This I believe

I've been inspired by NPR's essay series "This I Believe" to sit down and write my own.
There were, I figured, two ways to write this essay. One, boil everything down to the absolute basic underpinning, the one thing that I can relate to nearly everything I believe in. Or, two, a laundry list.

I went with the laundry list.

I know, it's the easy way out, but I've got a lot on my plate these days, what with the Holiday season and all... okay, that's not true, the Holidays have nothing to do with it. I'm just plain busy, and that's a convienient excuse. Someday, I'll boil this laundry list down, and write something worthy of NPR. For now though, it's enough for me just to figure out and get down in words just what it is that I do believe. More or less.

For now.

• Because the first thing I believe is that if you cant change your mind about anything, you might as well be dead.


• Love is easy. Compatibility is hard. Too many people think that because they "love each other" that's all they'll ever need, and it's just not true. You need to remember that you will be sharing your life with the person you marry for decades. Neo-Cons and fundamentalists blame the high divorce rate of this era on decadence (or gay people). A far more reasonable explanation is that one hundred years ago odds were pretty good that one of you would die before you got sick of each other.


• Electronic voting will prove, eventually, to be No Good. Anything that can be tampered with during the voting process, will be, given the chance. When one member from each party both keep an eye on a physical ballot box, it is hard to tamper with it. But who watches electronic voting boxes? I predict Electronic Voting Fraud will be one of the Great Scandals of the 21st Century.


• I believe in some form of Higher Intelligence, but what it might be I'm not arrogant enough to say that "I know". I personally suspect that Intelligence arises out of Complexity. Thus, the idea of an "Earth Mother" may not be too far off (the Earth is certainly a complex place), and as for the Universe, I wouldnt exactly call it simple, would you? Man is such a parochial creature, to stuff God into such a tiny box as his "likeness".


• I believe Station Wagons, the best vehicular form for the pragmatic person, never went away. Millions of men and women who swore they'd rejected the old Family Wagon, just called it different name. Dont believe me? Go take a good look at that Tahoe in your driveway: Four doors, covered and windowed cargo area behind the backseat, A-pillar, B-pillar, C-pillar, D. Yep!, all there, Hello! It's a tall station wagon, Family Man (or Woman)!


• I believe half of what is today refered to in America as "racism" is, in fact, Culturism. When you say someone is a certain way because of their Skin Color, that's Racism. If you think someone is a certain way because they behave in a certain style, such as the gangster-rap derived "thugging", then that is Culturism, and a whole different arguement (and you'd still be guilty of Prejudice, which can operate outside of Race). To reject a Culture is not to reject a Race, and vice-versa. I reject Paleo-Conservative culture, but this doesnt mean I dont like White people ( just nasty, greedy, hard-hearted, narrow-minded, tight-sphinctered, bible-clubbing apocalyptocrats of any color). Those who use the term "racism" to describe what is actually culturism dilute outrage over real rascism by way of "the boy who cried wolf" syndrome. (This is the shakiest one in the bunch, so I'm not quite sure of the details of my beliefs here, dont hold me too tight to them.)


• I believe that Profitting from Sick People is Immoral. I'm not talking about Doctors making a living, or even about Doctors making a very good living. Nor am I talking about for-profit hospital chains (although, to an extent, I could). I'm talking about two massive corporate organizations that make billions of dollars a year from the Business of Illness: Pharmaceuticals and Insurance. Drug Companies spend as much money on Marketting as they do on Research, yet when blame for high prices is assigned they mention only the cost of Research, or "lost" patents. Insurance Companies take in billions of dollars a year from people in the good faith that when those clients get sick, their health care will be paid for; a faith too often abused either through outright denial of service, or impentrable rules, regulations, forms and permission requirements.


• I believe that the Government should not be involved in any for-profit scheme unless all the profit goes back to the government.


• I believe Elvis is dead. If Lisa Marie marrying Michael Jackson didnt bring him out, he cant possibly be alive.


• I believe Michael Jackson did do it, and will do it again.


