Utopia

This is a journal entry from December 13, 2009

I think I'm finding a new idea. Instead of fighting homelessness, hunger, poverty, pollution, global warming, overpopulation... do something more practical.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but in a democracy - we're all Nero. Some claim there's no such thing as global warming or we're powerless to change it, or it's more important to have jobs and economic growth today than it is to think about tomorrow. Others think that Tiger Woods infidelity has a greater impact on our lives. The world is going to hell in a hand basket and everybody knows that no one is lifting a finger to stop it.
Here's the deal. Stop it. Stop trying to make gay marriage illegal. Stop being distracted by the non-news that is prevalent in the news. Start working for something. Start growing your own Utopian society.
Clear your mind of the cacophony that drowns out reason. Stop avoiding the world by focusing on where you are now. Take all the noise from the world into a big bag and ignore it. Stop reacting and fighting. Get quiet. Get present. Get clear. Stop obsessing with the world's obsessions. Start living responsibly. Do not fight. Do not fight intolerance, grow tolerance. Do not fight immorality, grow morality. Fight nothing. Support everything. Make your world a Utopia.
In short, the world's problems need a more fundamental solution. Instead of trying to tackle each one individually, recognize they are just symptoms. As far as the media goes, they are only reporting the tiniest fraction of the news. 99% of the world is at peace at any given moment. Focus on that and grow it.
We have no power to control others. We cannot grow hearts by passing laws. One end of the spectrum believes in individual freedom at the expense of the greater good. The other believes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. These two extremes are pitted against each other and threaten to drag progress and prosperity to a halt.
When these extremes focus in the same direction rather than at each other, then our achievements will be unprecedented. Individual freedom devoted to the needs of the many. A "liberative?" A "conservital?" From the grass roots - not from the top down.

December '09 Insights

• I got my septum pierced on December 5, 2009. It was painful, but it felt OK the next day. I really do like it. I'm looking forward to stretching it to a 12 or 10 gauge. It's one more step toward expressing myself freely.
  
• I feel trapped because I don't see myself in anyone I meed, but I AM in everyone I meet. Why do I fear everyone?
  
• Something inside causes me to want a nose ring, to wear my kilt and to have a mohawk. It's my own rebellion. It's my desire to be seen and respected as an individual. It's me driving myself to be successful in front of people who may judge me - and to find inner comfort in being free to do as I choose.
  
• Taking full ownership of my life: This has to do with self-respect and empowerment. It's about not being pushed around by circumstances. It means being more "thoughtless" by recognizing I am not my thoughts, that I don't gain by worry. It means learning to recognize when I'm giving up my authority over my own life.
• I imagine that I'm a rosebud. My whole life, I've been binding it with string to keep it from unfolding. Thoughts - negative thoughts if you like - are the string. Now my mission is to cut those binding thoughts so that I can finally unfold.
  

Social Commentary

This is from a journal entry on 2 December 2009:

There is so much focus on making money in our capitalist society. Everything is measured against it. Industry needs obedient workers, so our educational system doesn't encourage free thinking. It leaves us ill equipped to survive when industries shift.
We also pursue our dreams only as much as they will help us to make money. "You can't make money at that" is the admonishment of the dis-empowered. Many of the wealthy (not all) seek to dis-empower the poor so they can be controlled while espousing that the human spirit overcomes all obstacles. They tie capitalism to the ideals of the founding fathers who created a democracy. Now democracy and capitalism are intertwined so that people confuse them - and an attack on one is an attack on the other.
The poor need more than money. They need to be re-empowered. I need to be re-empowered.
We don't need to give up on capitalism, but we need to do something to put humanity on a level playing field with the almighty dollar.

My Life

This is a journal entry from November 30, 2009

This is my life. No one else may make choices for me. No one can tell me how to live my life. I have the right to be a pervert and a freak so long as I harm no one.

No one can tell me what I should feel or what I should think.

I am allowed to be foolish, emotional, selfish and weak.