Mr. P and the World

I'm Back

2008-12-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

It's been an interesting couple of months for me. Summer brought a lot of interesting changes in my mindset and changes through my life. I've started my last year of college here at the University of Washington and I'm officially done with my history degree and now I'm working on my International Studies minor.

As for my plans for the future, I would like very much to become a professional writer. I've spent the month of November working on a story idea for a novel I'm trying to write. As well, I'm hoping to start a new blog based on Science Fiction writing and ideas. I've become extrememly addicted to it, what can I say.

This will still be my blog on the other thing that I am passionate about, International Relations and Politics. Enjoy!

Reflections on Italy and the Future

2008-06-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

It has now been 4 days that I have been home, and I finally feel coherent enough to post a blog to all of you. I realize that it has been a while, but I had a hectic end to my trip to Italy. I'd like to post a few comments for you about what it was like to be overseas.

The overwhelming opinion that I have of Italy is that it is one of the most wonderful places to visit, however it is somewhere I would not want to live. I saw one site after another that each had a strong effect on me, but I was blown away by the pessimism of the country. Italians don't hold out much hope for their future, it was a bit depressing at times.

The economic situation there, while obviously not on the same level of areas of the third world, is still a difficult one. Many even felt that while change was needed, that Silvio Berlusconi would be more of the same. It was frustrating, but it also strengthened my resolve to affect change here in the United States. I'd like to become more involved in the upcoming election, and at this moment I have volunteered for the Barack Obama campaign. So it is exciting times.

One of the other frustrating things about Italy is that it is not a culture set up for customer service. I spent an hour and a half to deposit money when I got to Italy, and then spent the same amount of time to get that money back at the end. And at the same time, there is no real standard for a store's hours of operations. Things would remain open or closed based on what seemed like whim, there was no rhyme or reason to it all.

Don't get me wrong though, I loved my time in Italy, but I am extremely pleased to be home here in the United States. I have a new appreciation for my home as of now, and I cherish this place, even with all its flaws. America is my home. I know it sounds like another cheesy patriotic message, but I really feel it now. I strongly support everyone to spend time overseas if they get the opportunity.

The Presidential Election

2008-05-20T15:03:00.001-07:00

So its been interesting getting to view the democratic presidential primaries from over in Europe. I get most of my news off of CNN International edition, and they do a decent job of covering the ups and downs. The Democrats are doing themselves a huge disservice I think by letting all this drag on for as long as it has. Say what you will about the excitement of the process, and how important that process is, it just is making it more and more difficult for the Democrats to pose a united front to the Republicans.

Hillary goes on and on about how she is not done in this primary, but honestly, barring a miracle is she really. I mean, Obama has the lead in both delegates and super-delegates, and is a money making machine. While many argue that Obama is not as good of a campaigner in the tough states, but this is a PRIMARY, and I feel that they are not as indicative of what will happen in the general election. I think Obama's youth and energy will be a very credible challenge to McCain's experience and clout.

Plus, look how Hillary has run her campaign thus far. She has had to resort to below the belt tactics on more than one occasion, which I feel will help to harden Obama against almost certain Republican attacks. Obama has come out of all the attacks very resilient in my eyes, he doesn't seem to be overly phased by any of it. In fact, many of the attacks have wandered into the realm of the ludicrous, like questioning Obama's Muslim roots, which has no bearing really on anything.

Obama is a smart candidate, and I'm not saying that he is the answer to the problems facing us. But we need a change, and I really don't think that McCain brings enough new policy to the table to change our course in any major way. And I assert to you very emphatically, if we follow the path that we are on, we are going to drive off the cliff going a million miles an hour. Its hard to say who has the answer, but I think that change is ABSOLUTELY necessary.

I support Barack Obama, he has the charisma and the energy to get people motivated, or at least thats what I believe. I honestly want to hear from all of you, what do you think about this race. I leave you with this funny parody of the Pokemon video game that was forwarded to me from a good high school friend. Enjoy!

