Sync

For those of you who haven't read Steven Strogatz's book Sync, I highly recommend it. I come at you guys with a lot of books and some of you read some of them, I thank you for that. On this recommendation though there is also a TED talks presentation by the author that you all simply must see. I will refrain from inserting a hyperlink but you can link from here to the TED site through my recommendations on the right.
I have been attempting to explain to myself why I am leaning more and more towards Socialism lately, and I suppose it is informative, though you are all free to disagree. People are very self interested, and self promoting these days. I'm not finding fault, just observing. Take my word for it, it is almost impossible to put the well being of "others" ahead of your own. If you neglect your own interests for too long you find it difficult to meet your responsibilities. If you take too little from the commons, especially if you go so far as to work on their behalf without hope of remuneration/compensation, you are feeding energy into a vacuum. There will always be those, scarred by circumstances, through no fault of their own, who take and take and take and spend a percentage of the profit ensuring they will always be able to do so. You could say the same thing about government bureaucracy, the bigger we make it, in hope of protection from the takers, the more powerfully it will protect it's "right to grow". Balance anyone? Compromise? No thanks, I'll just shift further away from center to compensate for those crazies (on the left/right, no matter). Well, I've always had this sense that my lot in life closely paralleled that of my country's role in the world. I almost feel like I should be paid to represent the "national average" in a survey. I could write more about that and convincingly elaborate but it would just bore you. No one person is an effective barometer in a country as complicatedly heterogeneous as this one. Merry Christmas and season's greetings everyone, lay off the worrying for a few days and just enjoy the chance to hang out with your loved ones.