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nolawitch58Experience has left me with an initial distrust of the motives of politicians, the average person, corporate executives, religious leaders, the media and just about everybody else. There are so few people I can count on to be motivated solely by logic and the greater good of the planet.
People who believe that other people are basically good seem deluded to me. People are horribly parochial in their outlook, caring only for themselves and their narrow scope of existence. Look at how often people only become aware of a problem when it affects them directly. Candy Lightner didn't give a shit about drunk drivers until one killed her daughter. Michael J. Fox didn't care about Parkinson's Disease until he developed symptoms. Christopher Reeve probably didn't think about spinal cord injuries and stem cell research until he broke his neck. Even then, they cannot be counted upon to support rational solutions.
While the highest levels of government spout hypocrisies that would make any intellectual gag, the sheeple graze upon the political fodder that is poisonous to them as individuals because the collective deems it worthy. They are Borg sheep; hear them bleat with one voice. If something affects them negatively, they complain loudly, but don't see their own complicity in its occurrence.
I find myself looking forward to the devastations that will eventually rain down upon the planet. The avian flu promises to kill hundreds of thousands. More global conflict is inevitable because there are too many powerful idiots who refuse to see reason and compromise. Gaia is ridding herself of the humanity that infests her, albeit in the places that don't so negatively impact her. She would be better served to target her wrath upon the ones who afflict her worse than the villagers along the coast of the Indian Ocean. The rich and powerful who pollute her rivers and soils with toxins for profit are more deserving of death.
How do I achieve blissful apathy? There are those who live within an apathetic state. Is their lack of caring a function of their lack of intellect? They seem to care only about superficial matters, such as the winner of "American Idol", their snot-nosed offspring, the ludicrous plotlines of soap operas, fashion, beauty tips and other useless trivia. Try as I might, I cannot bring myself to be bothered with such moronic tripe. That so much of their energy goes into tripe irritates me to no end.
Bloody fucking hell. I need to go on a good drunk or something. Spring affords me no hope, but only discontent with the status quo.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-01 01:09 am (UTC)I actually care about some causes that don't have much to do with me. My ability to participate in them is limited. But I do believe in random acts of kindness and like. I figure maybe someone will pass it on and some light will spread or at least some grumpyness be avoided.
Gaia is ill from those of greed and carelessness have done to her. I like that line from the matrix about humans being like a virus. Sadly it is true. A few places try to make a difference but for what they do to improve things there is probably somewhere doing something awful worsening it. Hard to say if they break even or creep every so slightly in one direction or another. The news said that there is some agreement that we are ruining the planet at record speed for all living things. People and corporations tend to only think of their life spans or their leaders. Hopefully they will at some point look outside the box but by the time a more aware generation gets in or it develops a concience we all may be ash.
For disease it's natural... we mess with one it's understandable it tries to adapt and makes something worse. Our ability or that of other living things to fight the worse sometimes is more poor than it was to survive the origina item. Science knows this yet persists.
I'm not apathetic on things. I try to not think too deep or I weep for the world and the various creatures upon it.
You and I, my dear, are not the average dweeb.
Date: 2005-04-01 01:24 am (UTC)My despair is beyond weeping. Oceans of tears would not cleanse the heartache I feel for my planet. If I didn't have Corpsman's love and levity, I would surely sink into a funk.
Re: You and I, my dear, are not the average dweeb.
Date: 2005-04-01 02:06 am (UTC)Despite the idiots in the world. There are a few good people that make me smile. They try to give back to the environment or help others and ask for nothing. They work to preserve streams here and wildlife or they raise money for causes or just give a hand to their fellow man. So There is some hope in the world. Though sadly there is probably more bleak than good. But knowing how man kind and it's governments are... They will ala hollywood try to spread out figuring that would fix a problem. If they did make a space station or other planet habitable... No doubt they'd do damage there too until attitudes change. :(
no subject
Date: 2005-04-01 02:06 am (UTC)The world is what the majority have made it to be.
