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I'm reading Plato's The Republic just to pass the time. It's a very idealistic, almost naive look at what government should be. Some day I'll read The Laws, which is supposed to be more cynical. Bush ought to read these works. He seems to wholeheartedly take on Thrasymachus's hypothetical argument that a perfectly unjust society is more virtuous. It frightens me how lacking of moral guidance our world is.

Last night my uncle called. He told me he'd help me to escape to Canada if they ever imposed a draft. I laughed and told him that I would rather start building a case now to declare myself as a conscienscious objector, and would much rather pursue that route than run off to another country. "And if that doesn't work," he said, "you could always piss in the military psychiatrist's ashtray." He spent a good amount of his college years thinking about these things. I think deep inside, there's a nostalgic part of him that wants the war to happen, so he can relive his youth. Somewhere deep inside, maybe we all just want an excuse to openly defy the authority which bounds us to this empty consumer culture.

I have to ask, if defiance is what will set you free, why wait for an excuse? Isn't your discontent a good enough reason?