This book was interesting and I would probably recommend it, but it wasn't good enough to really get me interested in the topics beyond the book. Unlike Fast Food Nation which played a small role in my becoming Vegan, this book didn't motivate me to change my lifestyle or start to care about things that I didn't care about before. So it was nice entertainment for the moment, but doesn't really have any lasting effects on me because I knew where I stood on the topics beforehand and the book didn't change my opinions, it only qualified them.
Pretty much, my entries say it all.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Section 4: Out of the Underground
Ok, confession. I didn't read this section very carefully because I was in Jamaica and a guy was teaching me Patois while I was trying to read.
But what I did see was a lot about Coolidge and Clinton and Reagan's ideas on small government. And nothing very good about it either. A lot of economic talk about how the black market saps money out of the real market and how the areas of the U.S. that are seedy areas full of black market activity resemble those of poor, chaotic, crime-ridden countries instead of one of the richest nations on Earth. This part is where Schlosser puts forth a real opinion calling for fewer laws regarding regulation and restriction of drugs, goods, porn, whatever else the black market provides with combined strictness enforcing the rules. And consistency.
I suppose that since Schlosser is pretty much pro at this economic/government stuff his theories are right, but I'm not sure I agree with them. I think laws need to be more lax and more logical. I mean, use your brain here, referring to the case again about the 1.6 grams and the fines of ridiculous proportion. What kind of judge is going to go that far to punish a lawyer smoking a J? A judge who isn't working on anything important with his life, that's who. It's just plain stupid. I call for laws that are rational, fair, logical, and flexible from case to case. No more minimum punishments. No more idiots working in the system. (ok that's too much to ask, sorry.) NO MORE RELIGION IN THE GOVERNMENT! Smart people is what I'm asking for. Normal people. People who don't have personal vendettas and personal agendas. GOOD, FAIR PEOPLE. Isn't that who is supposed to be running the system anyways?
Idealistically I would call for an entire remodeling of the justice system, meaning the laws and the people working inside it. Complete review. Strip it down like Schlosser suggests, but also make it more relevant to the times and the average person. Then add the other stuff I call for in the previous paragraph and maybe you've got a system that isn't plain stupid.
But what I did see was a lot about Coolidge and Clinton and Reagan's ideas on small government. And nothing very good about it either. A lot of economic talk about how the black market saps money out of the real market and how the areas of the U.S. that are seedy areas full of black market activity resemble those of poor, chaotic, crime-ridden countries instead of one of the richest nations on Earth. This part is where Schlosser puts forth a real opinion calling for fewer laws regarding regulation and restriction of drugs, goods, porn, whatever else the black market provides with combined strictness enforcing the rules. And consistency.
I suppose that since Schlosser is pretty much pro at this economic/government stuff his theories are right, but I'm not sure I agree with them. I think laws need to be more lax and more logical. I mean, use your brain here, referring to the case again about the 1.6 grams and the fines of ridiculous proportion. What kind of judge is going to go that far to punish a lawyer smoking a J? A judge who isn't working on anything important with his life, that's who. It's just plain stupid. I call for laws that are rational, fair, logical, and flexible from case to case. No more minimum punishments. No more idiots working in the system. (ok that's too much to ask, sorry.) NO MORE RELIGION IN THE GOVERNMENT! Smart people is what I'm asking for. Normal people. People who don't have personal vendettas and personal agendas. GOOD, FAIR PEOPLE. Isn't that who is supposed to be running the system anyways?
Idealistically I would call for an entire remodeling of the justice system, meaning the laws and the people working inside it. Complete review. Strip it down like Schlosser suggests, but also make it more relevant to the times and the average person. Then add the other stuff I call for in the previous paragraph and maybe you've got a system that isn't plain stupid.
Section 3: An Empire of the Obscene
As much as I enjoyed the weed chapter, this section was the most riveting. It was about the rise and fall of a man named Reuban Sturman. Innocently, he started the pornography industry which today is worth A LOT of money. Sturman faced a lot of trouble from the government legally. A lot of obscenity trials, which I think are bullshit because there is no definition of what is obscene and what is not. No one really has the right to decide and a lot of this was about a bit of religious prosecution. THIS COUNTRY IS NOT RELIGIOUS. How many times does that fact have to be ignored!? Christian values have no place in the justice system and therefore Christian values should not be used to figure out what's decent and what's not. As long as porn isn't being displayed in plain view for ch- no hold that thought, I think porn can be distributed anywhere, but it's the parents who must take responsibility for what their child is exposed to. The government is not responsible for what children are exposed to, that's a parent's job.
