Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Fallout... On a Tuesday Morn...

Nothing says that going off the usual tracks is negative. Sometimes a little deviation is good; as your comments on yesterday’s entry show. I am not a politician and The Good Lord knows, have no inclination to be one. But, I do have my thoughts on many issues and they will spill into these entries once in a while… just bear with me and be patient…
Well… Well… A little politics will rouse deep seated feelings, won’t it?  Interesting how some few comments about the current situation will create a small stir. No matter. I am not a politician, but simply another “Joe” (if you prefer… another “José”) but I, like most of you have to pay for all I get and, when people chosen by us to lead behave in a manner better suited to a bunch of selfish fools, my patience comes to an end. We should definitely push to create a third and even a fourth viable political party(ies). I do not necessarily refer to the (in)famous Tea Party, although this group obviously represents a good number of people and ideology; we just need a true sense of balance and the only way to achieve this is to have alternatives strong enough to force the two major parties to forget, once in a while, about what is “good” for their respective party and its cronies, and concentrate on negotiated bills and laws which are actually based on what is good for those who trusted them to begin with.

I promise that this morning my intent was to go back and try to move towards finishing the Argentina entries. Actually, to add one entry since this period of time will take at least another 3-4 posts. Then when the blog “dashboard” was opened, there were some comments from different corners of the world. The ones from the US were in general agreement, with some comments inserted, which are always welcome. The ones that came from other countries expressed disbelief and wonder, mixed in with some “to be expected” ideology thrown in for good measure.

It is difficult enough to look at someone who may be a close neighbor and do so with an open enough mind to allow for the different thought and socioeconomic upbringing pattern(s) and be able to “understand” and accept from our neighbor what behavior (normal to him/her) may be different than ours. This is more so when a country is being looked at from afar, especially a country which elicits a “love or hate” reaction (not just the US, there are several in this category) from people who, in the end, know truly little about this group of people that make up the population of said country.

Having been blessed with the opportunity to travel, live and/or work in well over 45 countries over a period of some 20 years, it has been my realization that different people will always judge what is seen (especially from afar) mainly from their point of view; very few will actually try to see matters from the point of view of those they are observing or “judging”. So these comments (none were derogatory, by the way…) which are always welcome, let me know just how much we have to yet communicate outwards in order for the billions of others who look to us as kind of a “leading” culture to begin to understand that we are just as human as they are, with faults, foibles and downright stupid behavior at times.

Yet, with all that may be said, I have yet to find another country which will allow an individual to truly rise above his/her “birthright” and become a pillar of any given community. In fact, most people who reach these levels in our society have failed not once, but several times. As the legendary Joe Lewis said sometime: “it’s not how many times you get punched down, but how many times you get up”(Sic… very) and, in the end, our structure will allow us to get up again and again (Good Lord knows, I am but an example of this)

But, coming back to what started this and while I promise that the next entry will be about Argentina and the development of a company which was dear to my heart, these comments had to be made. We have to prepare our country and society for the next century, to make sure our children and their children will continue to have a good standing life. This will not be done by ignoring the fact that we represent only some 6.5% of the overall world population; this is a very small number and we, in turn, represent well over 40% of the world’s consumption of goods. The folks in Europe have known for many years that a society that makes consumption its primary goal, in order to show how well it fares, is doomed to eventual failure. But hen, they have a few centuries experience on us. The other developing countries? They have not yet achieved the point where this level of consumerism is a choice. Interestingly, some of these currently “developing” countries (I refer to economic standards, not cultural) were themselves at the leading edge of their world civilization(s) at one time or another. They fell hard in their pursuit of unending territorial and/or wealth growth and most are still, centuries later, trying to recover.  As they do gain a deserved recovery, perhaps the lessons from the past will not be forgotten.

We have yet to have that kind of “past” experience as a society. There is nothing wrong with accepting that the historical failures and/or gains of others can be useful to us in developing our future parameters but we have, as unbelieving humans, erroneously accepted all along that the only experience that counts is the one which we ourselves gain through our failures; hopefully, it will not take a total disaster to help us gain the insight and determination we should communally have, as part of a growing world community, in order to face a future which may well be much different than anything we may have experienced to the present.

So much for this… It really isn’t my “thing”…

Be Well!!  Be Back!!   

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