president-less .

With all of the things that are going on in London and across the UK, I wanted to sort of divert from my usual personal profound-ish posts and talk about politics a little bit. It's incredible what a mass of people can do. Whatever their motives may be, the young generations of England have sent a message to their governing representatives and everyone across the face of the Earth. Now, that's not to say that I condone lighting up entire rows of houses and lines of cars while chasing after the police with baseball bats... but there are some things to be said about all of it.


First, you should watch this video -- it gives a good look into exactly how bad things have gotten just in a few days. (link is here: click on this)

It's kinda scary to look at the current presidential approval rating for our country. It's really low, and if people get pushed enough to their limits, there has to be a breaking point. In the case of London, there was a lot of buildup of antipolitical sentiment over time. Think back to when the tuition for college was raised so drastically. The youth already had general unrest, what with people getting arrested for simply protesting peacefully. And the breaking point? One man being shot by the police. All of a sudden -- riots, fireworks, cars on fire, looting and rampaging through the streets.

The police couldn't even handle it. You watch footage of the stuff, and see as mobs of people push a measly little police line back farther and farther, throwing things and yelling. Storefronts are smashed to pieces and people are running out with their hands full, and no one is doing anything to stop them. Has the government in England lost complete control? One would hope not. But they still have not used their trump card -- the military. Hopefully it won't resort to that.

But now let's think way back to our own desire for freedom -- were the things that we did to the British armies and government figures not anarchy in and of itself? Perhaps anarchy and rioting of a colony brings about freedom -- and that anarchy will one day be called a freedom fight of extreme nationalism.

But one thing that crossed my mind occurred when I read something about the presidential election of 2012. The author wrote that only a fool would want to become president after Obama, given all of the things that people are expecting to be fixed, changed, adjusted, etc. Every presidential candidate believes that they can sweet talk the American public into believing that they can 'fix' everything. I won't buy it. Sometimes a lot of things are just out of the government's control. If every person today decided they wanted to invest 10% or even 5% of their savings into anything at all, wouldn't the markets be doing a lot better? But I think there is just a general distrust that leads people to want to take their money while they can.

What if no one ran for president in 2012? What would happen? What if every person decided that on voting day, they simply weren't going to vote at all? What if the American public just decided to completely eliminate the presidential figure? What a life changer that would be. These scenarios are extreme, and would most likely never happen, but I can always wonder.

I'm reminded of the movie Gladiator, where the main fighter is told that if he wins the mob, he can win his freedom. Is this not still true today, but instead the prize is political victory? As a candidate, win the trust of the 'mob' and you will win the election. Except that the mob is in fact the People, as in We, the People. A lot of people may think that we don't have a voice in terms of government. After all, that's why we elect our representatives. But I think that that should change -- we DO have a voice. Hundreds of thousands of voices! And if we all chant the same thing, maybe our corrupt representatives will listen. They'll have to.