• I believe Fundamentalist Governments have nothing to do with Faith, and everything to do with Power. Want a simple test? Ask this question: Will the person who observes religious law faithfully for their whole life, as dictated by secular law, but doesnt believe recieve the same reward when he dies as the person who observed religious law his whole life because he believed? If not, then what is the point of making Religious Law into Secular Law? To mitigate Temptation? Isnt that a Test from God, so to thwart that test is to attempt to thwart God? Religious Power, like any other, Corrupts, and Man, however Holy he may be, is still Man. I believe most who would see Religious Law made into secular law are people of weak Faith, who require that others be forced to act and "believe" as they do in order to re-enforce their own shaky beliefs.


• I believe Black and White photography is superior to Color.


• I believe that the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are being held illegally, and that the "Enemy Combatants" policy will come back to bite us on the ass very, very hard. Our current treatment of prisoners in the "War" on Terror most likely qualifies as a War Crime. The BushCorp should be held accountable, but we are all complicit in this. This goes double for torture, triple even.


• I believe that other people's sex lives are none of anyone's damn business except for the people involved, and if people want to get married, then let 'em!


• I believe the Death Penalty is OK. I dont like it, but I dont like a lot of things. Those convicted and sentenced knew the rules going into the crime, and Death (ought to be) reserved for the most heinous of killings. BUT, when an innocent person is "proven" guilty by deceit, inneptitude, rascism, or laziness, then the Prosecutors should be held liable for (attempted) Murder or Manslaughter.


• I believe most Modern Art is a Con Game, a three-card monty with Arists, Dealers and Investors. The only real losers are the public, who generally show their contempt through their absence.


• I believe the "pre-emptive strike" in Iraq was about as Un-American thing as has been done in this country since the WWII internment of the Japanese. It was the moral equivalent of instructing traffic cops to stop drivers at random and hand out tickets for speeding, running stop signs, failure to yield, and parking violations because "we know you're going to do it someday". Innocent Until Proven Guilty, that's supposed to be the American Way. Only Bullies and Dark Lords strike first, A Gentleman waits until he is attacked, but then George W. Bush is No Gentleman.


• I believe that the Press is not only biased, but that it's not a liberal bias. We need more newspapers, and more diverse ownership of media outlets. I believe the primary effect of narrowing ownership of media outlets will not be control of people's opinions, but the destruction of the legitimacy of those outlets. I hope that David Brin's theory of the Age of Amateurs comes true and includes an amateur press (blogs, for instance, he says smugly).


• I believe if Unions ever want to regain any kind of effectiveness then they need to return to their grass roots. It's time to do some serious slashing and burning at the administrative levels, and give more power to the locals. National level administration should be more about co-ordination than control.


• I believe people who commit suicide simply arent paying attention. It's a big wonderful incredible fabulous world filled with more cool stuff than you can shake a stick at (including the notion of wanting to shake a stick at something!). We live in the most mobile society ever in the history of the world. If you hate your life, Change it! You can, you know. It wont be easy, but it wont be death either. And, as the saying goes, you can always jump tomorrow.


• I believe it is Evil to treat People like Commodities. If you simply want to be an asshole, that's your business, but dont try to make it sound like you're doing nothing wrong.


• I believe that no one should be made a leader who cannot articulate a detailed vision of the future at least twice the length of his maximum term in power. Too much American leadership is done by Accounting, unable to see anything beyond the next fiscal period or two.


• I believe that America's messed-up priorities are evident in it's choice for heroes - actors, musicians and sports stars - in other words, entertainers. Where are the people like Thomas Jefferson, Jonas Salk, George Washington Carver, Eli Whitney, Henry Ford, Franklin Roosevelt, Francis Bacon, Johann Gutenberg, Thomas Edison? Hell, even Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? Why do we choose, not people who made our lives better, but people who merely made our afternoons better? Heroes should be people who inspire you to go out and improve, not just your game, but the world's.

I could probably come up with more stuff if I thought about it for another week or two, but then I could probably come up with more stuff, and change other stuff, or tear it up and start all over, or any number of things, if I thought about it long enough. So I'll throw it out there as is, right now.

There. Comment on it in fury or agreement. Ignore it in embarassement. Roll your eyes. Such is life.

That I believe also.