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Realtalk, good post man. Some interesting stuff being said in here.
8 Reasons why Young Americans don't fight back.
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Close to that point? Presently the US is no where even close to that point.
These are the valid reasons to protest and revolt...
Food Shortage
Dwindling natural resources
Segregation due to the color of your skin
Police abuse
Crash of WallStreet
Military draft/Conscription
To protest, fight back and revolt violently because college kids can't find a job?
These are the valid reasons to protest and revolt...
To protest, fight back and revolt violently because college kids can't find a job?
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Not going to read the thread, but the reason is because in the end, we have it pretty good here. There's nothing to truly rise up against. Protesting is one thing, but true rebellion is unnecessary in America.
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There are some elements in our society that cause us harm and could be dismantled and in doing so, our quality of life would be greater. Unfortunately, many of the problems that we have are not tangible, easy to so and thus subject to removal by popular revolt or citizens movements.
Our economy is weak and it is the result of a thousand cuts. Things like cronyism in almost every sector, mild corrupt that is widely dispersed but abundant enough to make our society poorer, greed from everyone (not just Wall Street barons but from others that get money from the treasury and are hardly in need of it: middle class households, elderly and affluent social security recipients, small and medium sized businesses that may create a lot of job but also benefit from barriers to entry in their industry).
Let us assume that we had a war chest of political wil land poer and could do those things that obviously must be done and after we were to run down Goldman and other Wall Street Giants, neuter the Treasury and Fed (either abolish it or stick it with a constitutional mandate it to hold inflate at a very low level and little else) and end corporate and agrosubsidies we would then still have a lot debt and albatrosses weighing down the economy and then it becomes much less clear how to proceeded. Ordinary people often time give them selves over to extraordinary economic fallacies. Some would like planned economy and return to 19th century assembly line manufacturing (it is insane how much politicians privilege manufacturing jobs and malign "service" industry jobs), entitlements seem impossible to reform, every single cut (and cuts usually mean a reduction in the degree to which funding is increased) to a every single program get howls of protest from those who benefit and free trade trade is now an obscenity as people wish to emulate Cuba and North Korea and pursue a policy of economic isolationism.
Furthermore, things like higher education and health care cost money so provide less of it or you have to pay more, simple as that, and higher taxes and reduced benefits make people less happy.
I am not trivializing the degree to which our generation is getting screwed by a bunch of middle aged elites but even if we tore down the middle aged and the powerful, economic scarcity and human fallibility is still left in it wake and is the most comfortable generation (that is say people born after 1980) in the history civilization willing to the sacrifices and endure the hardships needed to preserve a good standard of living for the long run and for future generations? I have my doubts.
BTW, fighting the system and its faults does not require someone to be throwing molotov cocktails (and even if someone did, it would only be fruitful if it hit and killed certain political and economic elites and as much as people damn Washington and Wall Street, ordinary people overwhelmingly get angry when one of their betters gets hurt or killed, the whole country will "rally" around that person and will even declare war on multiple countries as retaliation for violence against a few very wealthy and powerful people as was the case when 3,000 well to do New Yorkers were killed in 2001, this country decided to sacrafice thousand of Marines and soldiers from places like Texas, Oklahome and Nebraska and other places thousands of miles and many tax bracket from the Grandee who lroded over you people from their perches in the World Trade Center Towers).
I think that the average America has too much of slave mentality to ever mount a serious revolution against the ruling class because the common people have such admiratio nand reverence and awful for patricians. When their are riots, like those in 1992, it in involves people burining down the stores of the frugal middle class store owners not the masnions of the truly wealthy and powerful. Barack Obama gets people blood boilin gwhen he mentioning some with an income of $300,000, yet he encourages all kids to study hard so they may go to Harvard and rub shoulders with kids whose trust fund disperses that much money every month. The President castigates the small business owners and then vacation s among 30 and 40 million dollars estates in Martha's Vineyard. People will vote for the Democratic Party and it "share the wealth" message and then idolize men like the Roosevel tand the Kenndy, men born into vast amount of wealth and many of our women live vicariously through Michelle Obama or Jackie Kennedy's dresses like Filipinas and poor French women did through Emelda Marcos and Marie Antoinette, respectively.
