the unifying story

So, for the past few weeks, I've been saying "I don't believe in the unifying story". And it even prompted a friend to write a Sermon about that. It feels connected to my tentative support for Ron Paul and distaste for the rest of the presidential candidates.

Why? Because all of our stories, our individual stories, and collective stories, can be unifying stories. I was thinking about church, and how the minister's sermon seems lame because it has to appeal to a large group of people and those people may not all be in the same place. Somebody may be dealing with a newborn, and someone else may be dealing with a death of a loved one. Then I realized, if you put group into a circle, then either of those individual stories can be unifying stories.

This is the rejection of the "melting pot": the wonderful cultural evolution that has happened in this country, in my lifetime, which now allows for many cultures to have space at the table. In fact, come to think of it, that's perhaps the greatest achievement of my generation: multiculturalism. And what better possible opposition to fascism can there be than that?

When I was younger, I used to believe in the power of the majority. Now I see, that the majority has always been a large flock of sheep easily led by whatever rich clique is in power. Now that I am older, and have somthing, not much, but something, some assets, some livelihood, the threat of large government entitites steamrolling over me in the service of a grand social vision seems much more prescient then the other threats.

And that's not even it. I'd be fine with a Venueszuela system, where lots of local autonomy is being given out (or at least that's what I read).

You see, with Ron Paul, we eliminate federal taxes. And if we need to make up the costs of social services with local taxes, then great! Now the theory is that the amount of corruption should be less. As money gets more and more local, the amount of corruption should be less. Local control should mean more honest government.

Now of course, that means that some localities may do some pretty crappy rascist things. We don't have to approve of it, but we've let the fear of those isolated situations be used as an excuse to imprison us all. Just like the fear of terrorism imprisons us all through paying for a military industrial complex that is beyond the pale.