I guess maintaining a blog is far more strenuous a task than I'd initially perceived. That, or I've just been lazy about it. Regardless, I am BACK. I recently found and read an old diary that I'd written in for some time back in 2005, and it inspired me to begin writing on a regular basis again.
Hmm.. where to begin? For starters, I'll mention that I really should be writing my sociology research paper at the moment. It's for my Global Issues in Capitalism class, which has definitely been the most interesting and rewarding class I've taken in my academic career thus far. This class allows students to learn about the implications of capitalism on a global level, by focusing on a specific topic each week, such as the environment, health, and so forth. I firmly believe that all post secondary institutions should make such a class mandatory. I feel that it is becoming increasingly vital for students to break free of the capitalist mindset, and to come to the realization that this system just isn't working. Ha, could you imagine students of Texas University taking an anti-capitalism class? It would be a riot!
As much as I'd like to sugarcoat my advocacy of sociology 302 by claiming that it was this class led me to an epiphany on the plights of capitalism, I'd rather truthfully admit that I've seen a major problem with this socioeconomic system since I was a kid. The cause for this may be my upbringing by refugee parents who emigrated from a country where the Cold War's devastating effects took a front and centre seat, or it may be a result of my constant search for a higher truth. Regardless of the causes, I know that my ability to question all that our world perceives to be the "truth" has allowed me to discover reality -- beyond what our leaders, mainstream media, or others in hierarchical positions tell us we should believe to be real. And sometimes reading and knowing what I do becomes exhaustingly lonely, because really, how do you tell a friend or a date or a teacher that everything they believe in is in one way or another, a complete and utter farce.
My periodic feelings of helplessness have made me become a greater believer that if people become even slightly removed from this manufactured reality that I call "life within capitalism", then maybe I can begin to feel less lonely. Or even better, maybe our world can begin to become less destructive and people can become less self-serving. Call me an idealist, but realism is just not working for me.
Anyway, I've gone on far too long a rant. I'll end this post with a clip that includes an animation of a speech by Mr. David Harvey (the social theorist, not the geographer). He, too, seems to believe that capitalism is less of what we need.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0
gh, xO