Each and every individual should be able to make his/her own decision on how he/she feels about the decency of porn and then he/she can choose to buy it or not. Or endorse it. Or support it in any way. But the feeling I get is that there are a lot of freaks out there who are just uncomfortable with how much of a pervert he/she is and so he/she feels he/she must vehemently oppose porn to prove how unpervy he/she is. Just because a person is uncomfortable with personal feelings doesn't mean that Reuben Sturman should be punished for virtually nothing. Except tax evasion. Which he was. Justice.
The injustices were that he was also charged with obscenity counts. It's not in the judge's jurisdiction! it's subjective! That's really the one thing I had a problem with. Why does the government get to decide what's obscene and what's not? It's not fair. It's not right. The people have the freedom. Well, should have the freedom.
Each and every individual should be able to make his/her own decision on how he/she feels about the decency of porn and then he/she can choose to buy it or not. Or endorse it. Or support it in any way. But the feeling I get is that there are a lot of freaks out there who are just uncomfortable with how much of a pervert he/she is and so he/she feels he/she must vehemently oppose porn to prove how unpervy he/she is. Just because a person is uncomfortable with personal feelings doesn't mean that Reuben Sturman should be punished for virtually nothing. Except tax evasion. Which he was. Justice.
The injustices were that he was also charged with obscenity counts. It's not in the judge's jurisdiction! it's subjective! That's really the one thing I had a problem with. Why does the government get to decide what's obscene and what's not? It's not fair. It's not right. The people have the freedom. Well, should have the freedom.
Section 2: In The Strawberry Fields
This was the shortest section of the book. I found it to be quite boring and it felt like Schlosser did as well. He makes the case for the workers in the California strawberry picking industry. Their work is extremely difficult and does not provide any real benefits, stability, or good pay. The only reason the industry isn't updated is because it is cheaper for the employers to trap non citizens who in some cases can't even speak any english and have no other choice but to take what is available. It is unfair to take advantage of the situation that illegal immigrants are in. Schlosser mostly talks about how the big corporations abuse the small time workers and how the farmers are forced into tons and tons of debt because the market is so unsteady for fruit that can go bad within a week of being picked.
From the description of how difficult it is to grow strawberries and the amount of risk there is in that industry I think that maybe the strawberry industry in California should just give up. It's obviously not working for anyone other than the big wigs so if the people actually doing the work just up and quit, strike, then the larger corps would have nothing to profit off of. Maybe that's naive, but doesn't it make sense that if there's no production then there is not profit?
Again, this section was really short and didn't talk about much other than the fact that people coming in from this country, specifically from Mexico, are being taken advantage of because they are desperate for work. There even was an instance of one man 'rising' in the ranks and becoming a sharecropper for the big fruit industry who loaned him money to start a farm, had him sign a contract that he couldn't even read (he didn't know how to read English) and then he was put in a high position of crippling debt. He was unable to pay his workers, unable to harvest strawberries because of the crap weather, and left attacked by the companies that exploited him. This was an outrage. Just because he is not a citizen doesn't mean he should be treated anything less than one. We're all humans here, but the corps just want money.
Naturally greed is the root of all the issues in this short section. It's disgusting. No human being should be subjected to grueling physical labor day after day only to go home.....oh wait most of them were so impoverished because they weren't paid properly that they were homeless! So basically the point is that not only do we need working regulation and protection for legals and illegals, but we need to take care of any person in and out of this country.
From the description of how difficult it is to grow strawberries and the amount of risk there is in that industry I think that maybe the strawberry industry in California should just give up. It's obviously not working for anyone other than the big wigs so if the people actually doing the work just up and quit, strike, then the larger corps would have nothing to profit off of. Maybe that's naive, but doesn't it make sense that if there's no production then there is not profit?
