Redundancy

Congressman Murtha ignited a firestorm and I have no idea why. Of course, everyone wants to play it as if a war hero has called for a withdrawal, and that means that it must be true. However, not taking anything away from the admirable record of Congressman Murtha, the fact that I once worked in a library does not add any legitimacy to me were I to call for improved libraries. Why should Murtha's record be a criteria for judging his comments.

Moreover, although he is unique in calling for immediate change in strategy, his recommended strategy is little different from the one that we are currently following. Although he does want us to leave the country of Iraq, he still wants a rapid reaction force in the region, leaving many soldiers deployed anyway. The current strategy does not call for Americans to remain ad infinitum in Iraq. Instead as the Iraqis take control they fade into the background in Iraq. The only possible difference for the soldiers is based on the assumption that violence follow regardless of where in Iraq the soldiers are, and violence would not erupt in a new environ.

In fact the only real shock is that Congressman Murtha has said what is actually true, only overstating his case slightly. In fact, we have won this war. American and Iraqi forces go where they want and do what they want; the insurgents try to stop them and fail. The insurgency has not even slowed the progress of Iraq in a significant manner. In a short time the Iraqis will be able to fight on their own, and they will succeed, with minor help from us. Instead of looking at this as a call for defeat, we should recognize that we have won. Only our own self conciousness, and and the perverse desires of those in our midst for defeat can turn this unmitigated victory into a mirage of a defeat.

Outrage in Politics

I saw a bumper sticker that said "If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention." For some reason, outrage is the most common tool for political change, at least on the margins. It isn't a particularly effective as a tool, though.

Normal moral outrage arises when people are faced with a patently obvious and egregious violation of their morality. Since personal morality is subjective, this can vary from person to person. Most people don't violate common morality that often, so true occasion for outrage doesn't arise that often. In fact, often the cases of outrage arise because people don't know or understand the actions and the morality that motivates it. In fact, to be accurate enough the bumper sticker might need to read, "If you are outraged, you probably don' t understand the system."

The other major problem, is that true outrage requires from most people more action than mere words. American revolutionaries were truly outraged at the treatment at the hands of the British, and they took up arms. Likewise, if something is truly outrageous, then most likely violence is justified. For example, most people are outraged at child abusers, and few have any qualms at violent means used to brings them to justice.

What with the uncommon nature of truly outrageous actions, and the extreme reprisal required by outrageous actions, outrage fails as a tool of politics. It seems that those who try to use it are more accurately using it to publicize their own moral standing. That may be why they always seem to adopt a sanctimonious and condescending attitude to those around us.

Nevertheless, I am not outraged in the least. It is merely off-putting.

Happiness

Being as today is Sunday, I thought I would take a break from all this heavy political discussion and talk about something that is really in the foxhole. Happiness seems to be what everyone in the world wants. However, most people seem to be unable to find it.

Of course, happiness has its immediate political repercussions as well. When people are not happy they riot, strike, or revolt. But many people just turn away, and become cold and distant. Those kind of people don't make bad neighbors, but they don't make good ones either. It only takes a few bad neighbors before the whole neighborhood is unliveable. Even worse, what do you do when you have a project that is for the greater good and you can't rely on the people around you.

I find that there are basically two places that people look for happiness. First most people will look outside themselves. That is to say they will hope or believe that when they have a girlfriend or boyfriend, a new car, a new job, a new house they will then be happy. Perhaps those things bring a degree of happiness. However, things, and even other people in our lives are like trees by the side of the river of life. You may wish to stay with them but as life flows on the scenery around us changes.

The people who ultimately find happiness, turn within themselves. They look at who they are, and sometimes discover that there are certain personal changes that are necessary, before they can be happy. They also learn that no matter who you are nad how hard you try you are not going to be happy all of the time. They accept the transitory nature of felicity, and enjoy it when it comes.

Happiness, and joy in life is really the only thing that anyone wants. When people look outside themselves it often becomes a driving political force. However, that is another topic for another day.