Getting Older: Peace or War?

I know it has been a while since I rapped about anything reasonably serious here for quite some time. It's not to say that critiquing music and its influential control over how we, as a society, think and feel about situations we are in isn't important, because it is. But, it's important like the way you take vitamins. I'll leave the poetic mystery in that, because, sometimes, it's all you can to make something beautiful without ruining the road leading to it.

So, I'm getting older and my life is different at 26 than it was at 20. It's this difference I began to think about on a road trip I took a week ago: financial security vs. Societal-Cultural-Global issues. I suppose, for me, it comes down to privilege and how I am using that privilege. It helps that I was born white, it helps my father gained affluence throughout his life, which in turn, gave me affluence: I went to a better grade schools as a child, went to better high schools, and got into a good university. The cycle moves forward and upward, the cycle of white privilege.

Rather than digress about myself, because I just typed a couple of paragraphs and realized it could go on forever, it's best to just get on with the point, which is this: as we get older we have to root for America's dominance in the world market. I would like to dissect "dominance" because the word is large and general; we have to place our faith in markets (stock, real estate, commodities) and capitalization of our world in general. We have to root for war and destruction because these are sure-fire methods which stimulate economy to grow exponentially. We have to root for our cultural dominance to blossom in the third world, second world, and other first world countries. Thus far, I belive the progress we have made is impressive, and soon every country in the world will care about the most inane and ridiculous bullshit happening in Hollywood, everyone will be wearing Calvin Klein, and watching reality television. Which always puzzles me as to why reality televsion caught on, is real-reality not fantasic enough? In what other reality can you get a promotion, lose your left leg, total your car, find someone to love, get divorced, overthrow a government, send aid in the form of peanut butter and Pop-Tarts, and slaughter a thousand peasants fighting the militaristic government newly put in place all in the same day? Do we really need hyper-reality, where the consequences are drastic, where outcomes are spectacular, and you have very little involvement personally? Just look around you, seems like things are heading this way now. Is this illusion and escape necessary? (Enough digression)

When these countries open themselves up to our lifestyle(s), the dams release for our corporations to dive in and capture up those newly emerging markets, raising their stock. And, as soon as these corporations have raised their values enough, they'll slash their workforce (shutdown plants/move operations to third world nations) and jump out the window with all the money and resources and products in the bag. And as a shareholder you have to be happy because their stock continues to progress. We don't have to consider how we have affected the town, the country we just shit-canned because we are making money, gaining the coveted fianancial security. This is where my white privilege comes into play. I have the opportunity to emerge myself in all of this, and have; whereas countless other people do not and cannot because they were not born with nor into this privilege. Is that brutal honesty, yes. And, I ask myself, how can I stand for these things, how can I participate in a system as ruthless and uncaring and unresponsible as this? Simply, what choice does one have? You're in the game or you're out. So I am already taking advantage on a certain level, should I fully press this hand? Should I root for the unraveling and destruction of this world for my own benefit? These are the questions I am left with to answer, alone.

I have been on both sides of the argument. I have seen destruction first-hand; I have felt death first-hand. And the only tears shed for the 20 year boy who died in my arms nearly two years ago, were Tony and myself, the crew who watched him be carried to the Blackhawk, and his family. No boardroom was kept silent on his part. He was not considered nor counted; they were too busy finding ways to exploit his presence in this country to create more money. I have seen the devastation poured on third world countries because of trade policies and politics (GATT/NAFTA). The children rooting through industrial dumpsters, eating the remnants of military waste, sometimes eating toxic materials in those meals, the neon signs of your favorite brands blinking high above the Nicaraguan skyline, casting shadows on tar-paper shacks. These things can be helped, these things can be stopped by being responsible and taking ownness for what "we" have committed: responsible captitalism.

As I get older, I am always approaching this crux: financial security or justice? And, I know, that I can never give either up fully because on both sides there are things that mean too much too abandon. I guess one must keep on fighting for something everyday and hope they make a difference.