Getting to work is a stressful experience for many commuters. Traffic jams, long cues, train delays, pushing and shoving, being squeezed into a corner of a bus while trying to drink your latte macchiato.

This hardly qualifies as ‘quality’ or ‘me’ time - even if you manage to enrich your brain with a podcast or reading a book or newspaper.

For many people it’s one or two hours of their life wasted. If you commute about 220 days per year to work and spend just about over one hour in a car, bus or train - that’s almost ten days of your life gone while transporting your sorry ass to make some money somewhere …

Once again the people of PBS / Frontline have produced a breath taking documentary: the medicated child (you can watch the whole thing online). America seems not only obsessed with it’s War on Drug - to protect children - but is also totally paranoid kids behaving differently. Compared to any other industrial countries huge amount of small kids and teenagers are heavily medicated.

Plus the pharma industry and doctors have invented many new illnesses and syndromes. It’s a HUGE business and scared / dumb parents willing to force extremely dangerous drugs down their children’s throats.

The documentary has just one serious flaw (maybe because of the time limits) - it really didn’t try to answer why so many kids are diagnosed with these serious psychiatric disorders compared to other countries AND if this is really true: why are American kids so much more ‘damaged’ than for example Swedish or Canadian ones?

I don’t envy these kids - and the is a whole new Prozac generation coming to the world stage. This is really a ‘Brave New World‘ coming true …

BBC Essay: In search of a ‘humane’ execution

What do countries like the USA, China and Iran in common? They still believe in executing hardcore criminals - including youngsters

It is hard to believe that in our modern world people still get killed by their Governments. I am deeply against the death penalty - and it’s a good thing that the EU has abolished it.

The BBC has an interesting article (link above) that gives an insight into the search of Michael Portillo for an humane way of killing (no unnecessary pain, etc).

Yes, we are creatures ruled by time, rhythms and habits.

It start with our basic heart rate - the true rhythm of our lives.

The day & night pattern of our planet dictates our lifestyles, the need for sleep our awake times.

Our social life and whole society is built around rhythms, patterns, repeats and habits: work time, play time, quality time. We all have times and places for everything.

But there is the long time pattern of life itself: birth, life and death. We all sing and dance to that rhythm, either on a small human scale or cosmic one. Even suns and planets get born, have a life and burn out in the end. Even black holes end in another big bang.

Welcome to this Universe ruled by time, rhythms and patterns.

The true question is: do you design your own patterns of life or do you follow those patterns carved out for your by society, nature and other people’s expectations?

Time to rule your patterns, design your own patterns and enjoy time as long as it still ticks for you!

Romantic movies are for chicks and action stuff is for guys. Right? Wrong. There seem an incredible number of chick flicks out there and an even greater number of dumb violent stuff for youngsters - BUT hardly any good stuff for ‘real men’.

Dead Poets Society - or how it feels like to be a boy. One of the few movies who don’t turn growing up into a screwball comedy. This one shows how important it is to have a good mentor (sort of older guy) to introduce young gentlemen to art and higher principles - as an alternative to ‘just’ sex and getting a proper job.

Birdy - Also a story about growing up, but also about coping with tragedy, pain, madness and - mostly - about finding your own way. Friendship also plays an important part in this one. Great Soundtrack by Peter Gabriel.

About Schmidt - This movie kills me every time. About the tragedy of a guy, who discovers at the end of his life that he hasn’t lived at all. Very heartbreaking and a huge warning sign. To do what is expected of you (getting a good job, starting a family and retire to a nice home) isn’t life …

Broken Flowers - Whatever happens to old womanizers? The story of Don and his search for a son or better say a family or steady relationship he never had or could ‘create’. A great movie about lonely guys, who have achieved something, but have nothing.

Any movies my male readers like to add?

He certainly is one of the real giants of the last century. He formulated and created a new way of looking at ourselves and exploring humanity. Many of his theories are now proven wrong - but Siegmund Freud wouldn’t mind that. He based his work on empirical evidence, not dogmas. He changed his several of his theories several times.

Too bad many people turned his theories and observations into dogmas - especially in contrast with the terrible events of world war II. Freud’s work gave many people the reason to believe that the human animal is bad, driven mostly by his deep sexual desires and needs. This is certainly a part of the human equation, but not the whole story.

Especially evolutionary biology has shown that the ‘selfish gene‘ in us is much more altrustic and pragmatic then Freud and many other prophets of doom want us to believe.