Questions

2008-05-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I recently got in trouble from yet another one of my professors over the way that I write, so I feel it is necessary to tell you that my writing reflects the way that I think. If any of it confuses you or doesn't make much sense and I will do my best to clarify what I mean. Thanks

People's Perceptions

2008-05-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

So I've noticed an interesting phenomenon while I'm here in Europe from talking to people here. My Romanian friend here does not like the United States government, at all. Through much of our conversations it has become clear to me that he has nothing but disdain for the U.S. politics. He even believes that the United States was responsible for the attacks on 9/11, as a prelude to the invasion of Iraq, as mentioned in my previous blog about Zeitgeist. Yet at the same time I have never met anyone that has bought into American culture as much as he has. Everything from his clothes to his movie and music choices scream America. One of my American friends remarked that he's never met anyone who both loved and hated America as much as this young Romanian guy.

It's interesting to see how in our world we can perceive differences but at the same time buy into a homogeneous culture. People want to have a certain amount of separation in our world, that is a clear backlash from globalization, but that just tells me globalization has worked. We can go to every corner of this earth and still feel connected to people continents away. Therefore, its seems only logical that people might want to distinguish themselves within a "world culture." People want to almost delude themselves into thinking that there own culture is better, more unique, or somehow different from what most people assume. But in the end we all want the same thing, a share in this culture we've created.

It's merely an interesting observation I have made while I have been over here. To be honest I can't say I'm completely surprised by it, because from what I've learned globalization is simply a fact. It's a great feeling to be able to put things you have learned in a classroom setting and applying them to a practical situation. Don't be afraid to go out and explore this world of ours.

The History of Religion

2008-04-21T08:19:00.001-07:00

So, the other day, I had a discussion with a neighbor of mine here in Italy who is Romanian. He showed me a documentary that he had found called Zeitgeist, which I had never heard of, but some of the people I was with apparently had. Now, the term Zeitgeist to me, as a historian, is in reference to the "spirit of the times" in late 19th century Europe. However, this documentary was a three part movie covering first the plagarism of religion, the second about the conspiracy of 9/11, and finally the underhandedness of central banks. Now, first I have to say, I have no idea how all three of these issues were weaved together, I was only shown the first part about religion, which is the focus of this article.

The documentary was a shameless attack on Christianity, while the documentary makers tried to pass off originally that this was a dismissal of religion in general, it was very clear what they were attacking. The premise of their argument was that Christianity not only borrowed from earlier religions, specifically the Egyptian ones, but that it was an astrologically based religion being masked as something else. The narrator first broke down the comparison between Christ and many other deities throughout the ancient world. The biggest comparison they made was between Horus and Christ, as well as gods such as Mithra and some of the Eastern Gods.

This is where I want to start, the comparisons that these filmmakers connect are flimsy at best. They claim Horus, and ancient Egyptian god of the sun, was crucified, which sparked the first bells in my head. Crucifixion was a tool of execution by the Romans, not the Egyptians, and there is little to no evidence that it was practiced by anyone but the Romans. It was a tool that has its roots in the Ancient Persian Empire, as well as Babylon and Assyria. Christ, if we look at him in a historical perspective, quite possibly was seen as a subversive dissident to Roman order in the Jewish lands, and as such, would have been punished in the manner ascribed by Rome, i.e. crucifixion.

Another issue that sprung up was the date of Jesus' birth in relation to other Gods, and many including Horus, Dionysis, and Mithra, are all claimed to be born on December 25th. Now they give a perfectly good explanation for this, in a wholly astrological sense. From December 22nd to the 24th, the sun sits at its lowest point in our sky, but on the 25th it raises one degree, signaling hope and the return of warmer temperatures. I contend though, that Jesus was not born on the 25th, but rather it is the day in which we celebrate his birth. Before 330 CE Christians would celebrate Jesus' birth on January 6th or 7th, but was brought in line with more Roman style dates and festivals to appeal to converted Romans. Indeed, descriptions of the Nativity, in specific the actions of the Shepards, indicate that his birth was held in the spring or summer. Nowhere in the nativity accounts in the Gospels does it say that Jesus was born on a specific day. I don't intend to attack Christmas wholesale, but rather want to prevent ignorance of what we are celebrating on Christmas. Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus, not the day that it happened, which I think gets lost along the way.

