twinkies down 2-0

it bothers me when people complain about the free enterprise system or capitalism.

well, more so when they complain about it being a terrible system and how its destroying the earth and society.

i'm pretty sure it's not the capitalism, but the inaction of the citizens that is destroying the world.

while academic and military research has started a lot of the major technical and societal changes we have witnessed (the internet, psychology, etc), it is when somebody figures out how to make a profit on it that is when it begins to make an impact on the regular person.

what company doesn't advertise it's website nowadays?
what person doesn't pay a market to make them a sandwich (which, beyond being the most perfect food, may be the easiest to assemble)?

it is inaction and lack of will power that lets corporations and the system get away with fucking us over.

take exxon mobil. i actively make sure that i do not fill up at a exxonmobil station. if i'm lost in conneticut and i've been on E for 50 miles, that's a different story. but for my everyday commuting gas, i refuse to give my money to exxonmobil.

those silly internet petitions that go around saying "today is no buying gas day," those would work if everyone actually listened to them and took part.

we could drive that company into extinction. if everyone really cared enough about it, we could make sure exxon never made another dime.

but we don't.

because we're lazy.

or with voting. voter turnout for the 2004 presidential election was 55.3%. that was the highest since 1968. where are the other 45%? if they got out and voted for one candidate? in '04 bush received 50.7% of the vote. that's 50.7% of 55.3%. do you know how much that is?

my calculator says just over 28% of eligible voters picked w.

isn't anyone else outraged by this?

this blows my mind and pisses me off.

i may not cast a vote in every primary (i do in governor and president years), or for county clerk, but i do vote.

but at least i am out there trying to make a difference. if an extra 1.5% of voters that didn't vote went out and voted for kerry in 2004, bush would have lost.

not even 1% would have made the difference in 2000.

how can people just not care?