reflection

A topic I'm obsessed with is free will, probably because of 16 years of Catholic schooling. Does anybody really have it? I mean, we're all born in times where traditions and modes of thought are thrust upon us. If I was born into an aristocrat family in the Middle Ages, there's a good chance I would look down on peasants. It's almost like society forms your personality.

Probably why I think about this is because in a lot of social situations I feel out of place because I'm a liberal and most people I run into are conservative. Guess that's what happens when ya live in a right-of-center country.

death of America?

I've been listening to The Young Turks political show a lot lately. They've been covering CPAC, that conservative conference, ad nauseam. The more I listen to conservatives rant about small government and no taxes, the more I get depressed. It seems so much of the country buys that antiquated ideology. Look, nobody likes paying taxes but you need to for social services and defending the nation. You don't need to nationalize everything but you also don't need to privatize everything -- we need to walk a fine line. I fear if the conservative narrative doesn't fade soon, this country will eventually collapse. Christ, why can't we be more like Europe where capitalism thrives but with reasonable regulation? I don't know, maybe the conservative rule here in the U.S.A. was bound to happen. When you have a country founded on freedom, I guess it was inevitable that people were going to take it to psychotic degrees. Although, in my opinion, being anti-government is anti-American.