Another contention of the documentary was a comparison of Resurrection, as well as other miracles, to other ancient deities including those of the Eastern religions. The comparison to Eastern religions like Hinduism is laughable in the extent that the producers are hard bent on passing this off as a credible link. Resurrection is an important cornerstone of Eastern religion, and therefore links between the two religions should be disregarded because of the fact that it is so prevalent in the East. A more credible link, that would need to be played up if they want to succeed, is comparisons of Resurrection to Western religions.

The filmmakers make other links to ancient deities through the miracles that they perform, which I find to be another major flaw. As modern people, living in a modern society, we look skeptically at miracles, we pass them off as tricks and elaborate sleights of hand. But if you were Jesus, and you wanted to establish your credibility as the Son of God, then you would perform miracles of the kind that people would call "miracles." People of the ancient world would be inundated with stories of deities performing miracles on a daily basis, and to prove yourself among those deities, you would have to show a similarity with them. And that similarity would be performing miracles.

The important thing to remember about religion, is that along the way ambitious individuals will hijack it for personal gain. Christianity is no exception, the Emperor Constantine used it as a unifying force for a quickly disintegrating Roman Empire. While this does not directly discount the faith of the people behind the use of religion for power, it is important to remember the history of the faith you practice. Thomas Aquinas, the great Theological philosopher, claimed that "faith transcends reason, but reason enlightens faith." I think a lot of people will jump whole-heartedly into the first part, while casually disregarding the second part. I do not know what religion I technically belong to, but I believe in something more, I have faith you can say, but I refuse to take it on just blind instinct. While some would say that blind instinct is what faith is made up of, I refuse, because just believing leaves no mystery for our world, something I think God would not wish upon us. We have a mind of our own, it would be a great disservice to not use it, especially on the larger questions of our existence. Life is too short not to question everything, it is our inquisitive nature that makes life all the more worth living.

Update

2008-04-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

I apologise for the infrequency of the updates on my blog, the internet situation has been incredibly frustrating, to say the least. I have been gathering some new knowledge and ideas for Mr. P. and the World. Traveling to other parts of the world gives you a perspective on events that you would not be able to gather within the United States.

I have been witnessing the start of yet another Italian government, after the last one fell over the garbage situation in Napoli. Its interesting to hear how pessimistic the Italians feel about their country, they are not happy about Berlusconi but see very few other options for government. In the same vein, the Italian youth are very pessimistic about their future, many in the universities see their careers continuing after college. One of my professors related a story of how one architecture student could not get a job for lack of opportunity and luckily got an opportunity to obtain a green card to the United States where she now works.

It puts the situation in the United States in perspective, as bad as our economic crisis is, in many parts of the world economic pessimism has become a way of life. Hope is something that is in short supply in some areas of the world, and it appears like it is beginning to creep into our own country. It makes one think about the importance of remaining positive and not letting the world get you down. As much as the world may seem a dark and scary place, we cannot let ourselves give up. Many countries continue on as they always have, but as Americans, especially those that grew up in the 90s, we expect as certain amount of success. Everything is cyclical, even the Great Depression, that most horrible of economic and social crises, came to an end.

Keep all this in mind, the world has a way of coming back into balance.

Update

2008-04-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

I am currently spending some time in Italy on a study abroad program and have currently been without internet until now. I hope to gather knowledge and opinions about the United States while I am abroad and will be writing those up and sharing them with you all. Keep yourselves posted.