Again, this section was really short and didn't talk about much other than the fact that people coming in from this country, specifically from Mexico, are being taken advantage of because they are desperate for work. There even was an instance of one man 'rising' in the ranks and becoming a sharecropper for the big fruit industry who loaned him money to start a farm, had him sign a contract that he couldn't even read (he didn't know how to read English) and then he was put in a high position of crippling debt. He was unable to pay his workers, unable to harvest strawberries because of the crap weather, and left attacked by the companies that exploited him. This was an outrage. Just because he is not a citizen doesn't mean he should be treated anything less than one. We're all humans here, but the corps just want money.
Naturally greed is the root of all the issues in this short section. It's disgusting. No human being should be subjected to grueling physical labor day after day only to go home.....oh wait most of them were so impoverished because they weren't paid properly that they were homeless! So basically the point is that not only do we need working regulation and protection for legals and illegals, but we need to take care of any person in and out of this country.
Section 1: Reefer Madness
This entire section seemed to have a bias in favor of marijuana and its users. Drug dealers and big scheme growers were portrayed as harmless midwestern type men. Just average farmers and people. Not criminals. I thought this was a little weird because I normally picture big time drug dealers as criminals and crazies. no offense. But Schlosser deals with the large scheme that got taken down by making it seem like less of a criminal offense, but as more of an unfortunate situation. The people involved were innocent victims who were hardly aware of the crimes. This is something I didn't quite agree with. Yes, the DEA should spend more time busting meth labs and crack dens instead of seeking out weed farms in corn fields. But the men involved in the operation should have expected punishments. Yes, the punishments are much too severe for weed (death sentences! no parole! life in maximum security!), but those guys in the business should have been aware of the risk.
In other news, the stories about small time drug users were very agreeable because Schlosser explored how average people are facing ridiculous sentences for things such as 1.6grams of weed in a fat joint. It's costing normal people copious amounts of money and time (and sometimes jail sentences) just for smoking/possessing very minute amounts of drugs. I believe there was one instance in the book where a man was charged more harshly for pot than a person caught with cocaine would have been. This is no way to handle marijuana use! Schlosser does a good job of pointing out how stupid some of the laws regarding weed are and how harmless it is and how harmless most of its users are without being really forward and saying, "I support recreational use of marijuana." He puts the facts out there, mostly facts about overly strict punishments etc, and shows the reader versus telling the reader.
In other news, the stories about small time drug users were very agreeable because Schlosser explored how average people are facing ridiculous sentences for things such as 1.6grams of weed in a fat joint. It's costing normal people copious amounts of money and time (and sometimes jail sentences) just for smoking/possessing very minute amounts of drugs. I believe there was one instance in the book where a man was charged more harshly for pot than a person caught with cocaine would have been. This is no way to handle marijuana use! Schlosser does a good job of pointing out how stupid some of the laws regarding weed are and how harmless it is and how harmless most of its users are without being really forward and saying, "I support recreational use of marijuana." He puts the facts out there, mostly facts about overly strict punishments etc, and shows the reader versus telling the reader.
Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness is a book I chose to read for school. Initially I chose this book for the oh-so catchy title, but then I realized that it's written by Eric Schlosser who is the also the author of another book that I love called Fast Food Nation. Anyways Reefer Madness was not only about reefer and madness, but it was also about pornography, illegal immigrants, and the big bad corporations. The atrocities of the government. etc.
It's divided into a few large essays with embedded mini-tangents on the subject of the essay. The first section is on marijuana, the second section is on the injustices of strawberry farms in California employing illegals, the third section is on the growth of the pornography industry, the fourth is on the general black market, and the afterword goes back to reefer. So the book opens and closes with the title. All four of these subjects are very interesting and they relate to Issues in that we talked about drug policies, we talked about........well, we've talked about drug policy therefore the book is relevant.
Regardless of what we have or haven't gone over in class the book was very relevant to me and I was interested in all of the topics and they were all well written and well researched.
It's divided into a few large essays with embedded mini-tangents on the subject of the essay. The first section is on marijuana, the second section is on the injustices of strawberry farms in California employing illegals, the third section is on the growth of the pornography industry, the fourth is on the general black market, and the afterword goes back to reefer. So the book opens and closes with the title. All four of these subjects are very interesting and they relate to Issues in that we talked about drug policies, we talked about........well, we've talked about drug policy therefore the book is relevant.
Regardless of what we have or haven't gone over in class the book was very relevant to me and I was interested in all of the topics and they were all well written and well researched.
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