I do not blame XBox or Cable TV or Air conditioned shopping Malls for such a spine less enervated population. I blame the obsession that so many Americans have, in matters of politics, to reach consensus. Put another way, most Americans fear being heavily criticized so they always hedge, compromise, defer to the status quo, belittle those with big ideas and then quietly complain about the natural results of democratic society where most of it people are unwilling to stick out their necks and advance new ideas and to reject ideas that are simply bad but popular at the moment. That is why calling someone a racist or weak on defense or some other stock response shuts up most people because even baseless accusations hurts people's feelings and they would rather feel good and be liked then speak the truth. Finally, so few people, even people who have post graduate degrees have not been taught the skills for critical thinking, argumentation and the ability to articulate and defend a position and to answer criticism and to simply dismiss people who use race or accusations of someone being cruel or someone who caricatures your position, Americans have never spend more hours in class room and yet so many people are not taught those aforementioned skills, skills once taught in high school and even in middle school.
Our economy is weak and it is the result of a thousand cuts. Things like cronyism in almost every sector, mild corrupt that is widely dispersed but abundant enough to make our society poorer, greed from everyone (not just Wall Street barons but from others that get money from the treasury and are hardly in need of it: middle class households, elderly and affluent social security recipients, small and medium sized businesses that may create a lot of job but also benefit from barriers to entry in their industry).
Let us assume that we had a war chest of political wil land poer and could do those things that obviously must be done and after we were to run down Goldman and other Wall Street Giants, neuter the Treasury and Fed (either abolish it or stick it with a constitutional mandate it to hold inflate at a very low level and little else) and end corporate and agrosubsidies we would then still have a lot debt and albatrosses weighing down the economy and then it becomes much less clear how to proceeded. Ordinary people often time give them selves over to extraordinary economic fallacies. Some would like planned economy and return to 19th century assembly line manufacturing (it is insane how much politicians privilege manufacturing jobs and malign "service" industry jobs), entitlements seem impossible to reform, every single cut (and cuts usually mean a reduction in the degree to which funding is increased) to a every single program get howls of protest from those who benefit and free trade trade is now an obscenity as people wish to emulate Cuba and North Korea and pursue a policy of economic isolationism.
Furthermore, things like higher education and health care cost money so provide less of it or you have to pay more, simple as that, and higher taxes and reduced benefits make people less happy.
I am not trivializing the degree to which our generation is getting screwed by a bunch of middle aged elites but even if we tore down the middle aged and the powerful, economic scarcity and human fallibility is still left in it wake and is the most comfortable generation (that is say people born after 1980) in the history civilization willing to the sacrifices and endure the hardships needed to preserve a good standard of living for the long run and for future generations? I have my doubts.
BTW, fighting the system and its faults does not require someone to be throwing molotov cocktails (and even if someone did, it would only be fruitful if it hit and killed certain political and economic elites and as much as people damn Washington and Wall Street, ordinary people overwhelmingly get angry when one of their betters gets hurt or killed, the whole country will "rally" around that person and will even declare war on multiple countries as retaliation for violence against a few very wealthy and powerful people as was the case when 3,000 well to do New Yorkers were killed in 2001, this country decided to sacrafice thousand of Marines and soldiers from places like Texas, Oklahome and Nebraska and other places thousands of miles and many tax bracket from the Grandee who lroded over you people from their perches in the World Trade Center Towers).
