeks or months sometimes thinking about the same things all day. I have struggled to even write this article because it’s difficult for me to see a beginning. The questions aren’t always the same when I’m in a phase like this but over time they mostly repeat themselves. So maybe by writing them down here I’ll be able to at least stop the repetitive beating of the drum and figure out if I can even start to answer them. Perhaps I’ll even make this a recurring topic and if anyone out there has any thoughts I would love to hear them.
Lobbyists
If it is widely known that lobby groups in Washington have a large sway with politicians then why is the one candidate, John Edwards, who is running on a platform to eliminate the lobbyists from government institutions, coming in a distant third in his own party’s primaries? Don't get me wrong, I am as guilty as the next guy. I'm not voting for him either. It's just confusing. It’s no secret that lobbyists essentially control or, to a lesser degree, greatly affect the legislature that is passed in Washington. Bills are routinely laced with financial incentives for powerful industries or other kinds of preferential treatment. Yet these powerful groups continue to operate and dictate our day to day life, more so than we probably even understand. So what comes of it when a candidate passionately vows to clean up the legislative wholesale while the other candidates ignore the topic all together? He gets trounced. In his home state no less.
The American diet
Another topic that blows my mind is what constitutes the American diet these days. Everyone knows we are among the least healthy industrialized nations on the planet. But we are perfectly happy to have fast food joints on every other corner. If given an abundance of food, a population of living creatures, no matter what they are, will consume up to the level provided especially taking into consideration the ease with which we can obtain food these days. They will do this by reproducing more and consuming more on an individual level. It’s science. At one point in time I was certainly misguided as to what Weight Watchers and the like were all about but I’m beginning to think its philosophies should be taught in school every year like math and science, and starting at a young age. Obviously health class isn’t cutting it.
Teachers
Teachers are without a doubt some of the most important people around. This isn’t really debatable is it? Why in the hell are teachers in primary and secondary school so financially undervalued? I can't remember the last school year that passed without a news story of another district's teachers going on strike. That simply doesn't seem right.
Personal debt
This one’s a doozey. Are you aware that the average Chinese savings rate is 50% and that the average American savings rate is essentially 0%? Read that one more time. Now I understand that figure does not take into account pretax deposits like 401K plans but the figure is still pretty staggering. Americans notoriously live to whatever means they are financially capable of. If we make more money most of us won’t be saving that extra cash. No, we’ll be spending it and saving just the same percentage as before. Why does America have this obsession with consumption? Because buying loads and loads of shit makes us happy of course! At least that’s what we like to think. When in reality we are simply a donkey chasing a carrot on a stick. How is it that other cultures seem to have figured out the battle with living to your means?
Gas guzzlers
How in the world is it 2008 and I’m still surrounded by trucks like the one below on the road? It’s clear that most of these trucks don’t see the business-end of a work site. And most of the mammoths you find on the road look like luxury suites on wheels; yet I still have to worry about these street-legal monster trucks killing me in a crash while they speed along drinking up gas at a clip of 12 MPG city and 16 highway.
Entitlement vs. happiness
Many of the above questions concern consumption on the whole. Do we consume because we feel entitled to do so or because we think that by doing so we will somehow be happier? Is there some other reason? I notice that when I think about things like this I have a tendency to become frustrated and depressed to a degree. Maybe agitated is a better way to put it? I certainly have been this way for a couple days now. Why though, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’m no different then everyone else in this consumption-hungry, growth-monger nation state we live in. Or maybe it’s because I don’t feel like our political choices in either party are really doing anything about it.
Well, this has been a somewhat disjointed piece today. And I certainly didn’t provide anything that even resembled a resolution on any of the above topics. Hopefully anyone and everyone will feel free to add their opinions in the comments below. Perhaps the first step in answering them is actually acknowledging them. So feel free to share.
I'm not sure if i have a resolution to any of the questions that you have inquired about, but I do understand your levels of frustration and your disparities. I am in the process of rereading, "The Book of Secrets", by Deepak Chopra. He is one of the few writers that has inspired me over the years and given me hope in the 'consumption-hungry, growth-monger nation state we live in'.
So i will share an excerpt from his book that I found comfort in the other night and seemed to relate to your question of entitlement vs. happiness. "The greatest hunger in life is not for food, money, success, status, security, sex, or even love from the opposite sex. Time and time again people have acheived all of these things and wound up still feeling dissatisfied- indeed, often more dissatisfied than when they first began....The secret hunger that gnaws at people's souls has nothing to do with externals like money, status, and security. it's the inner person who craves meanig in life, the end of suffering, and the answers to the riddles of love, death, God, the soul, good and evil. A life spent on the surface will never answer these questions or satisfy the needs that drive us to ask them."
My perception of the world has changed considerably over the past few years. I use to believe that success in terms of wealth and status defined who i was, and that you had fight to attain these things. Now a little older and hopefully wiser, I believe that when you are living in truth, you begin to move with the world, instead of against it. You embrace it, as though it is a part of you. Your struggles become non-existent, because instead of fighting, you are searching for answers and solutions.
Most people, unfortunately, do not see things in this light- therefore, they are mostly controlled by greed, and their need to oppose, resist, conquer, and destroy. Hence, the insatiable desire to overconsume and the belief that they are entitled, in effect when they are rewarded, they will in turn be happy. I understand now that this is not the case. Education and the sharing or resources and opinions is deinately a key factor in unveiling the truth. It begins with one.
Unlike many Americans, you realize the crushing nature of consumerism and it bothers you (as it should). The majority doesn't realize the problem because they can't see it...they've been raised as consumers since day one and they've never felt a need to question it. These are the same people who don't know what a lobbyist is, who binge on fast food then bitch about their weight, who drive the biggest gas guzzlers, who rack up the most debt and who either don't know or care about the value of education. These people are everywhere.
The people who can see the problem are better informed and more educated than the average person...they get their information from a variety of sources, they can think for themselves, and they can see the danger we are headed toward.
During a campaign, you can't really expect the candidates to focus heavily on these issues because they're trying to gain popularity and hold voters' attention. As a whole, Americans have horrible attention spans, so focusing heavily on foreign terms like "lobbyists" could spell doom for candidates. Typical Americans want a president they can have a beer with, not some stiff shirt spouting big words.
Finding solutions to all the problems you listed will not be easy. Consumerism is so deeply rooted in our society, culture and government that removing it or shrinking its influence seems almost impossible at this point. People who understand the problem need to take steps toward sharing that knowledge. When more people are informed, the task will be easier. But even informing people is hard because a lot of them honestly don't care..they're too busy being good little consumers.