Although I'm going to discuss a little politics here, don't freak out, ok?
I'm not going to cram anything down your throat, shout you down, call you stupid for believing something, or use any other tactic favored by the political punditocracy these days.
Instead, I want to touch on the concept of societal priorities, and you can't get there without running through politics first.
Wait, what? Societal priorities? What in the world does that mean?
Essentially, I mean that we (as a society) decide what is important to us, and we fund it accordingly.
Although you may be scratching your head, trying to remember when you participated in any priority decision-making, trust me, you have.
Voted in a congressional or senate race lately? State representatives? Mayoral race? County commissioners?
You have? Well, you've helped set priorities for society then.
Oh, I'm sorry, I must have misheard. You don't vote, because all the politicians are crooks, don't represent you, and are only in it for the money and power.
You still helped set the priorities.
How?
Let's take the first case first. When you vote for a particular politician, you are in essence giving your vote of approval for their legislative agenda. However, due to our two party system of politics, many people feel compelled to vote for a candidate strictly on party affiliation, instead of carefully parsing out the platform that this candidate offers.
In the second case, when you don't vote, your abstention provides an additional vote to those whose opinions and viewpoints differ from yours, thereby strengthening their position.
In both cases, this has eventually led to career politicians who are far more interested in getting elected than they are in legislating.
Do you hear any specifics in political rhetoric these days, or are the speeches filled with platitudes (that sound good, but mean little)?
It's easy to say "Cut taxes!" "Reduce Spending!" "Reform (insert agency here)!" but how, exactly?
If you cut taxes (the revenue stream for government at all levels), you have to then decide what you will no longer fund. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of paying taxes. However, I do like to drive my car on an interstate freeway. I also like having the peace of mind knowing that in an emergency, there are people I can call to come to my aid (i.e., law enforcement, fire departments, the military).
Right or left, progressive or conservative, or somewhere in between. We ALL make up this society, and therefore, should find a way to voice our thoughts on this issue (I have ideas on how to remold democracy, but that is for another post).
This all leads to this question: what are the priorities for our society?
If we were to determine this based on our current spending as a federal government, our top 5 priorities would be the Department of Health and Human Services (Medicare and Medicaid, primarily) at 498.6 billion dollars, Social Security Administration (367.6 billion), Department of Homeland Security (243.4 billion), Department of Defense (240.8 billion), followed at a distance by Education at 73.7 billion dollars (source).
Even if we kept our priorities in line with our spending, would we have to fund all of these agencies at their current levels?
These are difficult questions to answer, and so our politicians choose not to, instead, foisting the fixes on the next generation. Unfortunately, Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security will run into some trouble in the not too distant future, unless some significant changes are made.
Similarly, I don't think that anyone in this country feels that either the Department of Homeland Security nor the military should be disbanded, but is it possible that some of the funding given to those groups could be repurposed for other groups? One side would argue that we need to keep spending and building our military forces, while the other side might point out that our military dwarfs the next several nations' militaries combined. According to some reports, the US accounts for 43% of military spending worldwide, with China in second place with around 6.8% (source)
I'm not here to bash the military, or medicare, or social security. I'm just saying that we need to decide what is important to the United States of America, and then we have to suck it up and fund it.
Is education truly important? How about health care for all citizens? Why do we tie health care to employment? As one of the wealthiest nations, isn't it a bit of an embarrassment that people lose their homes because of health issues?
I've only touched on a few areas where we spend money as a society; the challenge is trying to get the nation to determine what are the priorities. However, I believe that if we were able to, we could cut both the size of government, as well as deficit spending (we would just need the private sector to create a few jobs to help those individuals who relied upon the government for employment).
You may not be the nation, but you are a member of it. What are the priorities you see for our society?
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
#3 - choice
Do you believe in free will? The ability to make your own choices and set your own path?
I do. I believe that we are each in control of our own destiny.
Think about this: everyday, we are faced with countless choices, many of which we make without even thinking about them (what's for breakfast, the route to work, etc.). We're also faced with many choices that do rise to the level of actual decision-making (what to wear, what to do about that project at work that is behind schedule, how to interact with other people).
Wait a minute.
What was that last one again?
We make a conscious choice about how to interact with other people?
Actually, I fear that most of us do not make a conscious choice on this topic. Instead, we rely solely on our upbringing (i.e., how did my parents/siblings treat other people) and cues from the mob surrounding us. In many ways, we revert to some ancestral (and I mean seriously old, think: animal) mode of interaction when we encounter someone outside of our immediate family or known circle.
In other words, we often respond to new interactions with fear, or fight, or even just a general wariness. I don't care who you are, how world-travelled you may be, I'm sure you've encountered a situation where you were out of your comfort zone in relation to the people surrounding you.
But how did you react?
Enough pop psych, let's get to the point here. While I may start by discussing how schoolchildren interact, don't think you adults are off the hook here.
Think back to when you were in elementary school (farther back for some of us than others, I'm sure). In my mind preschool and early elementary are the prime times for developing social interaction skills. Will you play with me at recess? Can I have some of your Legos?
We try to find ways to connect with others, to find our ways into groups that share similarities in some way. This leads naturally to late elementary/middle school, where the goal is to NOT STICK OUT. You know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? The different among us are mocked mercilessly in middle school. Too tall, too fat, "ugly" in some way, bad clothes, bad hair, bad smell, not enough money, bad at sports, you get the point.
I'm ashamed and embarrassed to admit that, in my effort to fly below the radar, I've participated in the mocking or refused to stop others, even when I knew it was wrong. Easy to see (and say) from this side of the experience, I know, but still - I knew it was wrong and I did it anyway.
