"Isms"

In the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" there is a point in the beginning of the movie where we hear Ferris utter these remarkable bits of wisdom, "Isms in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an 'ism' - he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon: "I don't believe in Beatles - I just believe in me."

I have to agree - for right now in this particular portion of our human existence there seems to be an abnormally large amount of "isms" which over inundate and slam into our minds on an almost daily basis. For example there is of course the ongoing War on Terrorism, which some may view as a remarkable bit of nationalism, militarism and idealism against a vast and hidden Al-Queda network and it's particular brand of Islamic extremism. It would be an all too easy task for me to add to the rant in regards to the the political and ideological divisions back home in America. Quite frankly, I have grown weary of the continued criticism and political posturing which offers more questions and few solutions. There are endless amounts of smear campaigns and rampant abuses of skewed and blatantly yellow-journalism. The "left wing" is firmly entrenched in the belief that the "radical right" is spreading their particular brand of hedonism, fascism and imperialism with the ultimate goal being global capitalism; the "right wing" believes that the "loopy left" is preaching more about liberalism, pacifism, communism and socialism rather than the theories of democracy and federalism.

The abundance of us are stuck somewhere in the middle wondering what bits of criticism, pessimism, skepticism and nihilism will the magicians in politics bombard us with next. Perhaps it is our penchant for pragmatism and narcissism or maybe even our belief that altruism is the way to a higher existence. It takes a certain amount of stoicism to hold my tongue in check from the growing wave of defeatism that seems to have overtaken the country and torn its very fabric into two halves. Our own lazy escapism and materialism has grown more important than our own patriotism. There has already been far too much political posturing and cynicism regarding the politics of terrorism.

My views regarding the arguments on the Middle East are simple - we could set deadlines for troop withdrawals but what would it do in the long run for the people of Iraq? It would be an act of vandalism and would provide a boost of much needed energy into the lagging tides of fundamentalism. Terrorists would only have to wait until the day of the pull out and then the true party would begin...God help us all when that day arrives because we would have broken our promise to the people of Iraq and offered them up as sacrificial lambs for the slaughter. Instead of defeating terror in it's own backyard, we would have thrown the flare that created the wildfire of fanaticism that would eventually burn our very soil and existence right to the ground.

Yes, there is a certain amount of fatalism which has somehow attached itself remora-like to this essay. Please, indulge me a bit further...

Americans - God bless them! We are free to do or be most anything we want to be (within reason of course) and still there are many who are never satisfied. There is no part of me which embraces this social elitism or growing egoism. I'm not concerned with the bullying and social-Darwinism that is impressed upon us by our commercial and materialistic society. I may not be rich, beautiful or famous by any means but my being here serves a purpose. I'm not here to preach about the finer aspects of hedonism and the celebrity to be found in heroism. I love the United States and believe that we are the greatest country on Earth - we not only have to act like it, but we have to believe it ourselves in order to make it work for everyone. I'm not talking about much - just about having some optimism for a change and a little faith in our fellow mankind, that's all...

Getting back to Mr. Bueller's argument and quotation of a very confident John Lennon it leads time to ask; Do I believe in "isms?" Well, I can only speak for myself as one lowly organism, being a small part of a much larger "whole", on a planet in a universe spinning wildly out of control in a vast galaxy in space. Though I have no solid foundation or affiliation with any one "ism", I will say that I have a strong belief in a great many things. Most importantly, like Mr. Lennon I have a belief in myself and the many good things that mankind has to offer. I feel that I am doing all that I can to better myself and the immediate world around me. I have an affinity for optimism, I enjoy the theories of existentialism, pragmatism, romanticism, holism and tolerationism. I have been accused in the past of being drawn to eroticism, chauvinism, sadism, masochism, hypnotism, lycanthropism, vampirism and hedonism, though I will most likely deny those accusations that were leveled upon me. I will testify for the record, I've not had a priapism, attempted nudism or embraced racism. I've never dabbled in cannibalism, used my vampire or lunatic/lycanthrope skills to hypnotize, nor have I ever slapped, spanked or left anyone tied to a bed or chair that didn't deserve it! (that's a joke - laugh, okay?)

Whether your religious beliefs are anchored in Catholicism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islamism, Judaism, mysticism, Mormonism, paganism or atheism, I cannot fault you because at least you have made a choice to believe (or perhaps not believe) in something that will hopefully lead you to a higher understanding of human behavior and the mechanism that drives us toward finality - that would-be "carrot" that is dangled freely in front of us would be "happiness." I continue to strive for happiness in all facets of my life and prescribe to the belief that there is goodness in the abundance of mankind. Perhaps someday we will "just believe" and learn to imagine a world of people living together instead of against each other like John Lennon had asked us to do so many years ago. As long as we continue toward a realization of this happiness, we may just stumble upon the most elusive "ism" of them all - utopianism.

One can only hope...(yes, even more optimism!)