a different opinion

@patience, @pipthecynical,

I think the OP is saying he loves the government in an abstract way. He is glad he gets to experience it; something interesting, something controversial. He isn’t complaining because its just the way it is, he is in the NOW.

I agree with both of you completely.

I dislike the united states government, but at the same time, after a month in a foreign country, this is my home, and i was relieved to be back. As simple as that sounds, it really bugged me to the core. I have complained for the most of my past years about how fucked up our government is, yet here, it is very easy, and peaceful to live. The autrocities aren’t in your face, like they can be in other countries, they are distant, which although will always offend me, they are not something I HAVE to deal with daily – like hoping I don’t get shot going to the super market, or hoping I have enough money to buy food, or that if I lose my job I will die, or the fact I can probably buy a car if I desired, or leave if I desired. Other countries, this isn’t possible, but here we live a luxurious life. A lot on HE (and myself) take that for granted.

We are sheeple here in the states, if someone tells us to buy something, we do (over all, not individually). We accept that we can get food and drink whenever we want. We accept we have internet 24/7. We can get almost anything you ever desired within a weeks time if you have the money (which most of us do). It is an incredible era of abundance. We need to realize that, and be thankful of what we have.

Many of HEthen like thinkers despise the government, and idealize back-to-the-roots campaigns. But many haven’t actually done it. Even the worldy travellers haven’t lived in a cabin for weeks, months, or years. Without internet, phones, games, news. Its hard. We are conditioned, and to break that conditioning is to encounter a lot of psychological resistance.

Thanks for posting. This is really an important perception, and reference to understand.

@patience,
@pipthecynical,

I think the mistake is when we put all the blame on the government (although it would also be a mistake to put too little blame) for the issues perceived to be caused by flaws in the system. It seems that many people on this website believe that the systems of government used by freer countries such as the U.S. nonetheless inhibit full freedom/human potential and also inadvertently cause social problems such as poverty, crime, etc. However, it seems to me the real root of the problem is in the culture of egocentricity/unconsciousness/unawareness that’s developed that allows our system to perpetuate itself.
Take the economy, for example. It could be thought that capitalism has caused greed, and thereby caused such a wide gap between the haves and have-nots. Or we could see that capitalism in and of itself is not the real issue, but how we’ve unconsciously gone about choosing how we use capitalism. Instead of using our money to support small businesses, or at least businesses which have proven they practice ethical standards with regard to their work force, environmental impact, etc., we go and buy anything we need at Walmart and keep on feeding the big guy who doesn’t give a fuck about the wellbeing of anything but his profit margin. Now, you could say some corporations have monopolized certain economic sectors to the point of us having no choice, but who let them get there? The people who bought shit from them in the first place.
Don’t get me wrong, the government has a huge role in the problems we cause. The system of government one grows up in tends to have a huge influence on how one thinks, the values one holds, and how one believes the world should work. It also sets the parameters for potential for change within a society. These things, which result from the system of government, end up impacting culture immensely. However, every other aspect of culture, from the music we listen to, TV we watch, schooling system we are put through, recreation/sports we partake in, the religion we grow up around, the values we inherit from the last generation, and really almost anything have effects as well.
Currently, the culmination of culture in the West/other developed countries makes people believe they need to do (something with their career)/have something, instead of do (something to better the world)/be something, to be a valuable member of society. These cultural paradigms are so prevalent that, for someone who’s never seen/thoroughly contemplated a different model of culture and society (and I’m not talking about an American thinking about how they do things in France, I’m talking about someone from the first-world learning about how people from tribal Africa/rural India see the world), believes that his model of society is the current best or only way of going about organizing how we live. He understands there are other ways used in the world, but he sees on the news that the people living by these ways are in destitute poverty, so the only rational conclusion he can come to is that the ways other cultures live by are not as good. When in reality, the complacency caused by this exact mindset allows the governments and businesses of first-world countries to continue to not share with/exploit cultures and societies living by these other paradigms for their own benefit.
This kind of ignorance-induced complacency also allows the system to keep the status quo domestically. Take the legalization of hemp, for example. You don’t have to legalize smoking weed to legalize growing hemp for resource purposes, such as for paper. It makes no sense at all to keep growing hemp illegal when we destroy acres of rainforest every day for paper. It is also a much more sustainable alternative to cotton when it comes to making clothes. But the corporations currently making gigantic profits selling things hemp could make cheaper, better, and more sustainably would lose too much if hemp were legal, so they lobby politicians to keep growing hemp illegal under the guise of how terrible it would be if we had, god forbid, people smoking weed legally. This all happens as we synthesize heroin (oxycotin) and prescribe it with reckless stupidity.
Truly the thing we should focus on is a change in culture. We’re a long way away from the kind that we need, but if we could have a kind of cultural awakening, people would stop supporting the way of life our government sets up with their votes/money. It’s going to take the effort of MANY of us, but if we start living and thinking more consciously perhaps we can set a better example for the next generation, and hopefully by the time our grandkids have grandkids politicians aren’t voted in and businesses don’t make money unless they support a way of life as conscious as that dreamed of by the members of HE.
I also LOVE the idea of Jordan’s community, and the “off the grid” ways of life some have adopted. I plan on doing whatever I can to make Jordan’s community a reality, so that hopefully by the time I am ready I can live in such a community. However, I do think it is completely possible to change our way of life for the better within our current system. It will just take a true assload of work, time, and awareness/consciousness raising.

I don’t have a problem with the government, the government has problems but that is unavoidable. We have not just a system but we have systems operating within systems opereating within systems. We have the aristo-oligarchy system, we have dynastic and inherited influence, we have legal structures, we have influences of reason and compassion, we have apparent bad guys who are allowed to exist and even prosper because if they fall then the heads that rise up to replace them may well be more toxic to us than the original regime.
We have leaders of many kinds and that is because we are many people with many tastes. We have financially powerful leaders, we have visionary leaders if that vision is bogus or not is beside the point, we have leaders of strength who demand respect in their unflinching response to given circumstances and keeping their heads under pressure where everyone else turns to mush, we have leaders of seniority, leaders of merit, pacifiers and agrovaters.
These are all so intricately woven into our societies and they are what run it, government is just a scapegoat for when these things fail by human error. Government is not Senators or Congressmen, it is not Governors and Mayors, government is every single one of us in one of these possitions or roles to lead. It is every boss and every manager, it is every matriarch or patriarch, it is every moral advisor or ravel rouser, it is every kid with the confidence to risk being wrong for one reason or another.