Willful Ignorance Will Destroy Us

     A fantastic video by Tim Minchin that I found thanks to a Facebook pal and fellow blogger Scott.  If you can stand... please help us...beat poetry...than I suggest you give it a view.

     I feel his pain and I know how it feels to hold your tongue when pure willful ignorance is being spat forth from the mouth of a dinner guest, or host for that matter.  Willful ignorance is a poisonous force in America, it stems in my opinion from a mass of what can only be described as low self esteem.  Willful ignorance or pride in lack of knowledge of a topic of debate is a shoot from the hip reaction to another person making you feel intellectually inferior or confused.  I will never understand this type of reaction.

     I revel in the finding of new information or discussion of previously unheard of points of view.  These are the things life and more importantly humanity is all about.  What other creature on earth has the capability to not only communicate feelings or ideas with other members of it's species, but change the world they live in through the exchange of such ideas?  It's breathtaking the exponential advancements in not just the technology in the last few centuries that we have created, but also in the way we treat each other.

    I cringe when I hear a person say, "Things are worse than ever, people are killing each other everyday!"

     Although it is true that atrocities occur everywhere all the time, it is clear that things are better than ever before in history in regards to how we treat our fellow man.  There isn't a semi-civilized culture on earth who wouldn't consider slavery a gross injustice deserving of the highest criminal penalties.  Could you imagine President Obama presiding over a man vs. lion gladiator fight at the Kennedy Center, it would be absurd.  Caesars in ancient Rome were expected to finance and attend these very bouts and the people loved them for it.

     Our ability to reason and teach the application of rational thought to our children has led to society where people are educated in basic literature and math fro an early age as a right of passage, not a right of class or wealth.  If we continue to listen to each other and yes, get schooled in certain things, it can only help us as a species.

This is What We Have to Choose From?

     I will fairly preface this post/rant by stating a fact, I voted for Barack Obama in 2008.  I cast that vote with quite a bit of zeal also, it felt fucking good.  It felt like it was our candidate we were voting for.  I even saw him speak at Highland, IN's very own wicker park.  It'd be a lie to say that we all don't vote with a bit of sentimental regard for our candidate of choice, particularly in such high profile offices as the President of the United States.  So there you have it I admit that part of my vote in 2008 was based on squishy admiration for the cool as shit young hip Senator Obama.  I will also admit (without checking polls because I am fairly certain this is the case) that a lot of Democratic voters voted 90% because of these emotional feelings.


     I prefaced with my admittance of having an emotional connection with a presidential candidate because it is important to also point out just how SMALL this factor is in my decision walking into the booth. Maybe 5% for me, I would vote for a piece of toast if it was in line with my ideas of sound policy.  I agreed with Obama on a lot of major points: health care reform that although not single payer still a sound start, an admittance that America is not a Toby Kieth song when it came to foreign policy, and that a strong middle class was in the best interest of everybody in this nation.  I should have been a bit more realistic with my expectations of the opposition, Obama didn't let me down nearly as much as the other 59 million people who voted in that election for John McCain and his creepy Stepford wife jerk off fantasy Sarah Palin.

     I have never seen such vitriol for a winning candidate in any election.  It became a policy deciding factor (not simply campaign fodder) to oppose with indiscriminate negativity ANYTHING that came from the White House after that.  How is that in the best interest of the nation?  How does that solve one problem?  The voting bloc of this country is largely uninformed on both sides, politics aren't sexy, campaigns are.  So, people gear up in their red, white, and blue every four years and head to the polls to vote for the less creepy candidate in most elections.  Except this wasn't most elections, it felt more important than '04 or even 2000, it felt like we were at a precipice as a nation both security wise and financially.  How did Americans respond, just awful in my opinion, embarrassing really.


'08 McCain Campaign Stop

angry and scared morons who have zero grasp of reality

08' Obama Speech

way overzealous and hopeful idiots who have zero grasp of reality

The previous 2 videos remind me very much of this video...

     So there you have it, both sides of a shit smeared coin.  The problem is, one side went on with their lives after that election, the other side has drifted further into the abyss.  I truly thought we would see an election in 2012 that consisted of Obama-Biden against.... oh I don't know...a Mitch Daniels-Jindal ticket.  Mitch Daniels is a good man, he is concerned with governing, not political hyperbole.  That is why a man like Mitch Daniels would never be nominated by today's tea party besieged GOP.  He won't question Obama's birth certificate, label him a socialist, or question his loyalty to the United States.  Back to the 3rd video above, that is what politics in America is becoming, a bunch of drunk crying NFL fans.  Pick a side so you know what to write on your stupid little sign.

    The GOP has as of today Mitt Romeny (the whitest and sanest of the field), Hermain Cain (a willfully ignorant business man with no concern for how serious foreign policy is in the nuclear age), and Newt Gingrich  a complete Washington insider who claims for some reason...not to be a Washington insider.  This is what independents have to choose from, and let's not fool ourselves, it is that 4-6% voting bloc that determines every presidential election.  I would like to consider myself an independent, or at least I used to be.

    I am disappointed in Obama, I thought I voted for a progressive...a fighter for the middle class.  I think he still is in his heart of hearts, but the man was for far too long after that election completely naive in his grasp for bi-partisanship.  He continually reached out to Speaker Boehner as the man treated him like a bleeding AIDS patient.  Why would he work with Obama on ANYTHING, the single most important factor in his constituent's reason for re-electing him was that he fight Obama on everything and anything.

     SO, I will vote for Obama again, even though I am mad as hell that he didn't fight for his positions.  What else do I have to choose from?