Waking up to utopia

One morning, everything is how you envisioned it. You have absolutely no fear, sadness, or regrets. There's only uninhibited euphoria. Neighbors wave, smile, and provide their well wishes to you. You have control. You know there isn't a single person who can take your power away. Everything is designed to your liking. Wherever you move, you are showered with more love. This is at the core of our being and existence. This is why many of us are engaged in sociopolitical issues where we all can wake up one day to have just a hint of utopia.

There is another perspective. What's the point of living if all of us aren't perpetually flawed? Why would we need to live if all our fantasies are attainable? We would lose all our zest, appreciation for what we have obtained, and all passions for love. Philosophers and writers have used this approach before. Paradise certainly seems more and more like a boring place.

Currently, I devote a few hours a week as a volunteer to a nonprofit that's dedicated to preventing child abuse and neglect. There are some heartwrenching court cases and stories I've come across. However, this has me gain a growing appreciation every time I read these horrid pieces how I was given parents who provided for my best interests.

It has been a tough road seeing how countless applications I've sent have gone unresponded. One interview was disastrous with a firm that clearly would've turned into another disastrous employment experience. Another interview at the surface seemed ideal, until I read multiple sources reveal how it failed to compensate its workers for overtime, demanded they skip their lunch break, and spend all time and energy approaching strangers to meet outrageous quotas for an environmental nonprofit agency. This is the ideal time for employers to take advantage of the lower and middle class. It's nothing new and has happened throughout our young history.

Enter the Tea Party. I sympathize with this organization's supporters. After talking to a few distant friends of mine who attended rallies, their adamant opposition is squarely directed at government. Government is inherently evil, goes against the interests of ordinary citizens, and imposes unnecessary taxes. O.k. There have been some statements made on behalf of the ones spearheading this organization like former disgraced Rep. Dick Armey that are treasonous.

My father provided me this simple statement that applies at every level of our lives, "The data will lead the way." The Tea Party leaders and its followers continue misrepresenting the data. Start with taxation. This year, tax rates hit a low that hasn't been seen since 1950. Second, our founders knew the average citizen is incapable of self-governing. This is why we formed a representative democracy, although I still argue our country is controlled by the wealthy elite -- the same 1 percent who has owned more than half our wealth since the 1950s (restructure the tax burden on the top earners where they're paying 90 percent of our tax revenues). So, their outrage is misdirected and leads to a system that is more inherently dangerous than the one we had for eight years under President Bush.

I watched an interview that I quite frankly felt was overblown last night with Rachel Maddow and Kentucky Republican Senate nominee, Dr. Rand Paul. Paul recently made some outrageous statements pertaining to the 1964 Voting Rights Act. He said private businesses shouldn't have government interfering and telling them how to run their businesses even though he opposes discrimination at all levels. I understand where he comes from. Yes, I'm extremely confident Paul isn't a racist. However, he wants to implement a very destructive self-regulating society where we essentially eliminate all checks and balances.

Here's what Rand Paul's utopia would turn out. We would inevitably see more and more divisions in our society. People would become more hostile to each other. It's just out of good faith we trust good people like the ones who run Massey Energy, Beyond Petroleum (Beyond Pollution), Exxon-Mobil, Goldman Sachs, AIG, Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum (owns 80 percent of Nigeria's economy),.... Essentially, Rand Paul will stop at nothing to carry out Milton Friedman's vision for a laissez faire society. How did it work out during the Nixon years, Kissinger's direct involvement in overthrowing a Democratically elected leader in Argentina and seeing how a once prosperous country turned to privatization went from full employment to 20 percent unemployment, and those glorious Reagan years when Reagan once said poor people are poor out of choice.

As far as representing the lower and middle classes, this is why President Obama thus far has shown himself to be a centrist. He hasn't aggressively attacked big business, has an F rating by the Brady Campaign on gun control, passed a health care reform bill where an obscure statute states any insurer who denies a customer coverage based on a pre-existing condition pays a $100 fine per day, continues to go against historical results on military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and barely scratched the surface funding for clean energy initiatives in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Overall, he's had to do it. Look at what he's up against. Bill Maher summed it up best, "Since the 1970s, the Left has become the center, and the Right has moved into a mental institution."