Drugs and Money Part One

2008-03-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

The U.S. war on drugs, a very ambiguous title at that, is something that is sold to the American public as a necessary tool in safeguarding American interests. The idea of the "war" was to both put a stop to the influx of harmful substances into the United States from the outside, as well as to curb the growing desire for these substances on the inside. What has happened is that the war has cost the United States dearly in terms of sheer capital lost as well as the loss of credibility within regions where drugs have been imported. What the United States needs to do is to re-think its policy on drug regulation, should the emphasis be placed on restriction or should it be placed on regulation? What has been proven up until this point is that the war on drugs is a failed one, and the powers in government refuse to recognize this fact and still persist in their misguided notion that the war is a good thing.

However, the war against illegal addictive substances is anything but new for this country. The Alcohol prohibition of the 1920's should be a good example for the government to follow in terms of how effective the government was able to curb consumption. Prohibition failed, pure and simple, while it did decrease alcoholic consumption in the United States at first, by the end it was back up to its pre-prohibition levels. And remember, there is little right that the government has on banning substance, they had to amend the Constitution to be able to legally prevent the sale of alcohol, and then had to amend the Constitution again to get it repealed. This is not an entirely cut and dry issue, there are innumerable facets that make it at best a very muddy one.

This war that we are fighting is a drain on all of us, estimates as of 2005 put the yearly cost of the war on drugs at 45.5 billion dollars all told. This war is a drain on everyone, especially considering very little gain has been made in curbing any sort of trade or consumption. People still want to get high, I don't think I'm at all qualified to explain why, but for many people there still is that habitual need to obtain these substances. The following graph I pulled off of Wikipedia shows that even though there has been concerted effort to eradicate cocaine production, it really hasn't changed the price at all. Many feel that the best way to curb consumption may be to steadily increase the price to make it harder to obtain.

This graph is showing the price of cocaine over the years, and how, even after all the major attempts to limit, eliminate, and restrict drugs, the prices still continue to fall. Again, the main target for a lot of these programs is to try and drive up the price to prevent consumption through extreme pricing. The major problem with this sort of policy is that it just will continue to exacerbate the situation for a lot of people. People will turn to drugs because there is no way out of the poverty, and hence will drive themselves deeper into poverty, increasing their need for drugs. By increasing pricing, we raise the burden on people who really cannot afford to take this hit in the first place.

Also, another key point to bring up with any argument about drug enforcement is that by making them so verboten you encourage danger. During the Prohibition many bootleggers brewed their own contraband liquor, called moonshine, but in truth because of the unregulated standards by which it was brewed it was much lower in quality and safety. Bootleggers didn't have to follow quality control procedures or anything of that sort because what they were brewing was illegal, so safety was sacrificed for getting the product to the black market. The same thing happens in the current drug climate, just look at the rise of crystal meth over the last couple years. Without regulation of any kind the homemade drug industry has taken some very dark forays into dangerous substances, and it will continues, as long as there are customers still looking for a high.

The current government policies, though admirably, have seemingly failed. They can show very little real gains in both stopping the growth and distribution of drugs, as well as stopping the appetite for them. What is needed is a heavier emphasis on regulation rather than restriction, to help control the dangerous elements that this epidemic has incurred. These substances are dangerous, there is no doubt about it, and by no means am I advocating for everyone to obtain them willy nilly, there needs to be a lot of thought put into what is acceptable and what is not. The important thing to consider is that restriction has not worked, and we need to start rethinking our priorities otherwise we will be stuck in this pit for decades to come. I don't know if any of us can just sit down and solve it, but we need to recognize when things have failed and when it is time to adapt. This is an incredibly complex and volatile issue, so please, don't take it lightly.

To be continued....

Help

2008-03-25T02:45:00.000-07:00

Just want to point out that Ms. H. has been introduced to the blog to help me with my writing and presentation, but hopefully we can persuade her to contribute some.