If you are poor and stuck in some backwater place your choices are limited. To have a choice is a luxury - not many people enjoy that privilege.

But to develop different perspectives on life you need to have the luxury of self observation and time to reflect. And some brains and some education help too.

Many of our fellow humans are still simply trying to survive and lead a decent life - without a break to think about themselves, learn more about culture and spirituality - or having the resources to start a ‘new’ or ‘different’ life.

If you can afford all these things and you can think - than use these gifts. Otherwise you are wasting yourself and the chance to improve society. Self improvement is not a one way street - as part of a bigger community all bonuses and deficits are added or subtracted from the ‘big picture’.

On one side big media companies have greatly reduced their international reporter network and therefore lost ‘local competence’. On the other side a huge army of freelance photographers, reporters and cameraman has developed in the least two decades.

But the media mercenaries focus mostly on popular stuff that brings in the money. Unpopular topics are left to a few brave reporters and photo journalists. So commercial news is today mostly about ’sellable’ news. If you can’t sell a picture or a story you won’t report about it again, because you need to pay your bills.

This is why we need support alternative media outlets for journalists and a willing audience to pay these people.

We also need more institutions like the BBC and other democratic and state funded media organizations, who can afford to report unpopular causes and criticize the powerful.

Free markets for news organization is a disaster. To provide a balanced public service will always collide with the quest for higher profits. Let big media create the entertainment, let publicly funded news organizations make the news.

And screw Rupert Murdoch and all the big media tycoons.

Newspapers have a hard time in the digital age. The readership numbers are sinking while the Internet sucks away their audience. Will they die?

TV and Radio already were serious competitions - why didn’t these inventions kill off the Newspapers a long time ago? Because there was still some space left for newspapers to fill.

But the real killer of Newspaper is their own ignorance. They - like the Recording Industry - ignored all the predictions and than trends way too long. Instead of going with the changed market they tried to fight it.

Today the they are all online: New York Times, Telegraph, L.A. Times, International Herald Tribune and The Independent. Most of these online editions are brilliant - constantly experimenting with new ways to report and engage the readers - something that was long forgotten in the print editions.

But competing with the information overkill on the net is hard. Buying several international newspapers is cumbersome and sometimes hard to do. But on the web the they all compete just a mouse click away from each other.

I often prefer newspaper website over other news sites like from TV channels (like CNN or MSNBC - and even the BBC). Their reporting is often deeper, their writers provide smarter and better commentaries. I would only compare Keith Olbermann as the only TV journalist able to write and perform longer commentaries that can match most print essayists.

The Revolution of the Bloggers has shown that people want good writers on the net. But they also want interaction and community style feedback loops. If newspapers can find their way back to their audiences they should survive in the 21st century …

Anything born in the last 25 to 30 years is called Millennials - because they are the bulk of the workforce of the new Millennium.

Raised by overcaring soccer moms and freeform hippie parents, still living at home with 30 and a very pampered bunch.

This generation is the special needs generation, that needs constant attention, constant gratification and loads of ‘creative space’ for their mostly empty brains. Most of all they need constant stimulation to stay on the job. Even when they work their own jobs their parents call employers and challenge reviews and their salary - like they called their teachers and professors in school or university before. This is overprotective individualism gone wrong.

My Mom said it’s oke to show off my skills …

I am actually very happy that now the first studies and articles about the awkwardness of this generation are coming out - because it confirms my experience in many companies working with these ‘youngsters’.

I guess every generation says that the next one is softer, stupider and more pampered. This is mostly true, since most kids in western countries had the LUCK to grow up in ever better living conditions, education, spoiled consumerism and a highly expanding ‘fun culture’. It’s better to work your Nintendo instead of working the coal mines.

Classical Hero figure transformed into a multimedia cash cow.

Kids and young adults  have become highly targeted consumer groups since the 1950’s. Youth culture didn’t exist before that. A total media sphere for kids and young adults didn’t exist before the 1970’s. And total consumerism didn’t arrive before the 1980’s. The sheer amount of media archetypes, lifestyle choices, trends, weird and cool stuff only aimed at youngster is incredible and aggressively enforced by companies.

Plus we are now experiencing the total ‘digitization of social behavior’ since the arrival of cheap cell phones, broadband and social networks on the intranets.

Yes, kids have spent less and less time doing sports or experiencing nature in the last 25 years. They have spent more time shopping and in front of a screen.

