17314--Are We Still Boldly Going to the Undiscovered Country?

Hello!  This is another message from the 21st century.

Welcome.  You're probably aware that we've been making some interesting advances in several different scientific arenas  One of the profound warnings that we've carried forward with us is that we shouldn't let those technological strides outpace our spiritual growth.  Of course, we still have those folks in the mix who are trying to hold us back (you probably don't know who you are) while others are trying to grow and that puts us into odd spins, typically debating life aspects as basic as human rights.

The confusion we experience as a result of our technology can be amusing.  Fifty years ago our science fiction projections had us colonizing other worlds, traveling time, piloting flying cars, and being waited on by robots while we lolled about in skin-tight suits.  One of my favorite comic book covers from back then, in fact, features Superman lamenting  his capture by time-traveling bounty hunters from the year 2000...in a flying saucer car!

Now, you know as well as I that that level of change hasn't come to pass.  On the other hand some of our advances have caused the sort of stir that came up when the Star Trek: Enterprise TV series debuted and people began to complain that it highlighted how we had already appeared to have surpassed aspects of the personal technologies used in the original Star Trek series.  The show inspired a lot of specific leaps, so we've made some successful inroads.  When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for a communicator with what would come to be known as a Bluetooth earpiece.  I knew we'd have them.  Even if they do drop calls, a smartphone is still a lot more versatile.  The best ones can almost duplicate a tricorder, too.

Even with all that and the medical and military advances, we're still conflicted over the path we want to take.  Do we want to punish criminals or rehabilitate them?  Do we treat them as evil or ill or even victims of their circumstances?  Is the murderer worse than the attempted murderer and is our correct response to their actions to sentence them to death?

We repeatedly preach the virtues of non-violence, but fail to maintain them in our individual lives or in larger manifestations of society.  We promote heroic ideals (Captain America uses an indestructible shield, Superman is an indestructible shield, Wonder Woman is a warrior who fights using bullet-deflecting bracelets and a magic rope, Spider-man uses sticky webs and nets, and on and on) of preserving life, but we watch our police use ever-bigger guns and other surplus military hardware in favor of tranquilizers, tasers, or a number of other incapacitating options.  When the police, our publicly sanctioned agents of "protect and serve", do use non-lethal options, there seems to be an increasing number of incidents where those tools are misused, captives and/or bystanders are abused, and people sometimes die.  On top of that, though it almost goes without saying, the primary tool associated with our police is the gun, a firearm designed to kill quickly even in the hand of an untrained user.  Maybe part of the problem is that humankind has what seems to be an inherent skill at weaponizing virtually anything, which runs in direct contrast to our concept of "humanity".  I suppose that runs hand-in-hand with legislators who are supposed to represent the people continuously voting for choices that support institutions that victimize the people.

Why is there such resistance to a future of peace and possibility?  I understand the logistical problems of flying cars, but the choice to build more prisons than schools confuses me.  I grew up with a love of reading and learning, so maybe that makes it hard for me to see the appeal of steering away from those.  The choice to take lives rather than save them baffles me.  Again, perhaps that's a symptom of my own life decisions.  I've always thought we had a collective goal of moving toward a brighter future.  Too much Star Trek and superheroes on my part, I guess.  I honestly thought "Don't go to the light!" meant something else.  Trying to kill each other off may make the survivors strong, but it doesn't mean that we'll get to the future enlightened if we manage to make it at all.  If we claw our way to the future and don't take our humanity with us, will we still have the audacity or even the right to still call ourselves human or have we been kidding ourselves all along?

17255--Bad for Business

Almost daily, I hear more about the wonders of hemp. 

It reproduces prolifically, restores the soil, and provides balanced, protein-rich nutrition.  When consumed, it reduces inflammation, restores balance to stressed systems, relieves pain, combats nausea, and its oil even cures cancer.  It can be transformed into anything you need from fabrics to building materials.  Used properly, it even helps the economy.  Apparently, the miracle plant is our real-life equivalent of the shmoo.
 
If the shmoo fits...
 
Despite the wonders it has done, this utopian boon to mankind did itself in back in the 20th century by being so amazing.  Making it even more shmoo-like, it was too big a threat to the financial interests of others who were able to keep its benefits suppressed for a long time.  It was bad for businesses that have proved able to exert tremendous influence around the world while so vilifying hemp in any natural form that crimes related to marijuana and hemp can still carry more severe punishments than for murder.  As the plant's natural benefits appear to far outweigh any of its drawbacks, public and select commercial insistence is slowly producing pressure enough to begin not only acknowledging its many values but rescuing it from the realm of criminality.
 
The biggest problem I have with this extends back to the government.  There's a shock.  Still, it was through the government that legal and economic terror were begun and waged as warfare with cannabis sativa as the enemy.  The general populace have been victimized by restriction of its use with the poor and minorities being particularly victimized through propaganda and uneven prosecution.

What time is it?

Sorry, that's sort of a trick question because the answer is "It doesn't matter."  That's right, it doesn't matter when.  What 's important to me is what.  The what is that the government structures We the People are allowing to continue with terribly little resistance continue to violate not only laws but our rights both individually and collectively at every level.  What magnitude of evil does it take to watch people die fighting for oil we don't need and taking pharmaceuticals that could be easily replaced and suffering from cancers that could be cured without crippling medical expenses?  Outrage seems too feeble a response to ongoing administrative trickery, not only over keeping hemp at a tantalizing distance but the entire pretense supporting the illegal overreach of federal authority.  We can't continue to allow decisions to be made for us and punishments to be brought down upon us by those don't have our best interests at heart, driven instead by avarice and lust for power.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo

I'm pissed off about it.  I'm not mad at you.  Whether you choose to be upset over this or not is your right.  You're a free person.  I'll continue to regard you as one no matter what the criminal elements in government seek to change.  And, yes, that was "elements" not "elephants".  I don't blame a particular political party for the problems in government.  I choose to hold accountable every employee in government.  That includes the bad ones who choose not to do things the way they're supposed to as well as those who may do what they're supposed to do, but stop short of opposing the festering corruption around them.  They've sworn oaths that they've chosen not to uphold.

Instead, they've decided to be very well paid by agents of the vastly wealthy to do what they are told to do by people who are not us.  The masses are targets to be subjugated by whatever means necessary.  Watch the increasing levels of blatant disregard for human rights by financial institutions, the federal government, and law enforcement agents.  The United States of America recently earned the distinction of being voted the world's greatest threat to peace.  Sixty-eight governments were involved in the voting.  A lot of those votes came from our allies.

Of course, if you took the vote among just the people in this country, I think the USA would still have a good shot at winning, especially since the money masters like to stay behind the curtains.

Remember the French Revolution, though: no trials, short jail stays, lots of heads...