Despite what some misguided people think...I'm not all that smart. There are a number of examples that can show that...but in the wonderful world of blogging there's not as much time to think things through...time that I usually need for responses to percolate in my head. So it's taken me a couple of days to process the responses I got from the post from a few days ago.

So to the references by my commentors about "reality"...

Reality is what you make it. I know that sounds like a car ad or a hippie bumper sticker, but it really is true. People, governments, corporations, continue to do the same things over and over again - and even with some initial success or feeling of safety, they don't work. And when someone suggests something different or something that has actually worked, if it's not derided, it's deluted to ineffectualness in the name of compromise. This is the case in terms of foreign policy, domestic policies, regulation of corporations, even by individuals and the choices they make and the attitudes they have.

Sparky, if you go around not trusting everyone, assuming everyone is evil, know what? That's how they're going to act. Now I don't think I could prance around sticking flowers in cops guns, but I sure could sit & negotiate with terrorists. Will it be a quick solution? No. Would I go in with complete trust? No. But I recognize that what we're doing now to "combat" terrorism is making it worse. For anyone in power to not acknowledge that is putting everyone in a whole lot of trouble. We're creating more problems, what we're doing is not working and the scumbags running things are trying to solve this by taking what we're doing wrong and doing it more.

I'm not denying that the world is a dangerous place...but making it more dangerous isn't going help. It never, ever has. Whatever temporary respite aggression has caused, it always been followed by more carnage and suffering. There are win, win scenarios out there. This philosophy can also be applied to domestic issues. I wrote this a while back, but Whitee Saves the World is a decent example. I haven't dusted it off for a while so I may go back and revise, but the general idea is still the same in my head - there doesn't have to be winners AND losers.

But the world doesn't work that way...

No shit. Because we've set it up that way. It's been instilled in our heads from the time we're babies, and by who? The people who have all the power already. What do you expect them to say? Give peace a chance? Doubt it. I am of the opinion that most of what goes on in the world isn't human nature. I don't believe that people are born to hate. You know what? There's some crazy motherfuckers out there, but by blowing up innocent people, screwing up the environment and screwing over everyone around you isn't going to make things better.

I will reiterate...I'm not naive...I just do not accept things the way they are.