On the Internet everyone can see your IQ. Thanks for sharing!

The attitudes and goals have changed. Hardly anyone wants to be an Astronaut, Pilot or other Hero figure these days. Too much effort, too little coolness.

Most teen idols are either ‘human products’ invented by companies or the media like lifestyle choices like ‘Gangster Rapper’ or ‘Super Model’. Shows like Big Brother and the whole mechanism of media whoring by being a slut (I am looking at you Paris and Perez Hilton) shows kids only that you don’t need ANY ’skillz’ to be a gazillionaire.

There has never been a Generation that grew up in in such a safe environment and with so much constant distraction. Life is no longer just about the ‘basics’ to them - they want more, more and more - and they are used getting it without much effort apart from bitching.

The Queen of the Millennials.

It is GOOD that less and less kids grow up experiencing hunger, war and poverty - like still way too many kids do in Africa, Asia, Russia, South America and the Middle East. The global society overall is getting richer. Teenager in Tehran have as often facial surgery as in LA. Millennials all over the world grew up with MTV, Madonna, McDonalds and Mobiles. Theirs styles and attitudes are very similar.

The are now enjoying the fruits of the war and post war generations, the new creative and sexual worlds of the hippie revolution - and the blatant consumerism of the Reagan years.

Apart from being nice, being loved, being entertained, able to shop and fuck something this generation hardly has an agenda. It is hardly a political generation - apart from passively ’saving the earth’ - probably by shopping Al Gore T-Shirts and blogging about it.

I am oke, you are oke. Together we watch DVDs about saving the Earth or pirate it from the Intranets!

Unlike the Hippies or Yuppies they don’t know the hunger for change or power. As long as it’s cool and entertaining anything goes. If angry give them a promotion, a hug or a Amazon.com coupon and they are happy again.

Without the absence of real dangers and challenges any human being softens up and relaxes - and after over 60 years of peace and prosperity in western nations there are hardly any direct challenges left. How can you feel like REALLY doing something, when you can stuff your face with organic burgers, surf the web on your iPhone and travel to India for Yoga?

It’s all so nice and pink. Life is almost like being with mom.

More: Wikipedia on Generation Y and read this Managers Guide to Millenials

Ok, it began with fast food and pizza restaurants. Grabbing a bite in our hectic days makes sense, having the same boring food all over the world doesn’t.

Then came the Coffee Shops to give us the extra needed caffeine kick and sugar rush - plus some free wireless access. Well, still makes sense - although I hate the standard Ikea-Starbucks nesting instinct that’s developing globally.

But who needs a cell phone store - one for each provider - on every highstreet? It’s not that we need a daily supply of ‘phonettes’, batteries or ‘call minutes’?! We maybe upgrade our phone once a year or change our contracts maybe every two?

These shops are there mostly for presence, marketing and showing off their brand. I rather have some good old sandwich shops or some other specialized merchant that sells anything BUT a cell phone, a burger or a Latte.

Our inner cities have lost their unique mix of local shops and retailers. Almost all over the planet the big shopping centers offer the same crap from the same crappy companies. So much about free markets, choice for the consumer and competition.

New Age gurus and motivational trainers seem obsessed to hammer positive thinking and the idea of always constructing win-win situations in everybody’s minds.

Loosing or failing is one of the best ways to learn something. So failing is actually the best way to become a master at anything. Failure teaches us a lot.

But more important is the ‘deconstruction’ of the dualism of winning and loosing. Once you get rid of of the cultural and social pressure and concept of ‘being a winner’ or ‘being a sore looser’ life gets MUCH easier.

Once you get rid of this judgmental concept in your psyche you can go with your flow and open up your mind for creativity and collaboration without a ‘winning’ end result. Creating something excellent is not the same as winning a trophy.

There is a huge difference between being declared brilliant and being brilliant …

The Internet is all about communication. It’s first great breakthroughs were eMail, Chats and Newsgroups - places and mechanism for people to talk to each other, share stories and moments. The Web - with it’s rich multimedia mix of text, images, animations videos and loads of interaction came later.

