My Manifesto: The Incoherent Ramblings of a Madman

There is this Australian currently on death-row in Singapore at the moment for smuggling drugs. While I do not believe in the death penalty per se I do believe in respecting other countries laws. He knew full-well what he was doing and what the consequences for his actions were. There was no denying the fact he was guilty and no matter what the circumstances were he should not have been smuggling drugs. On the other hand to me the death penalty is an over reaction to drug smuggling. To me, as everything here is, these people would be better used as drug counselors, in drug treatment facilities, as carers for those affected by drugs, in drug research - there is any number of things that they could do to pay their debt to society.

Would legalising drugs be the answer to destroying the illegal drug trade and the risks people take? Hell yes it would! But would it ultimately help society? I'm not sure. High powered cars are legal and all they do is kill people and burn more non-renewable energy resources than is necessary to get from point a to point b. Irons are legal - but they're completely useless for society other than for keeping up appearances - but does that really matter?

When I was younger I used to think that if we had open slather on things anarchy-style that the world would be a better place. All of the stupid people would kill themselves and the meek/intelligent would inherit the earth. But mob rule ruins everything and my utopia of natural selection somehow works against me for the detriment of man kind. A US senator put it best when he loosely said that wiping out speed limits doesn't work because the damn people who do all of the speeding don't end up dying - they just end up as vegetables and taking up hospital beds at the cost of the tax payer for the rest of their usually very long lives. So speed limits are cheaper for society than having everyone hurting themselves. My alternative solution would be to actually put people out of their misery - so it would need to be a dual solution - legalising euthanasia and getting rid of speed limits. Problem solved.

My cousin is currently studying to become a drug counselor. It is a strange phenomenon. Usually there is a catalyst of some type, such as, a drug affected relative who is close to them, a child, or a parent or something...but not my cousin. She seems to fit more into the "You have to do some type of study to get youth allowance" category. It was either the child minding, the counseling, or office admin. She chose option 2. Her first practical work experience is coming up soon - she is getting thrust into one of but a handful of rehab centres left in the state after they started closing them all down. When the people start to talk about their experiences usually the counselor has either been through the same experience or has known someone who has been through the experience so they can show some type of empathy - I am yet to work out what my cousin will have to fall back on. She cannot even fake empathy through research and a general empathetic understanding of society - she is merely doing a tafe diploma. Call me cynical - but does Australia really need another counselor with no qualifications/understanding of anything?

The more I find out about professionals the less faith I have in them. I have been through as much training as most people and I feel like a fake masquerading as a professional. I do not know how long it will take for me to be working in my field before I can claim to be anything other than a fake. Does the lack of ones knowledge in their professional field not matter with time? Or do you merely convince yourself enough times that you do know what you're talking about that you eventually believe it?