Ronald--the questions you ask!

Big questions and seemingly unsolvable.  Just of the top of my head I'll say that I don't know.
But there's this:
The intricacies of health insurance:
First, in business the bottom lines come first.
then, it's easy to condemn someone to death if you're just doing it on paper with no names or ages or circumstances specified--so clean, so neat, so anonymous. (you don't actually have to watch anyone suffer or call them by their names.)
We are a strange breed, we humans.  We don't want to provide universal health care because death panels will result.  So the insurance companies become death panels--that's ok I guess.
As you can see.  I don't have an answer.

Thank you Ronald, for raising the flag and Linda for your expressed consciousness.

I agree with Linda's acknowldegment that we have an unsolvable dilemma. I agree with Ronald that capitalism needs to be quickly retired. We have have found the dilemma and it is us. I think that Linda's observation of "anonymity" is crucial to the paradox of ones ability to believe one is humane while simultaneously promoting and ignoring vast realms of cruelty to others. Anonymity is purposefully chosen ignorance of ones accountability. It is more a refusal of ones accountability to the "other" by the self with the reward being greater power and conservation of wealth (time) that otherwise would have to be shared.

Here are a few examples, casually chossen, of aspects of our anonymity: Using an alias, wearing sunglasses in public to avoid eye contact, having unlisted phone numbers, living in gated communities, filtering phone calls with the various available gadets, having our failing parents tended by institutions, giving money to charities but not taking care of the people in visible need on the street before our eyes, incarcerating and institutionalizing people with emotional and psychological problems, are just a few of the approaches we choose to secure our available time, energy, illusions of safety and wealth from the many elements of societys' over whelming needs that we would not tolerat to exist if we lived in a village. If we lived in a village, we would be far more accountable to one another, I believe. Our communities have grown too big for our breaches of civility to one another. Our species' success is our down fall. The irony was recognized long, long ago. We have not improved upon this awareness in recorded history.

The hypocrisy and irony are hard to swallow so we don't like to pay attention, another choice to be anonymous and unaccountable. At least this is how it is for me. I've done and do all the above and far worse and often. It is much easier to get forgiveness from our institutions of absolution than to forgive ourselves (I hope that somewhere within that fraility lies a greater hidden strength). This is a conundrum for mankind for thousands of years and the solution has always only been offered by spiritual advisors and it has always been the same and always abandoned and always ignored. We, as a species, appear to be "stuck" with the failed nature of our species.  I suspect it will continue until circumstances or our actions reduce the global communities back into a village (think Aphosis or nuclear weapons).  It may be possible that we will eventually expand ourselves into one self-conscious village using technological tools, but I am discouraged to believe in it when I hear the divisive Tea Baggers' rants, and witness corporate America's funding anti-socialistic attacks to forestall public efforts to take care of ourselves, each other and the planet. 

We certainly are in a pickle, aren't we?

To Linda and James,
Thank you for your insightful comments.
Now, how is capitalism to be overthrown and who is going to do it?
As for myself, I too in the past have not fulfilled my responsibility to my fellow humans except to rant against injustice (if that's a responsible thing to do). But for reasons too complex to explain here, my outlook on life has recently changed, although there are certain things that I can no longer do as far as benefiting humanity is concerned because of my age. For instance, I am no longer physically able to take part in mass demonstrations or marches. Also, I lack the charisma and oratory skills necessary to sway people by speaking in public. And I lack the funds needed to help in that way.
So, this is what I now do: Write comments on sites like this and append comments to web versions of newspaper articles. But most important of all, I have let go of worrying about things I can not do anything about. Instead, I keep sight of the things I can do, i.e., when I am amongst other people I see it as an opportunity to have them feel better for encountering me. When I am able, I take advantage of this opportunity joyfully and utterly without effort, and in return I receive the bonus of feeling happy because I've done my best to be responsible.
Sincerely, Ronald E. Maxson