Rant: Part I

Yeah. I don't get it.

I've said this before. I don't really like people. I barely even like my friends. People I do like fade out of that fuzzy lens sooner or later, for long or short segments of time. I like you, but I don't like that you talk down to people. I like you, but don't like that you'll never be happy. I don't like you, but like that you know a lot about world history.

And then there are the really messed up things. The people that don't care about other people. The lack of response to anything violent. The fact that there's "really nothing we can do about that."

I've been trying to do things I wouldn't do before. Say hi to the old man picking up leaves in the parking lot. Bring down bottles to a couple sifting through the garbage cans, to find that they've left before I could hand it over.

I read a picture on this iPhone app called Instagram, of an acquaintance holding up some item that said when it doubt go shopping. Her caption was: my philosophy. I wanted to leave a comment about consumerism. That she was really following Bush's advice to get out there and spend money on useless items made by people in other places so you can throw them out in a couple of months.

After a death of a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, comments flooded on a Facebook page about revenge. One person's words were: let's just kill em all. I want to retaliate, defend, yell. These people are ignorant. These people are white supremacists, racists, uneducated (even more than I am) about the goings-on, uneducated about culture, unaware (proud?) of their narrow-minded selfishness.

If only the whole world could be North America.

We'll accept you, if you get rid of your accent so we can understand you, and keep your culture-things inside your own house.

What are we?

I don't understand war. I don't understand the capacity to be unfeeling toward another living being, be it a deer in a forest, a wasp on a windowsill, or a human staring you in the face. I live my life unaware of the government, unaware of the policies that support me, feeling as though I am living on my own means, with my own philosophies, ignorant of how fortunate I am, angry at how fortunate I am when others are not, angry at how it's okay for some to have something and some to have nothing. What are we? How can we even call ourselves human beings when we allow people to starve in front of us? That is no different than animals that feed off of each other. Our brains have made us no more capable of fairness, justice, or love. We hold onto those who are near to us and forget everything else. It doesn't make any sense. What can be done, anyway? Those who are rich are not willing to give it away. Does money have to be the solution to everything?

It's effed up.

In the words of some person responding to a googleanswer with no real source on the words of George W. Bush:

Get on board. Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America's great destination spots. Get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.

Do nothing. Keep enjoying. It's what we've always done.