~Christopher

I saw two sorrowful incidents two days in a row here in Portland. On day one a gentleman was waiting for the bus and had no shoes on. He looked poor and most likely homeless his socks were the only thing keeping his feet protected and they were filled with holes, I could tell he was uncomfortable; he probably spent his panhandled money on the food in his two Safeway bags. It frustrated me.

On day two I saw an older gentleman near the relocated bus mall that seemed to be waking up at 5:45 a.m. from underneath a tree. He asked me if the bus was there. He was obviously disorientated and I tried to help him as best as I could.

The die hard Rand followers will shrug their shoulders at these two incidents, but I have recently come to the conclusion that most die hard Rand followers suffer from severe mental/personality disorders not to let Rousseau’s natural pity overhaul their “hands off” mentality. You and I have both been there and come back from the abyss. But the problem is not with the small faction of Randians in the world. It is with those who benefit the most - the ones who benefit from the economic system in place. Deep pockets can control a lot of media, which in turn, helps keep the population ignorant (by the way did you catch the Spurs-Cav’s game last night, or how about that season finale for American Idol?).

Even to experiment is tough and takes years of work to push through massive reforms in state legislatures much less change the status quo in the federal jurisdiction.

I don’t want to end on such a dour note but I’m just as concerned as you. There are ways to change the system - the first seems to be to go around the corporations - by keeping the censors off of the Internet is a step in the right direction. By allowing massive amounts of people to communicate instantly helps open the doors to grassroots organizations to get their word out. Will it happen fast enough and can it save us from our deadened lives ruined by the popular entertainment industry?

The Roman Empire kept its citizenry happy by building the Coliseum, today we have numerous things to keep us gleefully stupid. It sucks and sometimes it feels like I’m living in the Allegory of the Cave.

P.S. Your link to my website is wrong, I’m at Alternative Philosophy now.

P.S.S. I too do not think I am ready to go get my Marx portrait tattoo (or Che) just yet, but when you read Marx you start to see what he was getting at, and it was not Lenin or Mao’s ideas.