Well, we went and viewed Syriana this afternoon...

[ret5hd]

Before anything else: EXCELLENT movie. Down to earth excellent. A must see by those interested in contempory geopolitics and those that wonder of their and their country's place in the world.

Now, my personal feelings and observations, which may be meaningless and boring:

I have felt this way for a long time...but this movie drove these ideas home and brought them to to the front of my mind.

We, the citizens of the u.s., are children. Much as a domesticated kitten or puppy or calf or piglet never matures (psychologically) into a full-grown cat or dog or bovine or porcine, willing and able to fend for itself, we never mature into full adults. We are pampered, spoiled, obnoxious brats. (At least dogs and cats aren't generally obnoxious.) We don't know where our food comes from...we just accept that it is there, and truth be told we don't want to know. We don't question our herders...we just go. Most of the time we don't even have the intelligence to resent. We walk through the turnstiles and punch our time-clocks within the proscribed time limits. We are overweight and out of shape.

Maybe, as an employed blue collar worker, i am too far removed from the realities of the poor and working poor of this country to see reality of my country, but i have and still do view many people of the 3rd world as having a much clearer view of the world's realities than we do.

Not that that helps them overcome their difficulties any better than we do...but at least they are aware of from which direction their difficulties flow.

We will now return to your regularly scheduled programming.