The United States and Foreign Policy Today

2008-03-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

Well, for my first real blog post I want to start by delving into something that has started to bother me more and more as time goes on. U.S. Foreign Policy is too idealistic and dangerous in its current form that we need to have a change immediately. The ideals of the New American Century group have gotten us into a quagmire in which there is no easy escape. No matter if you are Republican or Democrat, we have to admit that America's dominance is coming to an end, and if it isn't than we are charging headlong off that cliff soon enough. We need a more pragmatic approach to help further our interests abroad, if even that at all is important anymore. The current primary races between the political parties in our nation have underlined a key fact, the economic crises weighs heaviest on the voters minds, not an idealistic crusade to further our economic interests.

When you look at the ideology of the Project for the New American Century, what many consider the foundation of modern neo-conservative thinking, the idea that shines through is that the authors had no sort of inclusive world view in mind. In fact, one of the prime tenants of their philosophy is the idea that acting unilaterally is acceptable, especially if it gets the job done. When the Bush Administration finalized their plans for the war with Iraq, remembering of course that both Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld signed off on the PNAC, this doctrine of pure brashness showed us the folly of our new foreign policy.

What the Iraq War has taught us, or should have taught us, is that we cannot even begin to think that we can extend ourselves across the globe. We all know the war was a massive mistake, the Bush administration had no right whatsoever to invade Iraq. The occupation has proved equally fruitless, with estimates of the war reaching to 3 trillion dollars at the extreme end, this war has proved a massive shock to the American system. We can no longer see ourselves as the cavalier gun-totting cowboy, not if we want to maintain any semblance of respect from the international community. Whatever pre-conceptions we may or may not have about the superiority of American values needs to be thrown out the window immediately.

We kid ourselves into thinking that what we are doing for the rest of the world is doing them a service, in fact, in many cases it can be seen as a gross disservice. While the IMF and the World Bank push free market economy on the developing world (as a way of paying back the massive debt they've saddled these countries with no less) even though, the United States and the rest of the Western Powers do not practice anything close to a free market system. Developing nations need to be able to decide their own fate, without interference from the outside. As bystanders to their cultures, we have no right to claim that a system we don't even use is going to magically fix their economy. Much grittier work needs to be done from the bottom up if anything is going to be salvaged in these countries.

The argument against this, however, is what is to stop the countries being dominated by small groups of people, or on the flip side, they descend into violence. Well, that is what has happened when we have implemented these IMF and World Bank policies. Look at nations like Kenya today, where the idea of free elections has turned into a farce, with the free market being dominated by the ethnic group in power. The seething resentment of the other ethnic groups was bound to boil over at some point, indeed the New York Times reported that the marauding death squads in Kenya were beginning to be organized even before the election results were released. The multitude of ethnic conflict that exists in the world precludes being able to claim that the free market method is in fact the best method.

What is important to note in all of this is that the idealism has been hijacked by ambitious people looking for ways to make a quick buck. These ideas of free markets are only in place to make to make exploitation easier. The IMF certainly doesn't provide developing nations an easy way to escape the debt they are saddled with, because otherwise the IMF would run out of money, pure and simple. The idea that we can push our own ideals on the world is going to be ruinous if it is allowed to continue, our credibility in the world is at an all time low and if we keep pushing this system we will only make it worse. As a nation we need to make sure that the government knows that we won't tolerate this sort of war-mongering any longer, especially now that problems within our own country need to be addressed....

Welcome

2008-03-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome all,

This is my new blog, its a much more refined piece of work than my livejournal, which I consider the notepad for my thoughts. This is more about my ideas about the world, things I have a problem with, things I want to change, etc. I'm not going to claim to be an expert on anything, in fact I would consider myself pretty mediocre at a lot of things. I'm a History major with a minor in International Studies at the University of Washington and that is my background for how I view the world. I would most readily describe my politics as moderately conservative, but I find merit in almost every political view. My biggest problems stem from the sale of ideas to the American public as well as their eventual implementation. There needs to be a certain amount of transparency about which government goes about their business, instead of some guise of misguided ideology. So please, anything I write on here is subject to your criticism and views, I want you to challenge me, tell me I'm wrong. At the end of the day I hope you enjoy what it is I have to say, or at the very least, have challenged you to view the world a little more critically.

Mr. P.