Hmmmm...

I think I like Glenn Beck. I'm not always sure why, but I'm pretty sure I do. I saw a clip with him on youtube the other day where he had on... this guy... who had apparently written some book... and anyway he said something that made a lot of sense to me and gave me the idea that I should maybe update my journal here a bit more frequently. He talked about how everyone is so angry these days; so eager to call for revolution and rectification. But he said that maybe what we really need to is calm down a bit and get back in touch with our reason and our values; family, interdependence, responsibility, spirituality, etc, because if we don't we're really not likely to make the correct decisions, and really we'd be revolting for all the wrong reasons and create an even worse political situation. He talked about it as a comparison between the American revolution and the French revolution. I don't remember all that much, and maybe they didn't even really go into it, but it made me think. At least in popular culture these revolutions were very different. The French revolution was really much more fueled by hatred, paranoia and class warfare than anything, wasn't it? It makes sense that sentiments like that would give rise to unambitious and cowardly populist mentality of the modern day French, doesn't it? But the American revolution is at least depicted very differently than this. I think the fact that it was nation exploiting nation as opposed to class against class that there wasn't the same level of bitterness present. It was a lot more gentlemanly. It didn't start until after representatives from the colonists had tried for years to have the injustice of the taxation rescinded. The Boston tea-party didn't physically hurt anyone, even if it did destroy property. The the rioters are depicted as cheerful, laughing even, and orderly. It was a violent but not an unrestrained protest. Or even if it wasn't, shouldn't it have been? Shouldn't the ideal revolution be waged like that? Calmly? Rationally? Isn't the best way to prepare for it to practice what we preach? To set an example? To really love what and whom we stand for, as opposed to hating those who do not? That's just what I took it all to mean. It seemed like a lesson I need to learn, and I though that maybe talking about what's on my mind more often could help. Maybe someone else will want to talk about some of it. I hope so.