and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

I'm not really any sort of a political blogger, or very political at all, really, but some things pop into my head and I personally think I would be remiss if I didn't jot them down - even if it's not my normal agenda.

In this case, it's a result of Bush's recent reinauguration to which Tony commented:

i usually fall in love with america about ten times a day, but i gotta give it up to the people who went down to dc and told the president to go fuck himself.

a real president would have stopped his limo and gotten up on the roof of his ride and pulled out his megaphone and said my fellow americans

i know you dont like me, and thats ok.

but i promise all of you that i will listen to you more this time, i will work harder to represent All of this fine nation, and do whats best for the planet at large.

Which got me thinking. Where, really, is it stated that the president of the united states should try and "do what's best for the planet"? I'm no expert but I don't think that's explicit in the constitution and I'm sure it's not an amendment anywhere either.

You see, the problem with us humans, really, is that we all grew up in a neighbourhood, metaphorically speaking, and there was always another neighbourhood nearby that had it's own group of kids and, inevitably, there were turf wars. Nonsensical scuffles. Fighting among the troops. Defections. And, sometimes, death.

We're tribal by nature, one of the things that made us strong and powerful as a species, like pack wolves, but our strength there just may end up being our ultimate downfall. Maybe, just maybe, we're too damn competitive. If you read this blog at all you know I think that one of the most forgotten natural resources on this tiny planet of ours is ourselves: human beings - and I'm not even talking on a physical level here (though there is that aspect) I'm talking about ideas. Without the Einsteins and the Newtons and the Mendels of the world, where would we be? Without protecting our natural resources (of which humans are one - ALL humans) where, pray tell, will we go.. ?

Clearly capitalism has a place in the world (IMHO) as it's about as close to the process of nature itself than any other system - perhaps explaining why it works so well - but capitalism itself is only practiced in some areas of the world, it has yet to be spread across the entire globe like so much butter on a piece of toast. The real reason that such political systems as socialism and communism ever arose, I suggest, is that somewhere out there someone realized the very importance of people. Someone saw capitalism for what it was: cold, harsh, unforgiving - only the strong survive - and that didn't sit well with them. They were, in their delusions of grandeur, attempting to save the species.

The cold hard fact, however, that most people cannot accept, is that nature is a cruel mother and capitalism a cruel system if you're at the bottom of the pile but it's the best we got. Truly, there will always be hungry, there will always be poor, there will always be those who fall by the wayside of society and if you believe that can be prevented you are as mad as the prophetizing bum on the street, drunk on his own craziness and hungry for a swig of the whiskey bottle.

It's what we haven't figured out yet that is really killing the planet: capitalism will only work as a complete system. Capitalism is not built as a closed system. To truly harness the full power of the system - the full power of the people it must be spread completely throughout the world and only then will people in Rwanda sit in the shade with their stomachs full, only then will Chinese have as many babies as they desire, only then will fly to mars, and beyond. And only then will we truly protect the entire planet from our pollution and refuse.

Luckily, capitalism is nature and nature has been plugging along for millions of years without our help so the fact that we don't quite get it is fine. Capitalism will take over the world regardless and it's only a matter of time before our transition to a full-out global economy is complete, despite our tendencies to push back against this progression. Only then will we be able to see the big picture, appreciate the need for better protection of the planet (all of the planet, not just our own country), and feed the world. Only then will we stop moving garbage from one side of the world to another in order to "forget about it" because it will be like moving it from one side of our backyard to the other. Only then will we address the fact that dumping piles of trash into the ocean is probably not a good thing. Only then will we be in a position to see the real solutions to these problems, not the stop-gaps.

Back in the day, 1776, when everyone was signing their 'ol John Hancock to the Declaration of Independence, I don't think there was as clear a need for "doing what's best for the planet at large" as there is today. In 1776 it was not painfully obvious that the world is a fragile place, that ecosystems are finely tuned, and that a few billion tons of CFCs can really fuck things up in a hurry. In 1776 you could barely pray to your own god without getting the beatdown so world hunger and peace were not on the forefront of political thought as our forbearers coined the phrase of, by, and for the people. They were, quite literally, speaking of the "United States" people, not the world's people.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This is all made quite clear in the preamble to the Constitution where they come oh so close to reaching their hand out to the rest of the world but they don't quite make it. With use of such terms as "domestic tranquility" and "ourselves and our posterity" our forbearers made clear from the start that we're looking out for numero uno.

I will never argue against the belief that the Constitution is one of the most important and brilliant documents ever to be penned in this great nation because, to a certain extent, I share that belief.. but I don't think that bars me from also believing that, to quote the duder, "New things have come to light.. man". The world and it's people are more prevalent issues now than they have ever been and to ignore this fact would be criminal yet, if you take a sweep across the world (and I'm conjecturing here because I have not read too many countries constitutions or whathaveyous) I suspect you will not find too many instances where these issues are mentioned explicitly in documents that dictate the actions of governments. All this means is that we're still very, very, slow.

"George W. Bush was officially sworn in to begin his second term as president of the United States Thursday, promising to pursue "the expansion of freedom in all the world."

Clearly, the issues are on everyone's mind. "the expansion of freedom in all the world" is, obviously, George W. Bush's version, though quite frankly I find it mimics too closely the sounds of a little man we once knew named Hitler. Read betwixt the lines and you will find a novel full of circular lies written by scared, old, and rich white men. And so it goes across the world.

I don't think this is a popular opinion, at least not the harsher bits of it, but too often I find the "hippies" (for lack of a better all-encompassing term) who would like to "save the world" are far too idealistic, far too gullible, and far too biased to realize that our version of morality is not the same one that mother nature abides by. There will always be inequality, there will always be those who fall through the cracks. The best we can do is accept this and make the most with what we got... and right now we are not doing that. We are fighting amongst ourselves, being petty, squabbling over the silliest things and until this is over, we will continue to waste.

Bummer.