I don't like writing about this stuff, I'm afraid it'll be shut down. I'm afraid i'll be shut down. Fuck it.

We have fiat money. My econ teacher tells me that means let it be. Laissez Fair last time I checked. It's an official order or announcement. We have official money. Congratsa-fucking-lations. What determines this price? Nothing, trust. So our economy is in the whole, a lot of people aren't investing because they don't trust the market, but they trust it enough to judge it. To exist in it, to play it's game, to be a part of the massive matrix that exists. The 'careers', the 'life.' I define myself by my coffee table and car that I drive. Thats great, fuck you, because it happens, and we're all victims of it. We trust in the system, we define ourselves, and we trust everything because we choose to or not to judge it. We trust our society and our system because we define lines, we say we don't trust it behind it's back, we play the game and when we hit the boundaries we bad mouth it, we deny it. We say we don't play the game, but we are addicted to it, and we cannot leave. Think about it. I had it all, I had a stereo that was very decent, a wardrobe that was getting very respectable. I was close to being complete. Shit man, now it's all gone.

Today I was inevitably ‘blog surfing’ at one point during a class when I came upon an article that aroused my interest in culture. Interestingly enough (although you probably won’t be surprised) it was a piece written on an article the Boston Globe wrote to celebrate the 5th anniversary of legalizing gay marriage in the state. While I normally find it to be a waste of time to examine personal morals through blogs and read media that writes about how angry a particular group of people is once I understand the morality of a situation I feel that what you are about to read will be much more interesting than that. What I found and thought while browsing through the large mountain of gay marriage media on the net provoked my opinions of culture and law, not my opinions on whether gays should be married or not.First of all I want to mention one phenomenon that many of us assume should exist in our culture. This is something that I like to call “The Flow Effect” and lucky for you, I have a great metaphoric example for this. Follow me for a second and imagine a glass wall. On one side of this wall is a huge mass of water pushing up against this seal which has tons of pressure forced on it while on the other side of this wall is empty space, a lack of pressure. Now if you were to drill a hole in this glass, no matter how tiny as long as water could leak out, many would assume that the entire glass sheet would eventually shatter, causing a wave of catastrophic proportions to shoot through to the other side. If you assume this then in a scientific term you would not be wrong and the glass wall would surely shatter. Many believe this in a political sense as well though and believe that if you change the law in one small area or poke a hole in that glass wall, by legalizing gay marriage in Massachusetts for instance, you will be allowing that glass wall to shatter and for a massive, catastrophic wave to flow into the political arena that will have underrepresented Mexicans, Asians, African-Americans, and any other imaginable minority of the states flowing in to the area and pushing through where that broken glass wall was previously located in order to push their own rights through the law-making world in order to be equally represented in one way or another. It would a ‘chaotic cesspool’ if you will let me quite Bill O’ Reilly for a moment. Whether or not you think this is irrelevant but I should inform you that until recently I thought this as well. I believed that the law could crash in on itself and many people’s morals could be completely flipped in a moment of change, allowing for me and everyone else to freak out about having to alter their opinions in almost every inevitable manner. Interestingly enough though, I was very wrong, and you’ll rarely hear me say this.



So for my first realization, up until a year ago I had no idea that gay marriage had been uniquely legalized in Massachusetts. When it was passed I was 13 years old so you have to give me some credit, I don’t know any 13 year old that would have been very interested in what states legalized gay marriage at the time so I don’t think you can hold that against me. I grew up in Connecticut though, and no matter how much I would have liked to believe my own train of thought from then till now I feel it appropriate to mention that nothing happened in Connecticut that made me aware of the tidal wave that I believe should have occurred. There were no gays migrating from Connecticut to Massachusetts to get married and my neighbors were gay. I always thought so what! There were no mexicans flocking through my state to Massachusetts, no asians, no blacks, not any single minority disrupted my life. So where was this wave? I think 5 years down the road while attending UConn about an hour away from my original home that it is safe to say it’s not coming. It’s rather obvious that the conservative fear the evokes many to detest change and the legalization of such morals does not have any affect on myself. ”The flow effect” is was disproved in my mind ever since.



Now for the interesting and more deep part of my realization. While reading the article in the Boston Globe and searching through some blogs and other articles online I’ve noticed that almost every person has mentioned that the acceptance of gay marriage in the state has actually impoved. Isn’t that impressive? It was mind blowing to realize that the state’s actions of legalizing gay marriage actually altered people’s principles and as they experienced the supposed ‘tidal wave’ of gayity in Massachusetts they noticed they were not effected and eventually came to accept it in their personal principles.

What my point? Well, the established law of a certain region actually subsequently made it a better place for the gays to live. The law altered the citizen’s morals after changing and while it was originally an expression of the majority in Massachusetts it subsequently became the expression of nearly all that live there today. In some ways, changing the law of Massachusetts gave it definition and in turn, gave Massachusettans definition as well. Changing the law changed the people who abided to it on such a deeper level than could ever be expected. While living in Massachusetts and being gay was originally questioned, accepted, or ridiculed by the culture it is proven that changing the law actually changed the culture.

This makes you think though about Prop 8 on the other side of America, in California, doesn’t it? Why was it not passed with the decision being so close? There is obviously a large, gay minority in California for the vote to be so close but logically there is no reason to deny it. The ultimately best choice, the ‘right’ choice would be to allow gays to be married because by abiding to the law society would be better off and more people would be satisfied with the job the government is doing if the right of gay marriage were legalized. It not being legalized just has the gays and straights fighting over the (in my opinion trivial) issue instead of focusing on more important matters of the time period (economic crisis anyone?). Isn’t the government there to make people happy and benefit us to the best possible extent? Shouldn’t gay marriage be legalized so everyone can be better off and 5 years down the line, like in Massachusetts, gay marriage could be viewed in the same way interracial marriage is viewed throughout nearly all of America? By legalizing gay marriage who is going to die and who is going to be unhappy? Why is legalizing gay marriage negatively effecting the welfare of our community to the extent that it should be a denied right? Can someone please tell me?

Because the people are in control of the law I feel that it is ultimately a fault in democracy. We don’t all know what’s best for ourselves and it is a huge problem that we then have a say and it ultimately shows ourselves a huge flaw in our political system. I don’t see why legalizing gay marriage in California would hurt anyone more than legalizing gay marriage in Massachusetts and if it proved successful in one state I feel it should be legalized in another because the welfare of the state would not be compromised. Am I wrong? By not changing the law the Californians who are liberal, free artists of morality in the region are essentially being caught as victims of the democratic system and victims of the Californian culture as well. With the law negating change in the region and abiding to historical principles, change is being prevented and modernization and liberalism is becoming victimized. If we had someone or something else, something or someone educated on the subject of change and educated on the formations and flows in society, if we had this group or thing in power of what occurred we would be able to prosper to a greater extent than ever before and everyone could be satisfied if they looked beyond their own selfish welfare to the welfare of the state. Right now, while money is in control of a welfare state, morals are not and it is hurting the evolution of our culture.



While it is obvious in my writing that I support gay marriage I hope that you leave you thinking beyond that point. You should realize that the law does effect the culture and while we are close minded and fearful of change it is only because of our political structure. If we could accept change and experience it we could understand what is beneficial and what is not to our people and culture as whole and ultimately everyone can be happier. We can have a law that builds on moral welfare as well as economic welfare and benefits are larger majority. Ultimately, the argument that I’m making is that while we can influence the law, the law also influences people. If we allow the law to change to our fellow citizens wills as well then we will all be better off in the community because the change in the law will influence our morals and essentially influence and change our culture. After all, our society is not a cement foundation in time but merely a stepping stone in the evolution of humankind that we are all a part of.