No One Really Wants Change

I have unfortunately come to the frightening conclusion that no one in America really wants change. Oh yeah, we want change so long as it effects other people and not us. We want the Iraqis to change and adopt our policies, we want the Pakistanis to change, we want the Sudanese to change, we want the Right to change, we want the politicians to change, we want our spouses to change, we want our bosses to change, we want the media to change. We want everyone to change, but ourselves.

We pretend we want change, we talk about it and we write about it. But when it comes right down to it, we don’t want change. Let’s face it change is difficult, scary, and confusing. Let the other folks change; I am fine like I am. I don’t kill people, I don’t molest children, and I haven’t said the N-word in awhile. Sure I eat too much crap, I don’t exercise enough, and I watch too much television, but that doesn’t make me a bad person. I mean every now and then I give the homeless folks a dollar, I give at work, and I give my old crap to the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

As I am writing this President Bush has just vetoed a spending bill to fund domestic programs, while at the same time he signed a 471 billion defense spending bill, this is not for the wars. This is in addition to the 196 billion he has already asked for and received for the war this year. So, we are spending more money to fight wars that no one can define than we are to provide for the needs of our people here at home and we are not in the streets over this? There are no riots, no storming the White House. No, we just go quietly home and ignore it all. It is our fear of change that allows these things to happen unchallenged.

I read an Op-Ed piece by Bob Herbert in the New York Times and he was talking about one of the young civil rights workers who were killed in 1968. The young man was white and from New York and he was willing to go all the way to Mississippi to fight for the rights of people he didn’t even know. When asked why he didn’t forbid him from going his father said, “I didn’t have the right, to tell him not to go.” This young man did not fear change, he showed what true courage was, and that in spite of his fears he was going to do the right thing, because it was the right thing.

So why do we have such a hard time changing and as a result affecting change around us. For many of us change is uncomfortable because we have all been programmed to a certain degree. We receive programming from our parents, friends, television, and our experiences. Most of us have had to overcome what we consider traumatic experiences, notice I said what “we” consider, no one can determine for another the emotional damage of any experience. We develop coping mechanisms that insulate us from further damage and we become comfortable with the results. The more comfortable we become the more resistant to change we become. For some the idea of change becomes so frightening or undesirable that they would choose death over change.

If we know that change is constant and the only thing that you can count on is change, then why do we resist it so much? Why don’t we embrace it and look forward to its arrival in the hope of lessening its impact. I have never understood why stubbornness and blind loyalty are considered traits to be emulated. Before his reelection Mr. Bush was given positive ratings for being stubborn and not willing to change course in the midst of mounting evidence against him. So there is something in many Americans that believes that change is bad, hence the mantra, “stay the course”. Even when change is discussed or contemplated, it is only presented as piecemeal or change-lite.

We know that the wealthy are siphoning off billions of private and taxpayer dollars, we know that the war in Iraq was unnecessary and based on false premises, we know that our government and its officials are awash in special interest money and influence, we know that the war on drugs is not working, we know that our government is torturing people in our name, we know that people who were sworn to protect it are ignoring or demolishing the Constitution, we know that our country is slowing becoming a police state and we are losing our democracy, yet despite all of these things we continue to spurn change. Anyone who advocates real change is immediately marginalized, depicted as insane, or killed and another brick is added to the wall.

It is hard to believe that we were the generation of change and revolution, we had such high hopes for ourselves and the world. Now many of us hide in our gated communities or suburban enclaves content with the treadmill existence we decried our parents for. Many of us have become stuck in our ruts, living lives of quiet desperation. So we complain and we moan and groan, but we are too afraid or too cynical to change. And as we amuse ourselves with the latest gadgets, reality show, or other distraction our country continues to spiral further away from us.

If we knew back then what we know now, I wonder if we would have done things differently. I don’t know, but this is definitely not what I envisioned.

