political rant

I'm trying to define myself politically and having a seriously hard time of it. Part of this is because the definitions out there are, when you actually sit down and look at them, incredibly vague, while part of this is also because I don't know if there actually IS a category for me.

It's really a huge mess when you think about it. For instance, I don't believe in a strong central/federal government at all. On the other hand, what would we do about those things in our lives that do require public funding? This is part of why the Democrats and Republicans chase each others' tails forever in a perpetual stalemate; neither side's views are workable on their own.

A central government with the ability to essentially control the national economy is a bad idea because it restricts individuals and small communities. A total free-market economy is also a bad idea for the same exact reason. Both sides are touted as "the solution" but each only serves to quash the abuses of the other while leaving us open to its own inherent abuses.

The problem with both is that each shifts power from the general public to a small group of people, to either the federal government or to multinational corporations. What's really horrifying is that nowadays I think we have both entities against us.

But hey, what's so wrong about that? Plenty. The problem is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. We need checks and balances and we don't inherently have any, for one important reason I'll get to in a moment. The lack of power we as a people have right now is horrifying simply because of the rapid advance of technology. We have weaponry that's practically impossible to defend against, we have satellite imaging that can find virtually anything or anyone anywhere, and we have ways to monitor any and all forms of communication. And this is only the beginning. We have yet to develop the means to actually access the human mind, but we will.

The common response to this usually falls along the lines of "Corporations / the government wouldn't violate our basic rights because they're constitutionally-protected, and also because we'd protest." Neither argument holds any water, ironically because we are a democratic republic. Yes, we have a government, on paper at least, that is run by the people for the people. But if "the people" can be convinced that they do not need certain rights because the government/some multinational corporation will take care of them, then we lose those rights.

And this is exactly the reason I mentioned earlier for why we have a frightening lack of checks and balances at the moment. We are inundated with promises that a particular large institution, be it government or corporate, will "take care of us". And people buy it; I see this on a daily basis. The people I hate dealing with the most in my job are those who think that since they're paying my company to have internet access, we should also be responsible for fixing and maintaining their computers as well.

I've talked to people who honestly believed that I could physically see them somehow (one guy thought that cable boxes had hidden cameras in them). What's absolutely terrifying to me is that these people are totally okay with the idea that a corporation can monitor absolutely everything they do. These people are okay with the thought of having absolutely no privacy so long as they don't have to think for themselves.

The problem of course is that both government and corporate institutions are really trading right now off the whole "we'll take care of you" thing. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I'd say this is all planned and that the overall goal is to make us utterly dependent on the state to pave the way for some sort of awful fascist nightmare. Maybe this is going on on some levels, but I don't think things are coordinated enough for it to be a "conspiracy" of any kind. I think it's going on simply because people are fucking lazy and stupid and they let it go on, and it's good for corporations because it hooks in new customers and makes them new money.

However this is dangerous because if someone in government *should* happen to decide that we need more controls or less rights, we'll have no defense against them. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but if the public is conditioned to believe those in power are supposed to take care of them, they will hand over power, and once that is done, there is no going back. It's arguable that the seeds for this have already been planted.

What can be done about this? About the only thing I can see to do would be to make efforts to start independent, self-run communities which do not need much assistance from the government. If this were to happen at a large enough scale, the power of the government and/or corporations would be reduced dramatically and the people could regain control of their own lives.

Of course, this also assumes that enough people even want to take charge of their lives... and that's not something I'm at all convinced of, but I think the idea is sound enough to try anyway, at least until a better one comes along.

yikes

I lost my password to this account and got locked out for months and months. So here I am again. Aren't you lucky? (/sarcasm)

I'll start posting here again shortly, my first post being a general political rant that'll go up as soon as I'm done with this one...

Just as a general update... I'm currently working on a website that's going to be kind of a cross between Facebook and DeviantArt. Both sites do what they do very well, but personally I'd just like to have a single place where people I know can upload what they've been working on so that I don't have to run all over the ends of the earth (or internet, as the case may be) to find their own personal Tumblr or DeviantArt or whatever.

I have some other ideas for sites as well, including an online marketplace-type thing that also provides the ability to actually TRADE for stuff (something the eBays of the world lack) and some other features. No matter how popular or successful any of these sites are, they build up my web design/programming portfolio and that's really what I need.

As a side note, I've been kind of isolated and distant and hardly ever around over the past few months... there's a very simple reason for that. Aside from my friends, whose numbers are dwindling as they venture off to other lands and places (and as those few who are here get tired of my free-wheeling, wild-dog-esque comings and goings and unreliability), and my family, my life sucks hardcore.

I'm still living at home so that I can save up money for more schooling / whatever, my free time is incredibly limited because I work 10+ hours a day, and I'm moving later this year so the present for me right now is basically just a long, drawn-out closing down of things I've loved and come to take for granted. There's very little that could draw me back into the science field; I went into it thinking it would be financially lucrative (HA!) and that, being science, it would be more logic-oriented and thus fitting with my personality. Nearly two years in the field taught me that there's very little on this earth LESS logical than the science/pharmaceutical industry.

Besides, if the one recruiter I talked to about 6 months ago was correct, I'm essentially obsolete and unemployable in the science field anyway, thanks to my being out of it for over a year. In short, I need to build up my portfolio for web / programming stuff so I can show potential employers what I can do so that they'll hire me and then for the first time in my life I'll actually have a job I actually kind of enjoy.

So, we really have two choices here... I can be around more often and spend a lot of time griping about how much I hate my life. Or, I can spend a good deal of my free time at home squeezing out PHP and Javascript code in the vain hope someday this will make my life better.

I only bring this up because, thanks to my job, I've had a lot of alone time in which to think about how many people I've alienated over the years in one way or another. It's always been due to one of a handful of reasons: I'm too distant and people think I don't like them, or, out of fear of this happening, I'm entirely the opposite, too involved or present or considerate or whatever, and it gets cloying and bothersome.

Or, I get into a party situation with a lot of people, and I drink too much in order to block out my paranoid guardedness, and then I wind up doing something inappropriate.

I've had enough Enforced Time Alone over the past year, though, to have come to terms with a lot of this, and I'm actually kind of okay with it for the first time ever. I used to get frantic if I was alone for too long. Now I kind of enjoy it.

Sometimes you just have to face facts... I am not going to be most people's cup of tea. I'm entirely too guarded to be really open and spontaneous. I had to deal with family issues at a very young age that licensed psychiatrists with 20 years experience had trouble dealing with, and while you can certainly work with the lack of trust and openness that causes, with time, the basic circuitry is still there and probably isn't going to change much.

On the other hand, I have met a number of people over the past few years that, despite being in very close proximity to them for extended periods of time, often in completely bizarre states of consciousness, I have yet to alienate. Of course, 90% of them have left the immediate area, but it's nice to know I'm not completely impossible.

That's enough on a personal front for right now. Up next! Political ranting which may or may not be cogent!