Thread: Why Does the World Feel Wrong?

Why Does the World Feel Wrong?

by Will Groves
Exclusive to STR
January 27, 2009

Consider these events:

1. A president who started two aggressive wars, who bears responsibility for the loss of thousands of American lives along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan lives, leaves office as a free man without a felony record or any negative repercussions.

2. Meanwhile, the same populace that has intimate experience with lying politicians appears utterly smitten with a smooth-talking new president promising change and demanding sacrifice.

3. The Congress, which had an approval rate of 14% and which just passed a $700 billion bailout over the objections of a majority of Americans, had a re-election rate exceeding 95%.

4. Untold millions of Americans voice support of military troops as these very people are needlessly killed, injured, and separated from their families and productive work at home.

5. A general populace believed that buying unproductive assets, like housing, could make them wealthy, forever, without any coherent explanation why.

6. Researchers who pursue alternative explanations for AIDS and cancer get their funding cut and have the results of their research squelched, while others who try to improve life by providing healthful foods find themselves under attack.

Overt criminality by leaders and passive, unclear thinking by the proles have become the norm. The two go together, creating a symbiotic ecosystem of tyranny. Fraud, theft, and murder have become widespread, just as the scale of lies told and believed have reached new heights. Irresponsibility has become socialized while people in the honest pursuit of good get thwarted.

Those of us who want little more than peace and freedom don’t run the world. Pursuing freedom contradicts controlling others, so we can reason that people who pursue power have some motivations separate from our own.

I have not fully comprehended the implications of this until recently. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, I had assumed that the people who wield power feel similarly about moral issues as I do—I just couldn’t see why they commit and justify unethical behavior. I already knew that states operate according to a code that the rest of us don’t follow in our own lives. Nevertheless, I assumed that a man who acts without regard to moral laws must feel guilty about it. Then, one day, I stumbled onto this idea: Suppose he doesn’t.

With only small ambitions, he probably behaves like a common criminal, a predator. He lies to gain advantage, uses force to get his way, and steals without conscience. Not feeling guilty about unethical behavior motivates him to instigate further criminal acts.

Small crime operations have one big problem, namely, the risk of getting caught. The prospect of prison appears unappealing, yet even with the high likelihood of arrest and capture during a career, common criminals approach their field with little sophistication and often pay the price. Other like-minded people see ways to avoid these problems. Just as normal people develop interests growing up and figure out how to pursue them at higher levels, a criminal mind can do the same. With greater intelligence and patience, he can pursue an ambitious career of criminality. With this objective in sight, one can easily see the state as the most expedient means to accomplish it.

Once a criminal joins forces with the state by becoming an employee, he can lie to his advantage, use force to get his way, and steal without conscience, just as the small-time operator does. The opportunities for mischief have no limits through thoughtful job selection. For example, if a man took pleasure in making innocent people squirm, he could become a police officer and plant evidence. For another, if he wanted to murder people, he could become a military officer and “accidentallyâ€

I firmly believe we have something inate inside us that tells us the truth before we have evidence to prove it. But when you drill people long enough, through whatever different means....we doubt that inner voice. Our mind works to make us survive under any number of situations, morality takes it to a different level. They are taking us from a higher level and pushing us down and using basic survival as the catalist. And telling us to deny that as well. Does it take a deer a court hearing and the ACLU to prove they have the right to run when when they feel threatned? Not to mention years of expensive therapy to convince them they have a "hunter phobia"....not ALL men carry guns, so you never know if it's friend or foe. Then be told it's your fault if you got shot.......even an animal knows that's insanity.

So much for human advancement.


Not to mention....I was a tough nut to crack to believe there really were evil people out there. There are, and I'm tired of thinking somethings wrong with me if I see it.

I suppose it angers the powers-that-be that Americans enjoy the freedoms we have. We peons perhaps have gotten a little more book-learning than they would like. We know what is illegal or not and we understand the language and analyse what they spout. And heaven forbid, we have a tendency to voice our opinions with vehemence, not by rioting, where we could be blamed.
While I am always proud of what this country has accomplished since its founding and the generosity of people toward the rest of the world, I believe it is time to stick to our own knitting.
I don't think imperialism was ever meant to be implied, but over past administrations that meddled militarily in so many countries, it all has been fed to us and the rest of the world that our mission is only democracy. But in the rest of the world, they have book-learning as well and they can well see that US military actions are based on nothing more than the bully beating up the little kid in school.

Originally Posted by crazybird

I firmly believe we have something inate inside us that tells us the truth before we have evidence to prove it. But when you drill people long enough, through whatever different means....we doubt that inner voice. Our mind works to make us survive under any number of situations, morality takes it to a different level. They are taking us from a higher level and pushing us down and using basic survival as the catalist. And telling us to deny that as well. Does it take a deer a court hearing and the ACLU to prove they have the right to run when when they feel threatned? Not to mention years of expensive therapy to convince them they have a "hunter phobia"....not ALL men carry guns, so you never know if it's friend or foe. Then be told it's your fault if you got shot.......even an animal knows that's insanity.

So much for human advancement.


Not to mention....I was a tough nut to crack to believe there really were evil people out there. There are, and I'm tired of thinking somethings wrong with me if I see it.

Very well said crazybird! We all know the difference between right and wrong. There are so many things in this world that has been keeping the advancement of humans at a stand still. I wasn't born until 1975, but it seems to me that my generation isn't really doing their part. My grandparents made sacrifices during WWII to help protect America. My parents were born 1946 and 1948, and were raised in the 50's and 60's, when mankind reached another huge milestone with space flight. Then I was born, all advancements made are for consumer products. I was raised to buy stuff. While I love my Nintendo's and Playstations, and this laptop I'm writing to you guys on, I think my generation has let themselves get too complacent. No offense to my generation