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I Don’t Care Who Pays The Rent

I remember a few years ago joking with some friends of mine when the first public smoking bans went into effect saying that pretty soon you won’t even be able to smoke in your own home. It terrifies me to say that the day has arrived when for some you can’t smoke in your home. This is no longer a public health issue, this has become a crusade for many and like all crusades the first thing to die is the rights of those being converted. America is rapidly becoming an autocratic society and because it is being crouched in health, patriotism, and safety, no one seems to be complaining. Like the frog that is being boiled alive gradually, we seem to be oblivious to the rising temperature and the impending doom. In a shocking move, some communities have already begun to enact smoke-free dwelling legislation.

Cities in California have taken the lead in adopting smoke-free housing ordinances.

On May 8, Temecula passed an ordinance that applies to apartment buildings with 10 or more units. The law requires landlords to designate at least 25 percent of their units, including balconies and patios, as nonsmoking. The ordinance is being phased in over five years.

On Oct. 9, Belmont adopted an ordinance that bans smoking in all units of multistory, multiunit residences, including balconies and patios. The ordinance goes into effect 14 months after passage.

The City Council of Calabasas is drafting an ordinance to regulate smoking in multiunit housing and is scheduled to discuss the issue on Nov. 28. The city’s existing smoking ordinance states that owners and managers of private residential property may voluntarily prohibit smoking throughout the property.

Smoke-free housing legislation has also been raised at the state level.[1]

Now granted, I smoke but even if I didn’t this would be troubling for me. The way this thing works is that they isolate the easy targets, in this case smokers, who could be against banning that awful habit that kills even those that don’t partake of it through “second-hand” smoke? After they are taken care of who will be next? Maybe we’ll ban fast food, it’s dangerous and causes as much harm as smoking. Pretty soon everyone will be snacking on carrot and celery sticks and wouldn’t that be nice?

The issue to me is bigger than smoking or burgers, it is about an erosion of some fundamental principles that use to define America. We use to be a land of live and let live, everyone could do pretty much what they wanted so long as it didn’t endanger anyone else directly. This included activities that some may have considered dangerous or detrimental to the one doing the activity. Gradually our society has evolved into a nation of busybodies no longer content to mind their own business, but wanting to impose their beliefs on their neighbors and society as a whole.

Where did this intrusion come from and who’s behind it. It is my belief that the intrusion is being led by corporations, in this case the Insurance industry. You remember the industry that forced seat-belt and helmet laws into enactment to keep death benefits down. Well, they are now using junk science and antidotal evidence to try and completely ban smoking even in homes. Whether you smoke or not one of the defining principles of America is a man’s home is his castle, no longer if the insurance industry and their well-meaning zealots have any say. We have always taken for granted the science behind second-hand smoke mainly because smoke is an irritant for non-smokers and if we can use public health concerns to get it banned so be it. Also, since most smokers have been pummeled into submission to the point of having some shame complex behind doing it, they have offered little resistance to the non-smoking legislative agenda. Maybe this will be the wakeup call for smokers to say enough is enough.

"We found a rather remarkably low SMR [standardized incidence ratio] for lung cancer among female cabin attendants and no increase for male cabin attendants, indicating that smoking and exposure to passive smoking may not play an important role in mortality in this group. Smoking during airplane flights was permitted in Germany until the mid-1990s, and smoking is still not banned on all charter flights. The risk of cardiovascular disease mortality for male and female air crew was surprisingly low (reaching statistical significance among women)."[2]

The following came from a study done in Germany where smoking onboard planes was allowed until the mid 1990’s and was done over the course of 37 years. I don’t want to rehash the passive smoke debate with all of its attendant emotional baggage, but I do want to express my outrage at the state of the non-smoking influence on personal liberty. There seems to be a concerted effort on all fronts to curb personal freedom in America. The frightening part about it is the lack of outrage or resistance on the part of the citizenry, it is almost as if the country is under some type of collective hypnosis or Prozac induced stupor. I for one refuse to surrender without a fight and I will continue to smoke where applicable and will continue to raise the cause of freedom where not applicable.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/us/05smoke.html
[2] http://www.data-yard.net/39/cabin.pdf

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