blog post

The first main point that I find in David Brooks' "The Triumph of Hope over Self -Interest" is Americans don't want to distribute more wealth down to themselves. Sentences like "The Democrats couldn't even persuade people to oppose the repeal of the estate tax, which is explicitly for the mega-upper class.", and "Every few years the Republicans propose a tax cut,...And yet every few years a Republican plan wend its way through the legislative process and, with some trims and amendments, passes." The second main point that I find is people vote their aspirations. The sentences "They have always had a sense that opportunities lie just over the horizon, in the next valley, with the next job or the next big thing. None of us are poor, we're just pre-rich.", supports this main idea. The third main point that I find is income resentment is not a strong emotion in much of America. The sentence "But if you are a middle-class person in most of America, you are not brought into incessant contact with things you can't afford." supports this third main point. Also the sentences "Moreover, it would be socially unacceptable for you to pull up to church in a Jaguar or to hire a caterer for your dinner party anyway. So you are not plagued by a nagging feeling of doing without." support it. The fourth main point that I find is many Americans admire the rich. "I'm writing this from Nashville, where one of the richest families, the Frists, is hugely admired for its entrepreneurial skill and community service.", supports the fourth main point. And "People don't want to tax the Frists- they want to elect them to the Senate." also supports the main point. Americans resent social inequality more than income inequality is the fifth main point that I find in the text. Sentences like, "...middle-class journalists and academics who seem to look down on mega churches, suburbia, and hunters are resented.", and " Americans see the tax debate as being waged between the economic elite, led by President Bush, and the cultural elite, led by Barbra Streisand, and they are going to side with Mr. Bush, who could come to any suburban barbershop and fit right in." support the fifth main topic. The last main topic that I find is most Americans do not have Marxian categories in their heads. "Americans do not see society as a layer cake, with rich on top, the middle class beneath them and the working class and underclass at the bottom." supports the last paragraph's main point. "They see society as a high school cafeteria, with their community at one table and other communities at other tables" also supports this main point.

The first main point that I find in David Brooks' "The Triumph of Hope over Self -Interest" is Americans don't want to distribute more wealth down to themselves. Sentences like "The Democrats couldn't even persuade people to oppose the repeal of the estate tax, which is explicitly for the mega-upper class.", and "Every few years the Republicans propose a tax cut,...And yet every few years a Republican plan wend its way through the legislative process and, with some trims and amendments, passes." The second main point that I find is people vote their aspirations. The sentences "They have always had a sense that opportunities lie just over the horizon, in the next valley, with the next job or the next big thing. None of us are poor, we're just pre-rich.", supports this main idea. The third main point that I find is income resentment is not a strong emotion in much of America. The sentence "But if you are a middle-class person in most of America, you are not brought into incessant contact with things you can't afford." supports this third main point. Also the sentences "Moreover, it would be socially unacceptable for you to pull up to church in a Jaguar or to hire a caterer for your dinner party anyway. So you are not plagued by a nagging feeling of doing without." support it. The fourth main point that I find is many Americans admire the rich. "I'm writing this from Nashville, where one of the richest families, the Frists, is hugely admired for its entrepreneurial skill and community service.", supports the fourth main point. And "People don't want to tax the Frists- they want to elect them to the Senate." aslo supports the main point. Americans resent social inequality more than income inequality is the fifth main point that I find in the text. Sentences like, "...middle-class journalists and academics who seem to look down on mega churches, suburbia, and hunters are resented.", and " Americans see the tax debate as being waged between the economic elite, led by President Bush, and the cultural elite, led by Barbra Streisand, and they are going to side with Mr. Bush, who could come to any suburban barbershop and fit right in." support the fifth main topic. The last main topic that I find is most Americans do not have Marxian categories in their heads. "Americans do not see society as a layer cake, with rich on top, the middle class beneath them and the working class and underclass at the bottom." supports the last paragraph's main point. "They see society as a high school cafeteria, with their community at one table and other communities at other tables" also supports this main point.

I was never meant to stay in one playce. I was supposed to go playces. Meet peep-pull. See peep-pull living. I was supposed to write about the things I saw the way I saw it. I was supposed to bring joy to many, and cry for people I didn't know. I was supposed to but... I didn't. I let her hold onto me. I let her use me as I used her. I sinned, all 7 of them. I died. I was reborn. I died I was reborn. I died. When will I be reborn again. I don't know if I will. And I don't care. Maybe it's because I don't care, that I can't find that renewal of spirit, of will. Or maybe it's because there's nothing left for me, and that's why I can't care. I've never in my life been able to look into the mirror, into my eyes and see No Thing. No Thing at all. It's really sad really, but I only know it, I don't feel it. I don't know if it's poor nutrition, this vegetarian thing is tricky. Or if my spirit has really died. Is my spirit dead. I don't see it's light flickering in my eyes. The other day someone on the bus told me that they could see it. They said that I had a God spark in my eyes or something like that, but I don't see it. I don't feel it. I only know it. All the feeling is gone. I don't feel anything. If my breath was cut off right now, and I was dying in body I don't know if I would care. What's a body without a spirit man, seriously. I feel robbed.

