27 August 2003 (Wednesday)

great big sloshy ideas

The problem, currently, is having too much to write about, not too little. Maybe tomorrow I'll allocate a block of time to compose a proper entry.

The inspiration for such blurred frenzies of thought: an essay on public education by John Taylor Gatto in the September issue of Harper's, and Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed, an experiment in living among the working poor. It's making me uncharacteristically angry, and I'm looking for a useful train of thought toward which to direct this anger. I am not a communist at heart; if people fail through their own stupidity, fine. If they struggle because they're not as talented, as bold, as disciplined as the next person, this is humanity doing housecleaning, a brutal fact of life. But to trap an entire class of people in privation, to punish hard work and ingenuity rather than rewarding them, to drain their lives and minds until there is nothing left for thought or love or art, all in the name of greed -- if this is true, it is unacceptable. It's unnecessary. It does nothing to help us evolve, if that's indeed what we're here to do.

Our purpose, I would venture, is this: to keep most of us fed while keeping the best of us hungry for greater things. But the loopholes in socialism breed complacency, the blind spots in capitalism breed oppression -- how to design a system with the right set of incentives and deterrents? I'm trying to mentally construct a society whose foundation is not profit or compassion, but fairness. Liberty and justice for all. It's a tricky one.

More on this later, hopefully.

posted by enjelani @ 10:55 PM PST [ link ]