Republicans are the Borg

While observing the Republican party's PR machine, it's striking that they have developed a system by which they assimilate thoughts and ideas, forming them into a collective, and disseminating their treacherous message to any victim that may fall prey to their arguments. The issues that Republicans stand for may appear morally just on the surface (at least to those with weak minds), but their archaic and aged rhetoric is a result of inherent fears. They fear change that may suddenly take the reasoning abilities of average people to higher levels of cultural and moral development. Without the constraints of religion, the moral and ethical guidelines that we, modern human beings should follow, would come from our biological, evolutionary adapted past. We evolved certain moral sensibilities to function within a small social network. We are no longer small tight-knit clans aiming to expand our territory and adapting the environment to suit our personal needs. We have evolved culturally to a point where millions of people inhabit the same amount of land that perhaps a few clans 10,000 years ago were living. With these added social pressures, constraints, and stresses, we have come to realize that our ethical codes must adapt towards humanism, protection of civil liberties, and the inherent freedom that every single human being should be born with. It's unfortunate that so many people are born into poverty, disease, warfare, and other such malicious environments. These disadvantages may be overcome in isolated instances, but for the most part, many are trapped within their socio-economic bubbles. Of tantamount importance, in order to break free of these chains, is the concept of a thorough early education, and the method of learning involving critical thinking and rationality. The lack of these two factors is a major contributing force towards polarization and the unrestrained tyrannical control of a population. The Republican party's platforms include social restraints, religions indoctrination, polarized populations, and domination through fear, intimidation, and sheer lust for power. The Democratic party certainly has their own demons to fear, but their weakened will, and tolerant behavior towards tyranny is by far the most shameful and disgusting characteristic. It reminds me of Patrick Stewards famous line in Star Trek "First Contact" when speaking of the Borg threat "We've made too many compromises already. Too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!" The parallels between this particular fictional narrative and reality are not that different. We progressives (not singling democrats but all liberal thinkers) are constantly standing down when faced with the Republican rhetoric. They intimidate the populace through fear, and draw anyone who stand in their way as cowards and unpatriotic drolls. They assimilate entire worlds of ideas, and reformulate them to fit within the unsound bounds of their ideologies. The line truly must be drawn within this generation, and we should no longer have to play by their rules. Every time they attack our progressive ideas, we retreat into behavioral modes of niceness. We assume that only through our understanding, patience, and kindess, will their ideas falter. The truth is that we cannot remain in the defensive. We must attack these stupid ideas head-on, without flinching or feelings of remorse. We must take back our sovereignty by abiding to the constitutional framework that changed not only America but the world. We must use our Diplomatic skills cunningly, engage the scientific curiosity of the population, and constantly fight to highlight the benefits of a progressive, rational and reasonable world. The countless issues involving the environment, medicine, disease prevention, poverty, international debt, resource exploitation, political interference through saber rattling and clandestine games, must be brought to the forefront and placed on the collective palate of the American people. We should re-establish a Democracy of the people, not of the powerful lobbyists and corporations. The future of the United States and the World depends on this generation taking a stand against this Borg-like entity of conservatives that manipulate the system to attain new levels of power and influence.

Listen here all you politicians, you lying, cheating, war-mongering, theocratic, tyrannical bastards of all walks of life (yes, this includes you Democrats as well), the time for compromises is at an end. Your time as leaders is going to be over real soon, and you will find a generation of non-compliant Americans fighting your every move. The Borg Menace must be, and will be stopped. You cannot restrain progress, no matter how you try. Your resistance will be futile.


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Lessons on the 5th year of the Iraq War

It has now been 5 years to the day that the Bush regime allowed the travesty that has been the Iraq War to commence. They had thousands of advisers, and whether they really believed them, or decided to manipulate the American people even though silently knowing that the current situation was inevitable, doesn't change the fact that we are now entrenched in a quagmire like Vietnam, with no end in sight. Should American troops withdraw today, then Iraq will probably revert to a long period of drawn-out extensive internal conflicts, a deepening of the civil war currently raging, and drawing neighboring countries into the ensuing pit of despair. Should the troops remain, then they would be stretched too thin, and our standing in the world will continue to freefall. There are no easy answers and no easy solutions, but clearly, one of them has to be to reduce our presence in Iraq, regardless of the ramifications. We cannot continue on a path towards idiocy when all efforts have proved futile. At the moment, some optimists and delusional individuals assume that the reduction in recent violence will continue unabated. The truth is that both Shi'a and Sunni are arming themselves for a long drawn out bitter conflict over the ruins of what will be Iraq. This short-sighted, treacherous administration has allowed, through perjury, rampant idiocy, and stupid ideological beliefs, a conflict that will only escalate for the coming decades. When people look upon this generation, they will wonder how so many followed in such silent and obedient steps behind the stupidest and most ill-conceived international policies. We handed the world a hate card for being American, and allowed ourselves to enter a period of dwindling resources, severe recession, and heavy pessimism. Digging out of this hole is a task that may take decades to accomplish, and even then, our standing in the world will never be what it once was.