It's dangerous to care in this house. It's like being a sheep in a wolves den. I have to act like a wolf in order to avoid being attacked by the wolves. I want to leave so bad. This is the wrong place for me to be. This isn't who I am. I'm not better or worse, I'm just not this. I'm an adventurer, I'm a lover of all, I'm sweet, and I care about people. I'm gonna die, I may as well accept that. I'm gonna stay here in this hole in the ground, because the walls are muddy and slick, and as good a climber as I am, I can't climb out. I need help. I need help. I would be so grateful if someone were to rescue me from my current fate. Help me onto the longer thicker path of the lifeline of my right palm. But that's not going to happen. Everyone is in their own hole. May as well just stay here and wait for the gods to cover us all over. And begin again.

I'm going to go live in the wilderness with the animals that don't need to bump bass!

I don't like people. I don't like sharing the earth with people. There are only two people that I like and one of them is dead. Shareen and my GRANDmother. Everyone else is exhausting. They're loud and inconsiderate, and mean, and insensitive and all that behavior is contagious, and I want to stay away from them. I want my spirit to be healthy. My mom, I think that her spirit may be terminally ill, and it pisses me off that she's constantly trying to smear her disgusting infected ways on me. Fuck... yuck. I'm not perfect, the stars know I'm not perfect, but I care about other people, the stars also know this. I care about people and I know that people are not but their appearances nor just their desires, there's so much more to every indivisual, and I wish everyone could be mindful of that. No you can't please everyone, but you can care about everyone. I think... I think.

I don't know, but no seems to have such a bad stigma. Who has ever heard someone say, "I hate to say no"? I've probably said it several times myself, apologizing for saying no. But no shouldn't be apologized for. We have a right to say no. To say Yes is a privelidge, to say no is a right. I could research and list millions of instances of people suffering as a result of their fear of saying no, their ignorance of their right to say no, or their reluctance to say no, for what they THINK they have to gain. I could list my own experiences which would number in the thousands.

An example that just happened upon my mind, in america close to 85 percent of americans enter into plea bargains. Whether innocent or guilty they take a guilty plea which boosts state's conviction rates. The state gets more money. People are being victimized by the law enforcement system, because they won't say no. no i won't take your plea bargain.
There's a movie about a woman who did say no. It's a great movie called American Violet.

no. Simple word posesses so much power. No, when uttered can grant so much respect, emit so much dignity, no is the reaction every enemy hates. If someone wants to argue, and you say "no, no i won't provide you a channel for your negative energies, no you keep them". I swear you can feel them on the verge of exploding or should i say imploding. no. Evil succeeds because we say yes to it. Christiantity teaches us to say yes to it, school conditions us to say yes to it, law enforcement threatens us into saying yes to it, television, movies, music turn us into yes, yes, yes zombies. Yes, I'll buy this. Yes, I'll eat this. Yes we can. Yes I'll do this for my boss even though I don't think it's right I don't think it's fair and even though I don't feel like it because I eat yes foods that don't truly feed my mind and body. Yes, I'll believe what I'm told. Yes, I'll stay where I'm accepted. Yes, I'll gladly pay you later on fand or the rest of my life for an injection of your education today.
but when do we say no. no i won't eat things that leave my body constantly fighting for life. i won't eat things that make me forget what true life is. The life that the Earth was born for. no i won't speak like white people and conduct myself rigidly in order to garner the respect that I should be given as a human being. no i won't take your vaccination, no i won't buy your clothes. i won't buy your cars, and one day i'm not going to buy your food. no, very calmly i say no i won't be a victim. i have always generally been an indivisual who takes responsibility for my actions and recognize those action's consequences as my own. that being said i must say no to what i know is wrong for me for my people for my family for the future, because if i don't there is no one to blame but myself. and i love myself way way too much to burden myself with that blame. people may think i'm weird, look at me like a trouble maker, may shake their heads, may critisize and make fun of me, may frown at me and think me a difficult person, may not want to be my friend, but guess what i don't give a fuck AT ALL anymore, and it's time for me to say no aloud rather than JUST silently through actions. open my mouth and say no to those who are seeking to poison me, seeking to exploit my labor, seeking to titilate then exploit my desire, seeking to keep me dumb in both senses of the word, seeking to make me blind, seeking to make me angry, seeking to make me hopeless, seeking to block this amazing energy that the universe has for me, has for us all. i'm trying to say no till they cut my tongue out. and then i'll use my literacy to write no. use my children to read it. use them to seed it. every revolution every stand against tyranny in america succeeds when the people say no. they stop participating in the system that is oppressing them. an incidence of succesion occured right here not that many years ago. they stood and said no, that stand was so powerful it eventually led to a crazy off the wall bloody war. no, did what no one else could, it ended the most dehumanizing treachorous murderous disrespectful system i have ever READ about. it struck a debilitating blow to a centuries long reign of pure evil. no is what revolutionary armies say. no is what those who create resistances say. the people who build opposition groups and live outside of their societies in mountains, forests, underground or who knows where else are saying no and they're doing it for what they believe in. they're dying. right now today. because they are in that world's minority that says no. whether their stands are construed as good or bad, they make them and they are respected for it. And i can't say a word in criticism toward those who use the complete power of no for evil because i am not using to the full extent of my ability, to the infinite capacity of my bravery the power of no for good nor evil. I've been lost in saying yes for weeks now, and it make me sick to my stomach. Some days i hate myself for giving in, saying yes, to those things i know i should say no to.

no, such a beautiful word. we may not appreciate it's beauty the moment that it is uttered to us, but as a rule i believe we eventually understand and appreciate it.

no i won't be ignorant

no i won't be fat

no i won't be sick

no i won't be hateful

no i won't eat preservatives, i don't care if i never eat cereal again i won't eat poison

What are you saying no to?