Honest opinions don’t mean much. Honest and informed opinions mean alot.
We have always dealt with honest and ignorant people. I’d like to deal with honest and knowledgeable people.
How do you find those people? It isn’t easy. Sometimes you run across them in culture and media. They stand out like a beacon among the midst of confusion and apathy. For example I think Jon Stewart from The Daily Show is one of those people. I love what he says and I often agree with him. He has thoughtful things to say and to me, he helps separate the confusion and bad memories that we have about things.
We need as a society people who will argue for the benefit of society instead of their special interests. We have become too focused on ourselves. It doesn’t make us more happy, it makes us less happy. I am not saying to ignore your needs. You need to take care of yourself. However once you haven taken care of yourself, the fastest route to happiness is loving others. There is nothing else that can satisfy our soul.
We see the failures of our inability to love. It is the cruelty, apathy and pain that we cause other people. The world is a direct result of our inability to love others. We can’t blame other ideologies, parties, or anyone but ourselves. We can only look in the mirror and take responsibility for our own failure to make our community as important as we treat ourselves.
It is not easy to balance the self/community but we have done a terrible job and we all have to focus on doing better. Our very existence depends on everyone having a sustainable future. Otherwise it is clearly, disease, war and suffering. Life doesn’t have to be this way. We can make this heaven is a place on earth.