A lesson to be learned from this tragedy, beyond all the obvious ones such as checking facts, relying on proper information, upholding constitutional standards, and abiding by a moral code that puts human beings ahead of economic agendas, is that even individuals with powers that far exceed our own can often be wrong. They are no better at judging our future then the educated person with a rational and open mind. We provide so much faith in our so called leaders, to guide us, drive our agendas, and hope that through it all, our desires can be accomplished, and we will all be better off in the end. The truth of the matter is that these individuals are selfish and greedy human beings, who look out for their own skin and their own bank accounts. They are above the law in so many ways, that it's unbelievable that they have the freedoms they do. They wantonly commit perjury, desecration of our civil liberties, and constant hypocritical modes of behavior that would shame even the most extremist terrorists. Their constant control of the masses, over polarizing issues like abortion, gun control, sexual orientation, religious values only blind the population from seeing the lying pathetic pigs that they are. There is no aura or mysticism associated with these bastards who hold high elected offices. Who cares about their degrees in politics, law, economics, etc, when they act selfishly? We are so quick to criticize Communist or Fascist dictators, when our elected officials don't exactly behave differently. Our democracy is a facade hidden under greedy corporate capitalists. This doesn't mean one must advocate communism or socialism, but our mode of capitalism only helps the elite, and encumbers the masses. We are far from a truly egalitarian society, and although there are many complex reasons for the divisions, greed and power are never far from the equation.

Ultimately then, just as blind faith in religion, a higher power, or some supernatural entity is wrong, similarly, blind faith in elected officials, ideology and nationalism are also wrong. There are various levels of faith, but as long as one suspends their skepticism and their rational mind, and allows some idea that has no basis outside of the human mind to exist, then we're all slaves to a system. It does help to have some level of background education, but many are capable of breaking the chains of mental manipulation when taught to think skeptically and rationally. Basing facts on empirical evidence, and observation, is but one change that must be sought. Increasing an interest in the real world, outside of human ideology is another aspect that must be strengthened. For all of our ills, and problems, ultimately, they are meaningless to the cosmos. Does the universe really care if one decides abortion is moral? Some may say yes, but those individuals are allowing their faith in an imaginary entity to dictate what moral and humanitarian beliefs should be upheld. Our morality is based on our evolutionary past, and we should strive to approach an egalitarian society, where disparity between people is more equalized. Not to argue for complete equality, because as individuals, every human being is different, but as more people begin to think critically, and question ideology, much can be accomplished in the world.

Although the Iraq war, among many other facts active in the American experience, has set us decades back from rigorous democracy and global diplomacy, all is not lost. As long as a segment of the populations operates skeptically, and with an open and rational mind, then there is hope for the future. The divisive issues of the time are just props used by the elite to control the general populace into herd behavior. We, the people, are cattle, to be driven across the landscape, milked of everything we have, devoid of freedom and the open air, constantly providing resources to those few we ourselves select. It's unimaginable that an enlightened human being can provide someone else with so much power. These idiots speak of freedom, liberty, and democracy; they talk highly of being moral, law abiding, religious individuals, when they are often, worse then the general populace. Their supposed religious values are a farce. They claim that they abide by a higher power, and those who are not religious are egotistical, but the hypocrisy of those supposedly abiding by a higher, moral power is stunning. They are just using these religious values to control the populace, pretending to be interested in what some idiot preacher, priest, rabbi, imam, monk, guru, or sociopath has to say. The only true democratic development would be to rip the power away from the hands of these tyrannical bastards and back to the properly educated people. The way to do that would be to reorganize the electorate, allow more then 2 parties to dominate the political landscape, have a truly independent, open and honest media, and allow for greater accountability for elected officials. Reorganize the corporate democracy we have now wouldn't be such a bad idea either, and last of all, no campaigning years before an election. Campaigns should be as short as possible, with 10 debates, with questions that are asked by randomly selected individuals. No prepared statements or speeches, but a true test of the capability of these candidates. Finally, and most importantly, spend as much money as possible on a centralized educational system where every student across the country between kindergarten and high school has the same curriculum. A little freedom should be allowed by the high school level. All the trillions that are projected to be spent in Iraq could better have been spent on education, science, research and development, social services, etc. The greatest tragedy of all is that people are willing to be lied towards entering a costly and unending war out of fear, but spending the same amount of money on infrastructure and the advancement of society is frowned upon and argued endlessly.