So much to discuss, so little time....

I had taken a break from the internet this week to catch up on my reading, half finished projects, and clean out my veggie garden. As it turns out I was not able to clean out my brain during all of this cleaning and relaxation time. Go figure.

After catching up on some articles from Harper's magazine my brain is spinning like a proverbial top. I also managed to see a PBS special holding the news media accountable for the mass amounts of misinformation circulating around since before "Shock and Awe". Great special.

Sometimes it gets to a point where I don't even know where to begin. Is it just a Corporatocracy that we have to worry about? Certainly this is a major issue, one that needs to be addressed if not for our own sanity, at least for the safety of the rest of the world. Or is there something more?

During all of my "winter nesting" projects this past week I've had the time to reflect on numerous conversations over the years with people, typically women, from many walks of life. The unfortunate similarity that I have found in those conversations (in retrospect) is that they all have the same outlook on life and responsibilities. Or I should say, to be fair, they have a similar outlook. It is rampant throughout Americans. It isn't just consumerism, it isn't just about "Keeping up with the Joneses". It isn't just religion, politics, social status, class and helicopter parenting. It is something more. Much more.

This threat, when paired with national fear mongering, blind nationalistic pride, and a lax education with regards to our own government is much bigger, much scarier, and a far bigger problem than Al Quieda, Taliban, Iraq, Iran, Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan put together.

Irresponsibility and the dollar. How can a nation recover, or thrive in any form of government when its inhabitants cannot take care of themselves? We live in a nation where everyone looks to someone else for blame, responsibility, and care. In an ideal Utopian concept we would all take care of one another, a tribal, village or communal style of living would allow everyone equality because everyone would help in taking care of everyone through various means. This simply cannot happen when the individuals cannot, or will not take care of themselves or will only take care of themselves.

Parents who 's only contribution to their family is the paycheck they bring home plus some "fun time" on the weekends (which is supposed to suffice for parenting and quality time). Young adults still thoroughly living off of their parents when the umbilical cord was clearly cut years ago. Adults who refuse to care for their own family members in times of need or ill health, or simply old age. "I'll pay for a room in a convalescent home, but thats about it." Is what you're likely to hear. People who are shocked to find out that someone like myself (of the fringe element that is) still takes time out for family, and actively participates in the lives of family and friends - no strings attached.

These people have refused to take part in the tribal nature of their own family for so long they can no longer even consider it because the money (which is the cause for not taking care of one another) has simply become too important. Never mind what they contribute to their community...how on Earth could they get beyond the basics to participate in a larger grand scale tribal/communal style of government?

I'm getting off topic a bit now...but this is something that really bothers me. It seems like a fruitless effort sometimes to try and talk to people, to get them to understand that a socialistic environment, under the right circumstances is not some Inherent Evil, but rather closer to the way things are supposed to be.

The American way as it is right now is to make money, spend money, and to hell with anyone who gets in the way of that pursuit. Children included.