He has found his passion and is bettering the world because of it. If everyone had the opportunity and ability to find and do what they are truly passionate about, this planet would be one almost of paradise.

I'm 35, HS class of 96, so Gangsta's Paradise came out early in my senior year.

I remember there was a volunteer exercise in health class where we were asked to bring in a song that we found powerful or meaningful, play it for the class, and then discuss it. Someone brought GP in and, during the discussion portion, the teacher told us that so far at least one person in every class had chosen this song.

Even people like myself who generally did not listen to rap appreciated this song. Only the honkiest of honkies felt otherwise.

There was definitely something about this song in that time.

Your video, Rap Critic: Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

That was brilliant. It's a pity though he no longer has the budget to produce more complex parodies like "Amish Paradise".

You completely missed the point.

The point is that most people think they are not the problem. I don't even know what you think because your attitude seems to be "there isn't really a problem but at least I'm doing something about it." I'm actually impressed that you can be both contrarian and sanctimonious simultaneously.

I do do heaps of things about it. I'm not bothered listing them again, and besides it comes off as preaching, but I know it's not enough. I recognise that my contributions on their own are meaningless, and that is why I advocate for more meaningful change on a larger scale.

Yeah, I could give up the things I love to help the planet and sit back patting myself on the back while we plunge further toward disaster. Or better yet, I could engage in some kind of wishful thinking that everyone will follow my example and we'll all return to some kind agrarian paradise. Unfortunately, I don't believe that will happen.

The problem is that it's a genuinely difficult issue to solve. There are political, economic and even environmental (is nuclear a viable solution?) issues that all have to balance.

But like anything, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Yeah, Iraq was a virtual paradise under Saddam, what with the rape rooms, the training of terrorists, the gassing of Kurds, the execution of losing soccer players, the human shredding machines, and Somalia...the warlords were doing a great job feeding everyone equitably. Hitler had all those Jews in one or two places, too where they could be in an orchestra and live out the rest of their lives together with their families.

Aww, I thought this was going to be a parody at the start, but nope, just a young stupid person going through their political phase.

Related: http://videosift.com/video/Somalia-Libertarian-Paradise

Honestly, not sure if I'd have been able to remember the words. Think I probably would've started lapsing into Amish Paradise instead.

I'm partial to Trapped in Paradise myself.

I go to this uni. It's pretty hard to convince yourself that it's ok to "get into" gangster's paradise when you're very very aware that you're sat with a hugely famous rapper in a squalid little room of a miserable little town and would know nothing of the life you're trying to sing about

Think how self conscious you'd feel!

The "Phantom of the Paradise" nod made me smile

I gotta say the 'anti-interventionist' mentality just pisses me off when gets so extreme as to lament the middle eastern curse of oil and that if only it wasn't there the middle east could be more like Africa where nobody considers intervention. I'm not sure how many middle eastern people are longing to trade places with Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan, Liberia, the DRC and on, and on. Africa's a great place, when the local dictator or militia decides to hold a genocide, nobody else in the world cares enough to do a bloody thing, it's like a paradise.

@chingalera: Yes, fit, healthy people setting themselves on fire in the streets because their lives seem so hopeless!

OK, OK, that's an outlier, but Bulgaria isn't exactly paradise, either. They do seem to know a thing or two about weddings, though!

Just pointing out that I think it's dishonest to be a statist and deride others for being statists, statist.

Thanks for telling me that you fill out a W9, live in LA, and that you're an author; and letting me know that that information is none of my business. How contradictory of you. Statist liberloon.

Although it's fun pointing out you calling the kettle black, it's not necessarily personal grudge. I believe that libertarianism and white-washing of regulations is a bad thing. Look at Pakistan. It's no Somalia in terms of a libertarian paradise, but it's not far off:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/538217/poor-regulation/

^Pakistan is a country riddled with a lack of regulation, yet the poor keep getting poorer there, and the rich keep getting richer.

People who are destitute enough, do have alternatives that are not afforded to them here in the States though, they can sell their organs:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/feb/10/pakistan.declanwalsh

OH TO BE FREE! to sell your organs...

If you do end up getting sick, you can always turn to the largely unregulated drug industry: http://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia/2012/01/201212775512528261.html

FREEDOM! to produce dangerous drugs on a mass scale... Hey! That's kindof like those kids who died from the polio vaccination that was privately funded and not regulated: http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/When-polio-vaccine-backfired-Tainted-batches-2677525.php

It's kind of like...ohhh I wasn't gonna post this again, but what the heck: