Gotta disagree with both of you, Glenn & Sam ...
It is not money.
It is not ideals.
Money is a possible way to gain what the instigators really seek.
Ideals are a patina, an overlay, an excuse to excuse actions.
The two underlying causes of most of the world's problems are:
Fear
The lack of "power," or fear of "losing" power
Fear has its place -- without it nothing much larger than paramecium
would have made it and stuck around. But because it is so ingrained as
a survival trait, it is a weakness ... a tool others can use to
manipulate us, a monkey on our backs if we don't learn how to recognize
and control it.
I list fear before power, because fear usually is hidden somewhere under
the power struggle. Only those who fear they have innate weaknesses
feel the all-encompassing need to hold power, to have control of persons
and things other than themselves. The double-edged sword named "Fear of
Losing (perceived or actual) Power" is the father of the Four Horsemen
of The Apocalypse.
Money, in the eyes of too many, is the way to gain/maintain power.
Ideals are the window dressing used to justify the need for, and use of,
power.
Don't start sending in bunches of e-mail to the list protesting my
succint and "obviously biased point of view." Instead, look inward and
outward and see if maybe what I say just *could* have a grain of truth.
You see, only by looking inward and finding the personal truths and
falsehoods is it possible to offset the consequences of what others do
and/or do to us.
Most of us could, given the time and reason, write a couple of novels
about how fear -- our own, and that of others -- has shaped our lives.
The appendices could take up a few pounds of paper while detailing
"cures" and "solutions" including how/when/where/why need for personal
or group affiliated power.
But publishing those writings wouldn't do nearly as much good as the
work that went into clarifying the facts, fictions, and frictions needed
to write it concisely in the first place.
This is a holiday or holy day or season of change for most of us, in one
way or another. A new season, a new year, are right around the corner.
To those who say, "This kinda crap isn't suitable for _______," I
respond: I can't be anyone other than myself, I can't live at any
period other than now, and I can't change any sooner than the instant
after I decide I want to.
Now stop and imagine what the world would be like if everyone got only
one present for the holidays -- an awareness of positive self worth.
l.d.
-- Arachne V1.70;rev.3, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
