Wednesday, November 17, 2004

People to People Politics

I'm sure many people, especially those who read this blog, have seen the Sorry Everybody website. For some reason it just does it for me - gives me a warm and fuzzy that maybe the world isn't so f**ked up after all. Today I saw the site Apologies Accepted and that made me feel even better. Not only do some Americans humbly apologize for how half of the voters voted, but also the rest of the world understands.

My partner Agent J is the perpetual optimist about human nature, I'm the big pessimist. Taking an economics course this year didn't help me pessimistic attitude either - the entire basis of economics is that people will always make the choice which maximises their gain and minimizes their cost, i.e. the greedy selfish choice. For the most part that is the choice I associate with the current Republican philosophy and those that vote for them. Be it national defense, abortion, environment, or gay marriage voting for GWB was the me, me, me choice.

I do believe its possible to make economic choices that aren't selfish - it just requires the collective people of the earth to realize that we are all impacted by each other, that we are all sitting on this great ball of dirt in space, we are all vulnerable and we all have to just be considerate, accept diversity, make allowances, share resources, be understanding of mistakes and nurture and cherish good citizenship. As my old boss used to say "Share the love!". Which is I guess, why those two web sites strike a good and positive chord with me. I don't want to get too soppy, but I think I can just about hear "All you need is love" or Lennon's "Imagine" playing in the background somewhere...

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