The first Internet years were pure ‘Text’ - no fancy graphics, no weird interfaces, no flash movies. It was a writers paradise - and boy did people work that keyboard. That is why all those handy acronyms were invented in the first place - because they were used a lot and people got sick and tired of typing it all out. It was intended to speed up the conversation and develop some simple forms of ‘communication blocks and codes’ to ritualize reoccurring situations like ‘ROFL’ or ‘ttyl’.

eMail and chats were already different from formal letters and meeting in the office. But people tried to keep grammar, expression and context intact. It was fascinating to exchange loads of text & context in real time or almost instantly. eMail was like a speed drug for communication and brainstorming. Communication processes that often took days and weeks could be shortened to seconds, minutes or just a few hours. Brains were on fire.

This trend was pushed even further with the cell phone revolution and the invention of the web - which brought texting and web surfing to the masses. Further down the road broadband and multimedia transformed the pure ‘text-only’ online cosmos into a ‘disney-compatible consumer experience’.

Happiness is more then just an emoticon …

Websurfers and companies alike tried to make it short and sweet. Online portals developed the art of content management and squeezing as much tiny headlines and articles on their homepages. Instant messaging and texting on cell phones was the next craze - conversations were chopped up into even smaller bits. The old text emoticons were immediately translated into graphical ones - and a flood of new acronyms and Internet ‘talk’ took over the world.

The use of acronyms and rituals become even deeper entrenched in Internet communication - and it swapped over into the mainstream. Suddenly you could see web URLs in advertising and Internet slang jumped into ‘meatspace’.

But it also ritualized the always on lifestyle and communication even further. Sending jokes, images, videos, URLs or short blurbs became a substitute for describing yourself, your emotions or what you had experienced in YOUR OWN WORDS. Instead of self expression we used ‘blocks of code’ or ‘canned emotions’ to reflect ourselves - but not EXPRESSING our own state of mind.

I love your pixelation!

Instead of encouraging someone with a personal note - we send a picture of a cute doggy. Instead of saying how we feel about a sad moment with some nuances we send a sad emoticon. Instead of describing our vacation to our friends we send them a link of our Flickr gallery of snaps without context.

In all these cases we get shorter and shorter in our self expression. By breaking up complex situations or moments into simple symbols or unrelated bits we loose the complexity. The complexity of what has happened. The complexity of what we think and feel about it. And the complexity of different layers of self expression. Instead of many colour we mix ourselves with words, sentences, long expression - we use static rubberstamps of self expression. Easy and simple to use - but limited in their emotional and mental range - and shallow compared what really might be inside of you.

When you are on MySpace Google will make sure you have no privacy … 

Especially the new world of social networking is ’shrtr’. Instead of messages you send ‘funny’ games or emoticons. Instead of telling a person you like them or you ignore them you ‘rate’ them by giving them stars or declaring them your friend. Symbolism over true friendly dedication or exchange. Instead of socializing we extend our social networks by inviting the highest ranking and rated members of the database. Instead of getting to know someone and exchanging personal stories we explore their personal links, lists of favorite websites and online galleries - plus we Google their names and see if something nasty comes up.

It is no longer about what you have to say and what you are - it’s all about the right links, ranking and cool ’statement blocks’ others can recognize as greatness. You link the right political articles on your blog or stumble, you know the funniest videos, one big celebrity is your friend on MySpace.

I have friends - therefore I am! 

The art and exploration of yourself through self expression and deep thoughts has been substituted by the cleverness of self linking and self promoting. The Google PageRank of your homepage, profile or profile has become a social indicator.

The art of making friends with your personality and what you have to say and stand for. Instead of exploring one’s own inner world and building it by thinking and expressing it - we only reflect only tiny aspects of our self via links, phrases and other people’s work like videos and images.

The modern phrase and lifestyle statement ‘express yourself’ - which can be seen in so many commercials and new age books - is a challenge. It is hard work and it is a personal and social effort to express yourself, to understand yourself, to think for yourself and define yourself.

A complex personality and emotional depth can only come from complex self expression. You are the builder of your self …

Dedicated to Judefa - who inspired me to write this.

We are all individuals, but we still belong to uniformed groups.

This is an exciting and insightful study of our western lifestyles and the desire of humans to be individuals while STILL belonging to a group. Bring some time to click yourself through this amazing tapestry of modern moments, groups, looks and styles.

Brilliant!

More? www.exactitudes.com

Ppostsecret.blogspot.com is now an established fixture of the globally shared net psyche. It is amazing - it opened the floodgates for endless confessions. Lurkers come to read emotional porn, dark and funny secrets of others - while the ’sinners’ try to lighten their burden by sharing some secrets of their existence.

Good thing it has already turned in a book - so the makers can rip off so money from the social porn. Secrets are no secret today - not for the media exhibitionists and web heads all around us.