High school and college continue the training for us as individuals interacting with others in society, where we solidify cliques, attempt (sometimes repeatedly) to reinvent ourselves to escape the past, and begin to understand who we are as individuals that happen to exist within a larger context of human beings.
The question is, who is teaching us? Who teaches us how to interact with others appropriately? Our parents, when we are small? Teachers? Religious leaders?
All the above, but sadly, we don't appear to have learned the lesson well.
Instead, as adults, we still mock those who are different than us (or our group). We fear or hate someone because of the color of their skin, because they have different religious beliefs than we do, because their sexuality is different than ours, because some partisan shouting head tells us to, because they are unknown to us.
Again, I submit that these are primal issues for us, holdovers from cave-dwelling days.
We're better than that.
We have the ability to consciously choose how to treat our fellow man on this planet, right? And we CHOOSE to treat others horribly, KNOWING EXACTLY how it would feel if we were the recipient? Even though I've done it myself, I simply can't understand how a supposedly superior cognitive species is capable of such low behavior.
If you are a student, be yourself and revel in it. Find your interests and OWN them! Who cares if you are a band geek, a jock, a preppie? Who cares if you don't have any money? You are the only you there is, so own it.
So, when you see someone who doesn't understand the concept of respecting others (i.e., mocking, bullying, whatever), stand up and help educate.
Will you lose friends? Nope. I can guarantee that you will never lose a real friend by doing the right thing. You may lose some finos (friend in name only), which is actually a good thing. It may not seem like it at the time (especially if you are trying to break into the "popular" crowd) but trust me, you don't want friends that are mean to others - eventually they'll turn on you (any teen movie will teach you that lesson).
Now, even though I just gave some advice to "students" it is really geared towards us all. We are all students in some way - even if only as students of life.
Animals seek self-preservation above all else.
As humans, we can consciously make the choice to make our society better through the choices we make in our interactions with one another.
I do. I believe that we are each in control of our own destiny.
Think about this: everyday, we are faced with countless choices, many of which we make without even thinking about them (what's for breakfast, the route to work, etc.). We're also faced with many choices that do rise to the level of actual decision-making (what to wear, what to do about that project at work that is behind schedule, how to interact with other people).
Wait a minute.
What was that last one again?
We make a conscious choice about how to interact with other people?
Actually, I fear that most of us do not make a conscious choice on this topic. Instead, we rely solely on our upbringing (i.e., how did my parents/siblings treat other people) and cues from the mob surrounding us. In many ways, we revert to some ancestral (and I mean seriously old, think: animal) mode of interaction when we encounter someone outside of our immediate family or known circle.
In other words, we often respond to new interactions with fear, or fight, or even just a general wariness. I don't care who you are, how world-travelled you may be, I'm sure you've encountered a situation where you were out of your comfort zone in relation to the people surrounding you.
But how did you react?
Enough pop psych, let's get to the point here. While I may start by discussing how schoolchildren interact, don't think you adults are off the hook here.
Think back to when you were in elementary school (farther back for some of us than others, I'm sure). In my mind preschool and early elementary are the prime times for developing social interaction skills. Will you play with me at recess? Can I have some of your Legos?
We try to find ways to connect with others, to find our ways into groups that share similarities in some way. This leads naturally to late elementary/middle school, where the goal is to NOT STICK OUT. You know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? The different among us are mocked mercilessly in middle school. Too tall, too fat, "ugly" in some way, bad clothes, bad hair, bad smell, not enough money, bad at sports, you get the point.
I'm ashamed and embarrassed to admit that, in my effort to fly below the radar, I've participated in the mocking or refused to stop others, even when I knew it was wrong. Easy to see (and say) from this side of the experience, I know, but still - I knew it was wrong and I did it anyway.
High school and college continue the training for us as individuals interacting with others in society, where we solidify cliques, attempt (sometimes repeatedly) to reinvent ourselves to escape the past, and begin to understand who we are as individuals that happen to exist within a larger context of human beings.
The question is, who is teaching us? Who teaches us how to interact with others appropriately? Our parents, when we are small? Teachers? Religious leaders?
All the above, but sadly, we don't appear to have learned the lesson well.
Instead, as adults, we still mock those who are different than us (or our group). We fear or hate someone because of the color of their skin, because they have different religious beliefs than we do, because their sexuality is different than ours, because some partisan shouting head tells us to, because they are unknown to us.
Again, I submit that these are primal issues for us, holdovers from cave-dwelling days.
We're better than that.
We have the ability to consciously choose how to treat our fellow man on this planet, right? And we CHOOSE to treat others horribly, KNOWING EXACTLY how it would feel if we were the recipient? Even though I've done it myself, I simply can't understand how a supposedly superior cognitive species is capable of such low behavior.
If you are a student, be yourself and revel in it. Find your interests and OWN them! Who cares if you are a band geek, a jock, a preppie? Who cares if you don't have any money? You are the only you there is, so own it.
So, when you see someone who doesn't understand the concept of respecting others (i.e., mocking, bullying, whatever), stand up and help educate.
Will you lose friends? Nope. I can guarantee that you will never lose a real friend by doing the right thing. You may lose some finos (friend in name only), which is actually a good thing. It may not seem like it at the time (especially if you are trying to break into the "popular" crowd) but trust me, you don't want friends that are mean to others - eventually they'll turn on you (any teen movie will teach you that lesson).
Now, even though I just gave some advice to "students" it is really geared towards us all. We are all students in some way - even if only as students of life.
Animals seek self-preservation above all else.
As humans, we can consciously make the choice to make our society better through the choices we make in our interactions with one another.
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