I had an interesting conversation yesterday. It began with a debate on whether the root cause of many people's madness has to do with their environment, or whether or not this is relevant to discuss. The conversation grew into a debate on what "completes" the individual. My dad stated that his work completed him. That, essentially, he had never felt complete anyways, but that work made him feel more complete..He then said, name one person who feels complete. I said, I'm sure there are millions of people who feel complete in themselves. Isn't this sense of striving to work for completion a hierarchy that was created by the institutions of America? The failing school systems, the jobless Americans, the lost and lonely...all fall prey to that sense of inadequacy in our current economic structure.

So after this conversation, I had a broader perspective of my role as a student, as a consumer, as a participator in society where we are striving to complete each other to complete ourselves, instead of realizing what Ayn Rand would have said was a never-ending cycle...in this thinking...we should already strive to feel complete within ourselves, not seek completion in others. Perhaps, I don't entirely agree with her philosophies, as I am not an advocate of Capitalism nor of taking and hoarding goods from other countries, without fair trade

...it seems like we've gone the way of talking heads...on the news there's nothing but talking, the ones who actually get things done protest. write letters, are activists and they are the ones who end up being persecuted for standing up to the government's laws, peacefully...I think the real dialogue needs to continue, now how does this relate to the idealogy of suffering in context with your environment...it relates to everything because we are all related to each other, naturally, through our every day lives. We are all connected to one another, on subtle and larger ways, instinctively, as humans...we connect the dots.

So, if I am striving to complete myself through functioning in this society as a mere role to serve the greater good, I say that I am striving to serve an individual good, and interpersonal good, but I do not strive to uphold some otherworldy notion that I am only complete by serving consumerism, captilaism, or the U.S. in other-words, I am a free individual, not a slave of Capitalism...not a mere follower of principles...in other words, to be independent is not to have a job, or go to college, or make money, or support yourself, or anything like that...to be independent, is something we all innately strive for because we all are....we are born independent, we are independent by nature. We do not need to be told who we are...

I'm not wording this exactly how I wanted to. In a sense, it's hard to articulate exactly what I mean, but I'm trying to get to the point that I don't feel I should have a sense of completion or independent because I am serving some majority principle...