A Green State of Mind

A new type of international trade is possible, one that is fair and just for all involved, as long as there is a critical stance toward corporations.

Humans are definitively living in a global market. The global scope of neoliberal capitalism is an expansion of not only the body but the spirit of capitalism. The body of capitalism can be defined as the infrastructure needed for a capitalist system such as roads, factories, and technology. The spirit of capitalism is the subsumption of society under the requirements of a capitalist market where all aspects of the social is commodified. Trade in this global market is therefore contained by the neoliberal capitalist system. But the old issues about trade with multiple nations, issues that have been prevalent for the United States since the 1800’s, still emerge. This emergence is due to the fact that those who participate in the global economy, both workers and owners, have remained the same for over a century. As humans, they have basic needs that are constant and they are in positions of power or subservience that has not actually changed during this period of time.

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The possible change in perspective on national drug policy may give people the chance to reevaluate how some of these drugs can be used for liberatory purposes.

The possibility of changes to American drug policy has become more prevalent over time despite the insistence of the government to continue the War On Drugs to its fullest degree. Despite the restrictive outlook of the government, both Democrat and Republican which has remained constant for decades, the real change has been in public perception. Society has gradually been more open to reform that would include the legalization of marijuana for personal use and the medical treatment for drug addiction. Once consigned to a support by marijuana enthusiasts alone, former law enforcement officials and medical professionals are now admitting that marijuana poses no public threat and that the overall methodology of drug criminalization needs to drastically change. Medical marijuana initiative attempts throughout the United States are becoming more common place than even ten years ago. Public figures, some in government, have recently revealed that they have used marijuana with no negative repercussions. But in contrast, anti-drug commercials that are in circulation usually emphasize the supposed “danger” of marijuana and its dire effects on children. Without a doubt the Drug War is still going on, and it is important to note how marijuana has been villified as the enemy and how it relates to what marijuana and other non-addictive illegal drugs really do to humans in terms of consciousness and social context.

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There is very important lessons to be taken from the film “Solaris” which deals with the relationship between the other, exploration, desire, and understanding culture.

The 1972 film “Solaris” by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky is a visually stunning film that was an adaptation of a science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. It is an example of a science fiction film, in the same general spirit as “2001: A Space Odyssey”, that deals with ideas rather than being an elaborate action movie. Beyond the wonderful cinematography, there is the presentation of a very interesting set of philosophical ideas that moves the plot forward. A psychologist is assigned to visit a space station orbiting the planet Solaris whose surface is a mysterious ocean of some kind of liquid. Strange occurrences have been going on with the crew of the space station, including cases of hallucinations. When the psychologist arrives at the space station, he finds one of the three remaining scientists has committed suicide and the other two are reluctant to talk about what is going on. Shortly afterward he finds his wife, who herself committed suicide some time ago, in his quarters. The psychologist discovers that the planet, or some alien force on the surface, has been able to tap into the minds of the visitors and project incarnations of their unconscious as living beings on the space station. If these beings die or are killed, they return shortly afterward with no memory of their disposal. The rest of the movie is the psychologist and the crew dealing with this phenomenon, as the artificial wife begins to believe that she is more and more real, while trying to understand what the alien force wants through this manifestation process. The attempt at understanding what is going on leads to some conclusions about how humans encounter what is different from them, while the emotional conflict between the psychologist and the image of his dead wife illustrates related issues concerning desire and how humans express that desire.

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