That is a great comment yojimbo. I do respect it and believe I understand your points. It just shows you that two people can have strikingly different view points.
For me, my true awakening came when I was living in Antarctica. I spent nearly a year there and it was the greatest experience I have had in some ways. I did have internet access, but rarely used it for anything other than sending emails. I was completely free from marketing, advertisements, laws, tv, cell phones, highways, everything, etc. This is an experience that I don’t think anyone on this board can relate to. It is not like living overseas in the traditional sense. This was like living on the moon.
I saw America with new eyes. I came back and honestly my initial reaction was disgust. Everything was so overdone, in your face, and extremely wasteful.
Therefore, before you scold me or try to school me, please understand where I come from. I believe that you can’t really see America until you are stripped of everything that it offers. Then you piece it back together and figure out where it makes sense and where it doesn’t.
I, like anyone else, can make sweeping generalizations and blanket statements. We all know where those get us on these type of threads.
Now, I honestly believe that real change in America will not take place until the Boomers die. They have too much at risk to promote change and they have spent their whole lives building individual wealth, so the last thing they want to do is share it, other than the small amounts they give to charities or whatever.
I also believe that the courts/legislature need to take away the status of corporations as legal beings, i.e. giving them the same rights as individuals.
