New

I recently downloaded Windows Live Writer, so I am trying to post this first entry from that application. I find that technological learning curves help me evolve as a human being. Therefore, I appreciate the great minds who devise these toys for the mind and its expression.

I do not like the greed which eventually captures these devices for its purposes of accumulating more and more monetary wealth. This is a flaw of capitalism. In capitalism, as we know it in the US, greed often motivates innovation.

Innovation motivated by greed inevitably falls short of the mark as a boon to mankind. Exploitation, just as inevitable, follows this form of innovation. The wonderfully ingenious and mad Edison mastered artificial light and developed the groundwork for the electric utilities of today, which have left a wide swath of destruction of the environment and a stifling of true innovation in their wake.

In Buddhist thought, the practitioner is encouraged through mindfulness to look at all aspects of human actions, whether beneficial, destructive or ineffectual.

This new application, while it delights me in the present, may also lead to the easier composition of the most vile propaganda in the wrong hands. Or it may lead to the most inane dribble about Barbie doll collections or celebrities. Or it may lead to the publication of words about Buddhism that succeed to reach one open mind.

Poverty

Without poverty, there would be no armies. The just distribution of financial and environmental resources would bring peace to the world. Hungry people can be convinced to kill for pay and booty. Healthy, well-fed and educated people are averse to war, unless attacked. This is a simple lesson of history.

So, it is admirable for President Obama and others to advocate broadening educational opportunities and health care. However, this is placing the cart before the horse. The engine of health and education is shared wealth. In a capitalist system, that means taxing the capitalists who tend to horde and transmit wealth through inheritance. This is also a simple lesson of history.

So, why are 1.5% of the population in the US still depriving The People of the US of just pay for work, public education and public health care by buying off the government through elections? The answer is obvious. Those in government are aligned with that minority of the population against the needs of The People.

Education

There is a current debate about the costs of college education in the US. The education industry (yes, it is an industry in the full corporate sense) has worked with government and professional interest groups to degrade public education in favor of private education, which costs a lot of money and makes a lot of money for a lot of people.

The focus of the current debate is the college loan scam, which has become a lucrative business for banks. High interest rates, bankruptcy-free guarantees of full repayment, thanks to bought-off legislators who have supported the gutting of public-financed educational loans over two decades. Another ruinous part of the Reagan legacy.

Education, I believe, ultimately has little to do with a degree from a college. Degrees are tickets to job interviews. Education is something else altogether and usually ensues with effect long after a student gains a degree.

However, shouldn't an intelligent government, self-proclaimed as a democracy, wish to be representative of an intelligent constituency? The quality and quantity of free public schooling in the US are inferior to the quantity and quality of free public schooling in most of the other wealthy world democracies. It is shameful. It is contributing to the corrosion of the quality of American life, and life around the planet.

Meanwhile, those who make over $250,000 per year in the US are wailing at the prospect of paying increased taxes. This group is 1.5% of the US population. And, for the last 8 years they have been calling the fiscal shots for the government of the US. Do you call that democracy? Are you happy with the results?

Part of practice is understanding the world around us. This is called 'study' in Buddhism. Traditionally, when there were very few literate people in society, Buddhist monks carried the burden of literacy and the arts in many cultures, as did Christian monks, imams and rabbis in the West. Today, dedication to a Middle Path entails study of all of society and understanding one's place in it. It entails placing one's steps along the correct path to further personal and human evolution.

Those who begrudge free education of all human beings by refusing to contribute to that cause do not practice. They are consumed with greed and blinded by nearsightedness which comes with addiction to personal pleasure at the expense of the greater society. It is the responsibility of those who do practice to try to show those who are so obsessed with greed the way to a life which can bring greater happiness to all.