I'm sitting here drinking a cup of Chai, listening to the wind rage outside and thinking. It can be an interesting pastime, thinking. Something people don't do nearly enough of anymore. People seem to talk a lot, voice a lot of opinions, make a lot of posts on Facebook (Which I am also REALLY guilty of, by the way) but they don't seem to think. When I do this my thoughts run all over the place, usually ending up taking me off on some crazy adventure or telling me a story. Well, I AM a writer, after all, so I suppose that's natural. On this particular day, while drinking this particular cup of chai, my thoughts were running along the lines of politics and the world at large. Mostly how we've come to be where we are as a world. Now, I know I talk a lot about US politics, well, at least about how I think they SHOULD be, but lets look at the world for a minute. What would happen if we took all the BS away and looked at things logically? I saw a post on Facebook earlier with a picture of a knight Templar wielding a huge mace and a caption which stated 'We're back" That honestly made me sad to see. That simple picture told me that humanity hasn't managed to progress in the last oh, 1000 years or so? (No, its not an exact date, but its a LONG damn time ago) Humanity is still fighting the same war of faith. The funny thing is, we're fighting over two religions that both ESSENTIALLY say the same thing. In a thousand years we, as humans, are still fighting over which one of us is more right about which way is the better way to live in peace and harmony. Does anyone else see the irony in that? If anyone can fill me in on exactly what is going on I would love to hear it. Not the usual "well, they did THIS so we did THAT" kinda stuff, but what is actually going on? Is it the fact that we honestly, when all the rules, policies and beliefs are stripped away, just LOVE to fight with each other? That we will use any excuse possible to do the most atrocious things to each other in the name of.. whatever we decide to use to justify our cause? Is it about money? Maybe you can believe the tinfoil hats and its about power. Someone wanting to 'control the world'? Wow- what a CRAPPY job that would be! WHO in their right mind would want to rule the world? We can't even seem to get little bits of it right. That was always my problem with super-villians in comic books. Imagine taking over- ruling the world with an iron fist. Mua ha ha! Victory is yours! So.. what then? You still have to KEEP that power once you have it. You would have to deal with endless paperwork, subjugated peasants coming in at all hours of the day and night, begging for food, asking you to settle their petty squabbles.. Ech. So what's the plan, super villain? Do you make all of your subjects exactly the same? Do you give everyone technology or take it away from them? Are some areas of the world your favorites? I can't even imagine the stress being King of the world entail. See, these are the strange thoughts chai and high winds and rain bring on. I realize exactly how much I don't understand and, not understanding I can't say if its wrong or right. It seems like everyone loves to have their political opinions, but then they just gloss over the bad stuff that results from the good stuff they want.
     I've had people ask me what I would do if I had my way- How I would fix the problems of the world. The simple fact is that I have no idea. I mean, I have a COUPLE of ideas that might get the ball rolling, but as far as fixing everything? That would be tough. Not really all that hard in an objective, logical, make the problem go away sort of way, but tough because everyone clings SO tightly to their opinions of things. Lets look for a moment at what's going on around the world. Muslims are reacting violently to (theoretically) some silly movie made by some silly people who had an opinion and decided to share it and release it to the world. Now, our logic would dictate that it would be a normal thing to be angered if someone else 'dissed' your religion of choice. In most of the world there would be strongly worded letters sent, perhaps a boycott, even a protest at the opening with charismatic people standing up and shouting and some chanting and maybe a sit in and bumper stickers sold.. Radical Muslims are convinced its okay to kill over it. My personal opinion of that behavior is that the rest of the world should get together and deal with them harshly for that. Not out of a sense of vengeance or retaliation, merely because it is not acceptable behavior when we are all pretty much stuck on the same rock and are forced to co-exist. To me its no different than dealing with a school bully on the world's playground. Instead we apologize and make excuses and do our best to appease them, which only serves to make things worse. Find a school bully sometime and apologize to him because you MADE him take the skinny kid's lunch money, then make 4 other kids give him THEIR lunch money and watch how he behaves the next day. They need to be slapped and punished and told that their behavior is entirely unacceptable and won't be tolerated. If they don't like it they are as welcome to build a spaceship and leave this communal rock as anyone else is.
          It seems to me that the most dangerous person in the world is someone who is convinced that they are right. As soon as they make that decision, that their way is 100% correct and everyone else is wrong you end up with huge mounds of problems. That's what happened with Hitler. I'm sure he didn't wake up every morning and look into the mirror while he trimmed his sporty little mustache and cackle with glee saying to himself "Mua ha ha.. I am THE most evil man in modern history!" No- he was convinced he was right in his beliefs. I'm sure he thought he was the good guy and was willing to kill as many people as it took to prove it. Thinking that you are right, completely, totally, 100% right about ANYTHING will always lead to a fight. It removes any and all options. Once you are right either everyone HAS to agree with you or you are willing to die (or kill) for your beliefs. When you are right no other opinion can coexist with yours because it is automatically then wrong. Actually, I suspect that is what the whole 'turn the other cheek' thing in Christianity is about. You can be a devout member of a religion and still acknowledge other religions.(Or at least other people's rights to believe differently than you do.)  Its okay. I will guarantee whoever your higher power of choice is doesn't care. If He, She, It or They did they would likely have rained hellfire and 3 week old rotten shrimp on their enemies by now. Anyway, I've rambled enough for today. Have a great day, hug the people you love, twice if you REALLY love them, and keep an open mind. Use your hands to cling tightly to the things you believe, instead of using them to strike out at someone who believes differently and maybe we can start a trend. Who knows- Maybe if we keep trying we'll eventually get it right.  Peace.