Thanks to RichM for sending this one.

The World Economic Forum is a high profile organization - which does publish many interesting and well researched reports. The result of the Gender Gap Report 2007 is hardly surprising - it’s rather very predictable.

Woman in Nordic and European countries have the best chances to find good jobs and being treated like their male counterparts. From there it’s all downhill.

128 countries from all regions of the globe have been ranked. You would think that all western countries would rank at least in the top 50% - but even countries like Switzerland (Rank 40) and the USA (Rank 31) have lost ranks - or better say - woman lost social and economic status.

I find Japans Rank with 91 especially shameful, since it is in the company with such illustrious nations like Iran, Kuwait and Tunisia.

More? Download the Report or read the Press Release for a shorter version

Thanks to Xtine66 for sending in the link / news!

What constantly amazes me is that American Christians are against abortion, but for a harsh and brutal prison system - and even for the death penalty.

Plus many of them own guns for ’self defense’. An eye for an eye? Are your sure you are not Jews - worshipping a pretty violent and nasty God? Or simply hypocrites?

I am making here a little fun of the historical concept of Absolutism.

One of the major underlying difference between so called left/liberal and right/conservative (plus fundamentalist) dogmas is the conflict between ‘relativism’ and ‘absolutism’.

In a dogma of absolutism you have ‘true’ and solid values and ‘points’ in your world view that are not negotiable. (Wikipedia on political and moral absolutism.) Some of it’s heads are: Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant and Aristotle.

With a relativistic world one thing leads to another, you hardly find solid positions to navigate, but a mere set of ideas that keep a network of borders that constantly shift. (Wikipedia on moral relativism.) Some of it’s heads are: Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger.

Absolute concepts and values are of course easier to understand and present, since their set of rules is less wobbly - hence the word absolute.

Karl Marx - bloody relativist communist scummmmm …

Here are some statements about Absolutism by Mr. Richard Hooker (taken again from here):

Political philosophers attempted to extricate themselves from these matters through two different, contradictory approaches: “natural law” or “the Divine Right of Kings.” According to natural law political thinkers, there were immutable natural laws which should govern states and their relations to their citizens and to other states. According to the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, a system of thought derived ultimately from medieval theories of kingship, certain kings ruled because they were specifically chosen by God to be kings. Surprisingly, both of these approaches could yield the same result: the idea that the best form of government is an autocracy, or rule by a single person. This person was not to be questioned or disobeyed; this became known as “absolutism,” since the monarch ruled with “absolute” power, that is, unshared power.

Natural law yielded absolutism in the work of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who believed all things, including human society, could be understood using principles of geometry. Hobbes’ central argument was that all humans are driven by two and only two impulses: fear of death and desire for power. If left unchecked, human beings would act on these impulses and live violent, brutish, inhumane, and solitary lives. In order to keep these impulses in check, human beings, according to Hobbes, drew up a social contract, which ceded authority to a single person in exchange for a level of security. The single ruler would control the violent and selfish impulses of individual members in a society through brute force; individuals would lose their liberty, but they would gain security and community. Hobbes didn’t care what form this single rule might take, whether a monarch or a dictator, only that absolute power was required to keep society together.

Relative guilty? Absolute Guilty? Relative dead? Absolute dead?

This is of course a nasty rhetoric trick from my side, to mix modern conservative thinking with an 17th century ideology. But I can’t help the feeling that the overall attitude is very similar?!

But it is about time that we leave dogmas behind us as political tools and aspire to use whatever is the best idea for the problem. But that would again imply that that solutions are relative to the problem and it’s circumstances. So is life in the end relative and not absolute? Can one defend absolute ideas in the end? Read this christian refutation of Relativism.

The gothic mind created the idea of courtly love - which is a strange concept: a gentlemen courts in the highest of spirits a lady, but expect nothing but rejection and ignorance. Gothic love was a masochistic concept, because neither marriage nor sex was expected. It was all about courtship as an art. Women become unapproachable, gentlemen were supposed to suffer from romantic pain without reward.

Remember medieval marriages were all about material possessions, not love at all.

Some people think that this weird kind of admiration was one of the effects of war and crusades of the time. While the husband was far away waging war on some political enemies or pagans, the Lady of the House was left behind in charge.

Of course she was courted and honored like every leader - and of course sex and marriage was out of the question, since she was already married to a far away warlord.

