Response to Supergoober's pessimism

First of all, supergoober, re your last comment, I didn't know I had any word verification active, and will disable it once you tell me what it is and how to do that. Commenting on the green business is going to come at a later date; suffice it to say that I am four-square for the environment, but it has to be done sensibly. The only way that anyone anywhere gets to a point where they can care about their surroundings is when their immediate needs are met. This requires a sufficient amount of economic growth that can only be currently done with a combination of capitalism and fossil fuels (but more on that later). So far, every nation that has ever cleaned up has done so after they have reached a certain point in economic development. The psychology behind this should be obvious - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. No need to explain that to you, supergoober, but I will expound on that later. Their is also an economic theory dealing with this, the name eludes me right now, but I will post on it later.

As to the conservative/religious nature of politics - that is inescapable. Any human being has some aspect of a spiritual life, even if it is atheism - and yes, atheism, is a type of faith - again that is for a later discussion, but it takes as much faith to believe in nothing as it does to believe in something. Plus most atheists either are so bland about it that they are actually agnostics but unwilling to admit it, or they believe in secular humanism with a kind of faith that would make most evangelical christians blush in embarrassment at the slavish devotion and lack of reason involved.

Anyway, everyone's politics and life are informed by their faith, and we should not and cannot expect the political life to be any different. Palin is the governor of a small state (population and economic -wise, not geographically) and so has all the problems of most small states - limited budget with a lot of federal strictures - even more so in that state because of the wilderness preserves, so she, like every small state governor, has made difficult decisions that have impacted her constituents. Those decisions have typically involved members of both parties; she even ousted a Republican incumbent to take the job in the first place. Even Bill Clinton did this - to make up for low tax income for the state of Arkansas when he was governor, he made the sales tax apply to food and other essentials. This is a direct tax increase on the poor and middle class, and it did increase state revenues dramatically. It was a shit move, but it was the best, quickest way to increase state revenue, while distributing the impact to the greatest number of people. (In a way, it was the ultimate fair tax - everyone eats, everyone pays... the more you eat the more you pay - fair taxation isn't always what we want - just taxation is actually the goal - that's why the current tax structure is the way it is)

The point is, everyone makes tough decisions in politics, these decisions are in part influenced by our faith and our belief system. This is true for Republicans, Democrats, Green Party, Libertarians, etc. To deny that is to deny our own humanity. To fall back on "science" as a justification is fine - any decision should be informed by faith, emotion, and intellect. To say that we should rely on only one aspect is to deny two-thirds of our humanity. The problem with the science justification, especially for people who deny the faith aspects of their lives, is that they will place their faith in science that fulfills whatever belief system they espouse. For example, people who are die hard in their faith that human beings are destroying the planet look for information that validates their belief. Because their faith and intellect are excessively intermingled, they forget the skepticism that is required in good science (incidentally, this is a common mistake among scientists - they start with a preconceived notion and then set up experiments that validate their beliefs - this is why the debate between particle physicists and wave physicists is so virulent - students adhere to their teachers beliefs with a slavish devotion approaching the apostolic while considering their opponents apostatic; since they lack the intellectual objectivity or capability of their teachers, they cannot truly come up with anything novel)

Anyway, long story short, supergoober, here is why you should be consoled. Palin is not going to be a main policy maker - her opinions resonate with a large part of America for good reason - they reject the intellectual elitism that characterizes many "big city" folk. You and I, at times, embody that elitism - we are both smart and can overgeneralize that others are stupid (maybe I'm projecting on you supergoober, but I often make this mistake). Many of the big city liberals are no smarter than the small town conservatives; their value systems are not too different, though both sides cling to the belief that their systems are antithetical, and like to judge each other (much of your last two blogs were exceedingly judgemental, BTW).

Given research on intelligence, the bell curve does apply and the distribution of smart and dumb people is even. I am no smarter by virtue of where I live or by what party's beliefs I adhere to - the sooner all of us realize this and stop making judgements based on where someone lives, or what their accents are, or what side of the aisle they are on politically, the better off we all will be.

