Thursday Thirteen #7

I'm in a bit of a black space today so I think my 13 is going to be pretty negative... maybe if I have a bit of a rant I might feel better about the world.

Thirteen things to rant about....

1. Guns. I hate them. Scrap them all, every single last one. Even military ones. If there are no guns then you have to get right up close and personal to be able to kill - and that would make it so much harder to do.
2. War. I just cannot accept that there is any reasonable justification for declaring war on another country. You don't like it's leader? Tough, it's not your decision to choose who governs in other countries. You don't like it's politics? Tough, diversity is good, learn to live with it. You want its oil? Tough, find another, renewable energy source. You want its land? Tough, make do with what you've got. Its religion offends you? Tough, learn some tolerance. You want the power? Sad, sad, sad creature.
3. Intolerance. Tolerance is just fundamental if we are to be able to get along in this world.
4. Conformity. You can be an individual as long as you think and behave the same as everyone else. Bollocks! Dare to be different.
5. Organised religion. Mind control in its most dangerous form.
6. Industrial Relations laws in Australia - "work choices". Bullshit. Expoitation, unfair dismissal, worsening conditions is all we're getting. Bosses love it - wonder why?
7. Immigration laws in Australia - the treatment of refugees here is disgraceful. Pack them off to Nauru or somewhere similar. Don't let them land here, they might actually have a case and then we'd have to let them stay. Shock! Horror! And why can't they land? Well, they might be terrorists, dontcha know. As if terrorists would travel by leaky boat with no guarantee they won't drown before getting anywhere. Get real.
8. John Howard - the most dishonest, untrustworthy, contemptible politician of them all.
9. Fundamentalists - whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, white supremacists, whatever. They're all as bad as each other, breeding hate and intolerance at every opportunity.
10. Ignorance. Learn, find out, explore. Don't just take "their" word for it 'cos it rarely bears any resemblance to truth. I despair at youngsters around me who know little about the world around them and care even less. Where are we heading when people are concerned only with their own, immediate pleasure.
11. Mass media. Keeping the masses ignorant, feeding them propaganda. Makes it so much easier to keep them under control.
12. Fear. This culture of fear we're all living in these days. It breeds more intolerance and hatred. It allows the powerful to stay powerful, whether they deserve to or not. It breeds ignorance. It breeds violence. It breeds more fear. And so much of it is manufactured by the powers-that-be. It's just so unnecessary.
13. Multinationals. Insatiable greed. Environmental destruction. Exploitation.

Hmmm, do I feel better? Not really. I don't know what's brought on this blackness but here's hoping it goes away soon.

via Janet