Can you imagine a society that is free of labels, particularly the staunchly divided political party labels? I try to, and in my imagination, it would be something beautiful. Potentially beautiful. The members of this society would have to use their brains, and judge information based on facts and content rather than who said it, or what channel broadcast it. How liberating it would be to make decisions based on your own thought process, rather than having a semi-celebrity or corporation do it for you.

Granted, this picture I am painting is naive (partially intended that way because it’s my imagination), because in the world we live in information can be bought & owned…remember that John Mayer song? And because we are human…it is impossible to be entirely impartial, and we’ll always break off into groups with similar ideas…it is human nature and a sociological function. However, I think we could all be a lot smarter about they way we absorb and use the facts around us…it scares me to think that people don’t think. If Glenn Beck or Obama says it, they just do it. And while I clearly favor one of those well-known figures, I do still use my brain to evaluate the motives, the ideas, and the motions set into action that come from him. Thinking critically does not mean I don’t like him, trust him, or support him. It means I am exercising a basic right, I am an educated individual, and I want to make good choices that will affect my life and the lives after mine in a positive way.

Watching Capitalism: A Love Story last night got the wheels turning in my head, and really did an excellent job of highlighting a lot of scary, crazy shit that is going on in America. Stuff that started years before I was even born…if these actions were in place then, one could argue I never had a chance to achieve that “American dream”. What, then, can we say for children today, those being born, and those not yet conceived? The economy is in bad shape, and no matter how much people try to not focus on money, it is the backbone of a civilization. You cannot have cities, entertainment, or any abundance of food without money. Money, trade, and free time led the industrial revolution, and remains what molds the world’s priority list today, whether wealth be calculated in dollars, chickens, or acres.

Back to my issue with labels…I suppose I am a moderate, because I can see good on both sides, and I can see corruption on both sides. But the world is too vast to be viewed in only two sides. However, we’ve been crippled by two main party labels in America, and it’s become as ridiculous as rooting for opposing football teams. Certain networks are more hell-bent on this, and it makes me sick to my stomach. I like to think people can be reminded how to think for themselves, that this disease can be slowly righted, slowly nursed back to some state of mental health. But reading sad articles like this one today makes me think it might never happen.

Still, I am an optimist…and perhaps a rambling one.