The - sort of - romantic phrase ‘burning down the castle’ to conquer a woman’s resistance is also to be thought to come from that time. Since many suitors were not as romantic as we imagine knights, but rather practical materialists. If the Lord of the House is gone, so are his troops and the castle and it’s Ladies is rather weakly defended. So why not knock down the resistance and get yourself a new wife and a new piece of land as well?

Another aspect of gothic romance was the Cult of Mary, which was also very popular at that time. So many poems were dedicated to the Lady of the House and/or the Virgin Mary.

Today we still suffer from these ignorant ideas: women want to be conquered and consider themselves praiseworthy - something … someone to fight for. You still can read in personal ads about knights in shinning Armour. Gentlemen is still supposed to open doors to be a nice guy - courtesy as one of the remains of gothic courtship.

*repost from 2003*

More and more deaf young people? Wired Magazine is spelling out the obvious - once again. I still can remember the same warnings when the first Walkmans hit the street and everybody went earphoned. Actually the worst thing that could happen to your ears is Techno Music and raves. Never been to any party that is really louder: base kicks so intense that they make your clothes wobble. So most modern digital devices have a loudness barrier anyway - they are not as loud as old walkmans or normal Hi-Fi equipment.

This xmas a lot of digital babysitters will arrive in many families. More and more people point out that stressful video games are not the best thing for a young mind. Overall it seems computer are not making pupils smarter anyway?! So should we ban computers from classrooms and school until kids reach a certain age - AND until they have mastered basic math and writing skills?!

Actually - being an avid gamer myself - I agree that gaming has a strong influence on the mind. It can be like a ‘rush’ of euphoria or an extreme strain being so narrowly concentrated on just one small screen. After a long gaming session my mind seems to ‘play’ the game long after I have stopped. It’s almost like a shadow or ‘burn in’ effect.

For me it makes perfect sense to say that a young persons mental energy and education should be focused on learning - while playtime (which is always learning as well) should be more relaxing and be a physical workout to balance mind and body. Most modern kids spent way to much time only in the mental sphere of school, tv and games - less in social and physical ’spaces’.

So parents - listen up!

“The American Christian fundamentalists are nothing like the Taliban.”

The Taliban used football fields to execute people. They enforced stoning and other cruel laws of the Sharia. They suppressed women, they disliked music, drugs and movies - all that fun stuff. A terrible regime of orthodox believers. Agreed the Taliban were terrible.

American Christian fundamentalists so far haven’t killed anyone - their actions are within the law of the land. Physical violence isn’t anywhere near the Talibans bloody actions. So the American fundamentalists are ‘better’ then their afghan counterparts?

Measuring a society or group just by their usage of physical violence is a bad and not very precise tool.

The basic concept of fundamentalism is that their version of ‘reality’ is the only truth that is acceptable. Anything else can (maybe) tolerated, but never accepted.

Visit www.americanfundamentalists.com to view the image in a larger size - and learn some other stuff as well.

But acceptance of plurality is the most important cornerstone of our modern democracies. This very acceptance is shown in the rule of law that everyone is the ’same’: we all have the same rights, the same obligations - although we are different individuals and by no means the same.

Religions fundamentalists and modern states both have laws and rules, which more or less make sense. But the very difference is who made the law: either they are eternal, because they were made by some God or they are in constant development, because they are made by man and still adapted, expanded and changed.

This also shows a very basic psychological element of the fundamentalist: with a rule set given by your eternal Overlord you have a ‘perfect’ and static system to live by. Not much surprise there. Very different to a pluralists society that continuously changes itself. Although your life might be difficult at times you at least know with a fundamentalist mindset what is right or wrong.

We are right! We are right! We are right!

Here we encounter another problem with fundamentalists: anything that is ‘wrong’ according to his/her believe basic system has to be changed. These people are on a holy mission. Now this is very contrary to ‘in the name of the people’ when you want to change society ‘in the name of the Lord’.

In a Democracy you need the consent of the majority, you need to agree. In a fundamentalist system there is nothing to agree on, no need for debate or even change. Anything that comes from the Lord is not open for discussion. This is especially explosive when a Priest or any other Leader ‘claims’ to speak the Lord’s words. How do you ask God if that person is really his Prophet? You can challenge any law, policeman and politician in court, but again there is no discussion with the word of God.