I think that the average America has too much of slave mentality to ever mount a serious revolution against the ruling class because the common people have such admiratio nand reverence and awful for patricians. When their are riots, like those in 1992, it in involves people burining down the stores of the frugal middle class store owners not the masnions of the truly wealthy and powerful. Barack Obama gets people blood boilin gwhen he mentioning some with an income of $300,000, yet he encourages all kids to study hard so they may go to Harvard and rub shoulders with kids whose trust fund disperses that much money every month. The President castigates the small business owners and then vacation s among 30 and 40 million dollars estates in Martha's Vineyard. People will vote for the Democratic Party and it "share the wealth" message and then idolize men like the Roosevel tand the Kenndy, men born into vast amount of wealth and many of our women live vicariously through Michelle Obama or Jackie Kennedy's dresses like Filipinas and poor French women did through Emelda Marcos and Marie Antoinette, respectively.
I do not blame XBox or Cable TV or Air conditioned shopping Malls for such a spine less enervated population. I blame the obsession that so many Americans have, in matters of politics, to reach consensus. Put another way, most Americans fear being heavily criticized so they always hedge, compromise, defer to the status quo, belittle those with big ideas and then quietly complain about the natural results of democratic society where most of it people are unwilling to stick out their necks and advance new ideas and to reject ideas that are simply bad but popular at the moment. That is why calling someone a racist or weak on defense or some other stock response shuts up most people because even baseless accusations hurts people's feelings and they would rather feel good and be liked then speak the truth. Finally, so few people, even people who have post graduate degrees have not been taught the skills for critical thinking, argumentation and the ability to articulate and defend a position and to answer criticism and to simply dismiss people who use race or accusations of someone being cruel or someone who caricatures your position, Americans have never spend more hours in class room and yet so many people are not taught those aforementioned skills, skills once taught in high school and even in middle school.
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It's nearly impossible to try and change anything too drastic. Too many people are accustomed and even love the safety and normality of everyday life. No one takes risks anymore. Everything is the safe route, the self-profit route, the ultimate goal for most people nowadays it seems is to safely prosper.
People either don't care or don't want to do anything about it. There is no use in trying to convince anyone who doesn't want to change that they should change. But no one says you have to change people who don't want it. Change the people who do want it. If you have money, or extra time, find a way you can help out those less fortunate in this country. Or those outside of the country. Just because 99% of the people around you only care about the next TV show and the latest top 40 pop songs doesn't mean that you can't be that person to step out and change those who need it.
The world isn't fair and there's nothing wrong with that. All of us on here are very fortunate to have what we have. We don't have the responsibility to help anyone, we are all fully well within our rights to pursue our own sources of happiness and success. But there are those people out there who look beyond all the unfairness, and all the glamorization of wealth and status. Beyond the glamorization of what makes us happy. Because beneath making ourselves happy, we have to make ourselves human. Are you going to be the person who turns his back on problems in order to make it in life? Or are you going to make it in life while helping those who need it?
There is no use helping those who have rejected change. But we can all strive to help those who embrace it. I mean, would you really save a world which didn't want to be saved?
People either don't care or don't want to do anything about it. There is no use in trying to convince anyone who doesn't want to change that they should change. But no one says you have to change people who don't want it. Change the people who do want it. If you have money, or extra time, find a way you can help out those less fortunate in this country. Or those outside of the country. Just because 99% of the people around you only care about the next TV show and the latest top 40 pop songs doesn't mean that you can't be that person to step out and change those who need it.
The world isn't fair and there's nothing wrong with that. All of us on here are very fortunate to have what we have. We don't have the responsibility to help anyone, we are all fully well within our rights to pursue our own sources of happiness and success. But there are those people out there who look beyond all the unfairness, and all the glamorization of wealth and status. Beyond the glamorization of what makes us happy. Because beneath making ourselves happy, we have to make ourselves human. Are you going to be the person who turns his back on problems in order to make it in life? Or are you going to make it in life while helping those who need it?
There is no use helping those who have rejected change. But we can all strive to help those who embrace it. I mean, would you really save a world which didn't want to be saved?