Given your recent rants, as well as duff's responses, I would suggest that you actually refrain from judging based on party affiliation, or the snapshots that the media gives you on either side. Each person on each side is just a person, with all the flaws and foibles of all of humanity, no better or worse, and while we do hold our leaders to higher standards (as we should - despite some indications otherwise by theacupuncturist in some of our conversations) we must not judge a person based on a snapshot. It is fine to hate George W. Bush's policies and to think that they do not make sense with your belief system, but to believe that he is evil, or an idiot, or the antichrist verges on the religious, and detracts from the ability to make good political decisions. Once you have decided he is evil, or is stupid, even if he adopts a policy you like, you could never admit it. I can say the same about Obama. Believing him to be a fool, un-American, unpatriotic, etc. is the height of stupidity - you might disagree with his politics, his policies that he wants to instate (though these are a bit thin, if you ask me - he hasn't consistently enumerated what he wants to do as President, yet - he better do that soon if he hopes to win - the swing vote that is required for election will never go his way without some idea of what he hopes to do), but to try to assume his motives are evil or anti American is pure foolishness. I disagree with this type of thinking on both sides, and I think that because of your fervent hope for a reconciliatory candidate, as Obama promised to be, has led you to despondency, supergoober, for a couple of reasons.

1) He has not been at all conciliatory, as you had hoped. His rhetoric does not really match up well with the perspective in his memoirs that had enamored you.
2) McCain and Palin seem to be an actual dynamic team, much more so than Obama and Biden, and you had a vested emotional interest in Obama, based on a fantasy that you had constructed about him bringing civility back into politics.

With these two factors, especially your emotional involvement, it is no wonder that you are depressed and angry about this. Take a step back, look realistically at the situation, and realize that if either one is elected, they will not do much drastically different, politics will not really change, and you will have to go on living your day-to-day life, making your own personal choices that will, by and large, have a much greater impact on your life than anything in Washington can have on you.

I know that awareness of causes espoused by one side or another is what is really important to many people, and as theperfectline has said to me repeatedly (despite my aggrieved protestations to the opposite) awareness of the issue at hand is most important. This is another symptom of what I have said before about faith and intellectual elitism. To say that it is okay to provide disinformation to encourage belief in something, or getting people to do the wrong thing because it gets them to be thinking about the right thing (recycling paper - bad for the environment, but people are more aware of the environment so they should keep doing it... or equating abortion rates to the murders in Nazi Germany... or equating animal rights abuses to human rights abuses as PETA does in their adverts). There is a name for this - it is called propaganda. It is a classic end justifies the means strategy that you can only adopt when you have absolute faith that you are right, and you know that all the sheeple around you can't come to the same conclusions as you because they are just not as smart as you - it is therefore up to you to change as much data as necessary to convince the stupid people of the validity of your cause. This is practiced with more zeal on the left then on the right, probably because the right gets it out of their system in the evangelizing christianity - just a theory, but maybe because they have an appropriate outlet for faith, they don't need to proselytize for a political end, they already do it for a social end. They still make the mistake sometimes (not all of them, just like not all on the left make the mistake of mixing faith and politics) of trying to institute excessively theological policies in government - resulting in the same kind of zealotry as on the religious left. A bit rambling, I know, but the point ultimately is that faith, intellect and emotion need to be equally balanced parts of the equation of everyone's lives -not excessively compartmentalized, nor excessively intermingled, but really more of a syncretic whole. So just take care, be introspective, and check out how you are thinking and feeling as you proceed.

Not that I think I have all the answers, but this works for me, and I think it might be the way that we work, but I can't ever bring myself to be arrogant enough to think that I have all the answers, but what the hell, I gave it a shot.

Gotta go now, I have lots more to say on this and many other subjects, but I really need to prep the L5R game for today - you'll wanna show up guys, I think that you may be able to face down Orite today and help Takezo Fuhito recover before Winter Court.