Actions, Reactions, and Consequences.

From an early age, we're taught not to behave in certain ways. We're taught to always be polite and always treat people the way we'd like to be treated (ie "with respect").

This holds true until a person is introduced to outside influences. And then all heck breaks loose.

What we all learn, and forget, is that we CAN do whatever we want.
As children:
We CAN climb to the top of the tree. (We CAN fall out of said tree and break both arms.)
We CAN stay up past midnight. (We CAN still get up for school, and end up falling asleep at recess.)

As adults:
We CAN go out and have promiscuous sex. (We CAN get several STDs as we disrespect our bodies.)
We CAN socialise health-care. (We CAN wait six months for medical treatment we needed two weeks ago.)

Adults don't remember that there are consequences to their actions. Adults think for the 'long-term', so their thought process begins with "If I do this" and ends with "in twenty years, this will be the result".

(Personally, I think it's admirable that these people think that they'll be around in twenty years to see their plans -- particularly the health-care one -- fail so miserably. What imaginations they have!)

Children know better. Ask any eight year old: "Hey, why don't you play in the street?" 'Because mommy will yell at me.' "Well, why would she yell at you? You're only playing."
(And if you continue that line of speaking, the child will argue with his or her mother and their mother WILL shout at them, WILL tell you to get off their property, and very well might call the police if you persist talking to their child.)

We need to get back to "what is happening right now". Right now, our world is in turmoil.
We DO need long-term, SUSTAINABLE solutions for our problems.
However, we also have children being brought into this world RIGHT NOW who need somewhere to live RIGHT NOW. If we don't work on our problems for RIGHT NOW, we won't have a future. We won't have children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren onto whom to pass this world. Our descendants will inherit outdated "long-term" solutions, the way we're going.

I recently saw IRONMAN2. I thought it was spectacular. I loved the effects and I loved Robert Downey Jr's performance and I thought it was a fun movie. Those (other than the very last) are not what stuck with me.
What stuck out to me was the legacy (or the duty, however you want to look at it) that Anthony Stark's father, Howard Stark, passed onto him.

Not to give too much away, but Howard Stark never built his greatest invention because he didn't have the technology at the time, so he passed it on to Tony.

It was a very gentle reminder to us all living in the real world. What we can take away from this is that the plans of this time will not be completely effective in the long-term because the world is always changing, technology is always advancing, and we are always growing as individuals. Anything implemented as a long-term solution is not truly sustainable because there is ALWAYS going to be a tomorrow, there is ALWAYS going to be a future, and there is ALWAYS going to be someone out there who can do "it" better.

(Yes: there is always a future. Whether it's for the next five seconds, or the next five-hundred years, there is a future. We all have a past, and we all have a future. Time is a relative issue. In five minutes, the current time will be five minutes past. It's kind of a mind-warp.)

I digress.

We can do whatever we want, we just have to pay the consequences.
Yes, you CAN kill that person stopped in front of you on the expressway. (Yes, you CAN go to jail as a murderer, having just killed some mother's son, some sister's brother, and some daughter's father.)
Yes, you CAN implement a Socialist government. (Yes, you CAN have everything you own taken from you and redistributed to people who've never worked a day in their miserable lives, prompting you to slack off because, HEY, you'll get the same amount of money, right? And then nothing gets done because no one is doing anything.*)

In conclusion:
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and you are responsible for what you do and don't do. And if you don't like it, I suggest you crawl into your own little cave where physics and basic principles don't apply, because this is how the world works, sweetheart.



*For end-game, see: Serenity (2005))