"...The answer is quite simple. The way of the uncross is paved with materialism. People are dying, people are being tortured, people are falling to the ravages of what the Medical Industrial Complex calls treatment which is more often more damaging to the mind and body than whatever disease they carry..."

I kind of get what you're saying- but it sounds like you're painting with a terribly broad brush, here. The topic at hand is what is the more economical way to travel during one's vacation. Do you consider a vacation to be a manifestation of the kind of material excess against which you inveigh?

"Materialism, shallowness, doing what everyone else does because they expect it, is the way of the non-intellectual, the non-spiritual, the fool."

Methinks thou carriest ye foul Stink of Enlightenment

"The key to happiness is upsetting the apple cart of fascism, which has now gripped a good part of the planet, at least in our hemisphere."

I disagree, were that such a thing even possible. Such a persuit may indeed be gratifying, but is hardly the key. In practical terms, it would be only so much tilting at windmills.

"The USA, Canada and Mexico are caught in the grasp of the grasping fascism of the fascist mainstream media, or their governmental leaders and neither Democrats or the worst perpetrators-Republicans are any more chaste in that realm, nor entirely opposed to it, although most feeble brained avarists in The Military Medical Industrial Complex except the Bilderbergers, are even aware of what they are doing or what their philosophy of life means, or even if they have one, which they do not."

Brevity is the Soul of Wit, or haven't you heard? I am also disturbed by the assumptions you make about other's levels of awareness.

"Amidst all of that you are debating not dropping out of materialism, not frustrating the Fascist Industries, but giving them more money when the patriotic thing to do is go do good deeds for your “vacation,” and go on strike against fascism, buy nothing and spend less. Stay home and help those in need, but if you are too addicted to being part of the problem instead of part of the solution, to do even that, buy a bicycle and save everyone some money by not giving a single penny to the oil industry-slam the door on their avaricious unknowing fascist faces, and take control of your life instead of being a pawn part of the materialism which will leave you when dead as just another nothing, a waste of a consuming, debris scattering pest, which finally expired/croaked thank God-one less debris scatterer."

Now just a cotton-pickin' minute, there, buster... The very premise of that paragraph is absurd. Where, exactly should one draw the line here? There is a vast, interdependent web of industry, nearly all of which depends on oil/energy. They make money, ethically, or not. Taking up your cause with the same zeal would be roughly akin to resigning to live out the rest of one's days in a yurt in Mongolia- which still carries the risk of running afoul of a crooked goat-herder.

"Instead, Be a man, and drop out to become a hero to the growing and ultimately victorious non-materialist worldview."

Man, that is, like, sooooo 60's...

"In short, stay home and thank God for what you have and figure out some way to pay Him back instead of falling like a sheep into intellectual sterility, a form of psychological masturbation, and just as frustrating, for only with another soul can one truly enjoy the benefits of sex, only by feeding ones own soul can one enjoy life."

OK- now, I can dig that. In fact, whittle down your frothing screed (What Woody Allen would refer to as Mental Masturbation-that scourge of the constipated and enfeebled tenured) to the last paragraph, and then half as much, yet again, and you might be able to do some good.

----

I get it. Enjoy life by feeding your soul. Good advice. You can still do that while on vacation, while burning oil (mindfully, of course) In fact, the best we can aspire to is doing everything mindfully, while endeavoring to be informed as to how the world works, so as to better make responsible decisions. When crisis looms (energy, etc.) we must be flexible enough to re-order our lives in different ways. Rethink what travel and vacations are for, do them differently. It won't always be possible, but for heaven's sake, try and use a little imagination. Awe, wonder and joy can be had in many forms, as long as you expect to find it with open eyes.

Hair-shirt optional, of course.

Do be well, everyone.

You painted quite a picture of your old man, there. Scary. Been to OC, not surprised...

Anyway, in 1993, the cartoonist Robert Crumb brilliantly illustrated the same kind of fear that is now driving people into a froth:

(warning- the content of this link is not for the faint-hearted)

http://www.heretical.com/miscella/rcnoa.html

It's powerful, graphic (and some would say, outrageous or perhaps irresponsible) stuff, but Crumb nailed it.

No doubt that he was lampooning paranoid whites, but I don't doubt that some who saw it actually agreed with it.

After all, the astonishing popularity of "All in the Family" was due, in no small part, to those fans who tuned in every week to root for Archie Bunker.

A very old, and very sad, story.