POLITICAL ISSUES The only political issue worthy of the name is resources and how they will be used. In other words, the only real political issue is economics, or, as someone once put it, "It's about the money, stupid." All this hoopla over abortion, gay marriage, stem-cell research, prayer in schools and so on, is pure distraction, nothing but so-called issues that do little more than waste our time by distracting us from the most important matters of our life, the very manner, and means, of our survival. It is primarily the conservative types who are literally waylaying us, practicing a form of verbal magic whereby they misdirect us onto pathways of sheer futility. We need to abstain from excess involvement with abstractions, like those founded on religion, which so easily delude us, and concentrate on the certainty of our physical existence and the resources necessary to sustain that existence. God is an abstraction, as are all the religions and/or moral codes that are extracted from it. We are undeniably real. There are enough resources to provide for the necessities of every person on the planet, but abstractions like money and ideology create barriers that prevent us from doling out those resources on a fair and equal basis. I regard the fact that resources are not equally distributed as a form of rape, of the soul. As Morpheus so poignantly phrased it in The Matrix, "The mind (soul) cannot live without the body." And the body cannot live without proper access to resources. Actually, to be technically precise about it, it cannot survive without such access. It cannot live without a little more than what is necessary for survival. I'm sure we would all agree that there is a difference (a significant difference) between living and mere survival. I don't think there is any question about whether we are surviving. But there are most certainly questions about whether we are truly living. Some, apparently, are living a hell of a lot more than others, which means that they are accessing, and using, more resources. That most sacred of tenets, embodied in the famous words, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," surely suggests more than mere survival, and most of us in America (if the obesity studies can be believed) are doing more than surviving. But the obesity thing is troubesome. Are you truly living if you're obese? Haven't we heard that people eat in response to insecurities? How many of these fat people are truly wealthy? Do they have access to anything else but food? If we were all guaranteed access to sufficient resources, no matter what we did to earn a living, how would our psyches be affected? I don't think there is any question that they would undoubtedly be affected, and most likely in a very positive way. How would a child be affected if their parents showed preferential treatment to their siblings? If we are all the children of America, on a perfectly equal basis, how can we not feel that our parents (the government) are not giving preferential treatment to some of our siblings by allowing them to access and use resources far and above what they need, and, at the same time, not allowing us the same access? Does it make us feel better that government gives us the excuse that our siblings who are in positions to enjoy excessive access to resources are in those positions because they did well in school, or were born with a particular talent that they (the government) had no hand in at all, or were blessed with entrepreneurial skills, or were perhaps just plain lucky? Would it make us feel better if our parents excused the fact that they gave our brother or sister a second helping because they aced a test, or excelled in a sporting event? Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
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