Lets come back to our American Christian fundamentalists. They are much smarter then the Taliban. They won’t use physical violence to change society - they simply change the laws so society has to adapt. Instead of accepting plurality they use lobbyism, votes and money to enforce only their fundamentalist views.

This is one of the greatest weaknesses of Democracy, that it’s very openness to change and populism allows it’s own destruction. Once again it is important to mention the Hitler lesson (Newsflash: Orangeguru says Christians are Nazis). He was voted into power and slowly abolished democratic laws one by one with popular consent until there was only ‘ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer’ (one people, one country, one Führer).

How the erosion of American pluralist consent is progressing can best be documented by the fierce fight about ‘intelligent design’ and abortion. Slowly the fundamentalists ideas are introduced and cemented into popular opinion as the only truth in small steps. I especially admire the propaganda and rhetoric’s to actually use pluralism to enforce fundamentalism: hey, why don’t you teach ‘intelligent design’ - it’s just another form of science?!

Abortion is wrong / terrible for other reasons - not because your God said so.

But the war on abortion speaks even louder: here pressure groups have been working for decades to enforce their mostly religious point of view onto American society. On PBS.org is an excellent documentation ‘The last abortion Clinic’ that show you how fundamentalist lobbyism can work wonders against pluralism.

So, is there such a thing as an American Taliban? Yes, there is! The methods might be different, but their attitude is very much the same. Most of all over the recent years we can see the ‘just anger’ and aggression against anything liberal and pluralistic getting fiercer and fiercer.

And it’s that religious righteousness I am most afraid of.

Is this a joke? Sadly it isn’t.

I already find the concept of real life speed dating pretty horrid: you meet in a big crowd in a restaurant and each person gets a few minute to introduce themselves to the next person. Then the guys rotate to another place and the next round of speedy first impressions starts …

Now you’ll do it all over the net or just leave a video resume via webcam. I presume having sex and splitting up is also done via a cool web interface?

I am no stranger to Internet dating myself, but I am afraid that people get more excited about all the tech and the huge ’selection’ of partners - instead of really getting into making new friends and dedicating some time to getting to know someone better.

Friendship takes time. Relationships even longer. There is no such thing as speed as for good love or lovemaking. Only mental mouseturbation works well with speed …

After the second world war many western nations became more socialist then many people would have admitted at the time. The social welfare of their citizens was very important to European countries - especially in fear of another working class uprising like in the Soviet Union, but also to keep another Hitler from happening.

But in search of social consensus many countries overdid it. Instead of building social societies they build nanny states that would infiltrate people’s life instead allowing them to make a living. In the attempt to bring social peace and equality they took out the vitality of the society itself and strangled any innovation and development within.

Hardly forty years later the welfare states ran out of money - countries like Britain, Sweden and Germany started to cut down on social budgets. Suddenly social welfare became a war against social parasites. Profit was more interesting then social consensus and support.

Welcome to the new old world of total capitalism - with it’s new saints Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher.

Working together - to survive.

In the search of efficiency and ever tighter budgets the main victims of this new spirit were the kids and the educational system. It is a harsh joke that child poverty is on the rise in many western countries. The educational systems in many countries are failing or under siege as well.

Plus the real income of white and blue collar workers in industrialized countries actually has declined in many countries for the last 30 years. The middle class is thinning out in many countries. A new lower class has developed in highly sophisticated countries.

Education is a human right and should be free. The same should be true for health care. A smart, healthy and educated citizen is the most valuable investment for any countriy. It’s not a question of money, but dedication, moral and priority within a society.

This old, but still tragic events at the Spanish-Moroccan border just uncover an old truth: rich countries despise economic refugees. We Europeans can only thank nature for the Mediterranean sea - otherwise we would be ‘invaded’ by a gazillion Africans and Arabs.

Europe has tried to keep these people out - because we want to enjoy our privileged lifestyle quietly. Yeah, send them some development money and blankets when another earthquake or whatever happens. And some AIDS medicine.

The tragic is, that neither Europe nor the US has done enough to develop democratic nations ‘down there’ with a working economy. But Arabs and Africans haven’t done enough either. Corruption and cronyism are not imported ‘ideas’, but local failures. It doesn’t matter if rich Arabs rather buy at Harrods or African kings another wife, they fail their own people.

So Europe simply builds higher fences and flies those poor souls back to their shit holes. Lets hope that these people find a way to make their own nations worth staying there - and let’s also hope that Europe and the US get better at ‘helping’ these nations.

So far most of the help was a failure.