Date: 2005-04-01 02:31 am (UTC)In my world, people would be responsible to themselves, to each other and to the environment. In my world, people would respect others' religious beliefs and not try to force them upon secular society. In my world, naked flesh would not be instantly reviled as evil. In my world, people would not foment hatreds of other nations for political gain. In my world, companies would see their labor force as their most precious resource, look well beyond the next quarter's bottom line and pay their executives commensurate to their true value to the organization and not some artificially inflated value. In my world, intelligence would be worth more than beauty.
Should I live in a fantasy?
Re: The world is what the majority have made it to be.
Date: 2005-04-01 02:53 am (UTC)Cardboard, tetra packs, plastics, glass, tin, aluminum, magazines and newspaper. Glass and plastics go in a blue box but all the others go in colorized bags to sort them. The communities also offer once a year a deal on composters. You get them at about 1/2 retail price if you buy one through the city to prevent putting compostables in regular trash. They also water meter(which isn't very common in most places here) to watch how much water we consume. The anti littering laws at parks carry up to a $500 fine.
As for overpopulation... I can understand people having no kids. People having 1-2 kids. But I can't quite get the really huge families. Not only must that be a stressful environment at times no matter how mellow the people but it must also be a financial burden. I also don't get why in poor countries where there is so much population. Why they don't do more mass birth control to help them.
Re: The world is what the majority have made it to be.
Date: 2005-04-01 03:09 am (UTC)The overpopulation thing is usually a result of religious indoctrination. I realized the completely anti-intellectual bent of it after all those idiots who proclaim "be fruitful and multiply" don't know that one times one equals one. Hell, I can do better math than they can.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-01 06:39 am (UTC)Partly.
Date: 2005-04-01 07:12 am (UTC)Thank you for that post. You are definitely one of those that help me keep hope alive. Now - are "you" a "fantasy" of mine...? After all, I don't really *know* you. Does it matter? I think what matters is that when I can hold on to hope, I can make that tiny difference in someone else's life, every now and then. That will have to be enough...
Re: Partly.
Date: 2005-04-02 12:21 am (UTC)This medium has provided us a way to connect across the miles and for that I am grateful. If more of us would reach out to each other and find our commonalities, the world would be a better place. Yeesh. I am unable to divest myself of idealism.
Re: Partly.
Date: 2005-04-02 07:03 am (UTC)These last years, especially in the US, I'm afraid, but also here, it feels like everything is going to pieces again - but I am not that sure. Maybe we just live at an unfortunate moment in time? There is still a chance that mankind will live and learn, I guess. But for "us", the idealists, the leftists, the old hippies, or whatever you want to call it, it is a time of frustration indeed. I have learned to accept that I am not cut out to make an important difference. And as I said, the encounters I have with others, making them laugh, feel better, or just get something off their chests - that is what helps me see a point in being here at all. People do reach out, here and in "real" life, and there are many of us indeed... I guess we are both just being a bit too fast and too "greedy" here. There is such an incredible amount of catching up to do for most - educational, but also in very basic necessities... Whether our planet will survive long enough to see us live in peace nobody can tell, of course. But I guess apathy as well as cynicism can be held at bay by looking at one person at a time, one individual struggling with their own little life... While on the whole you can certainly say that they are all these selfish, uncaring bastards, up close you can sometimes get an understanding about what makes them so - and often, all is not lost. Pure evil is rare. Stupidity isn't, of course. But that can be challenged. Again - only in your little corner. But it must be enough, as long as you don't want to give up your life for the cause - which is not only a noble impulse, but also a bit presumptuous, I guess ;-).
Ok - enough for now. I would so wish we could talk for hours... I was not at all doubting your honesty by saying I didn't know you, by the way. I guess I wanted to remind myself of the fact that we idealists also tend to idealize people - out of the sheer need to find allies... I have learned to be wary of that in myself. And you really seem to "good" to be true ;-)! Do not despair, please. Wish you a goofy, funny phase, next...
Usual behavior
Date: 2005-04-01 06:57 am (UTC)I'm glad not all humans are like that.
Scratch a cynic and you often find ...
Date: 2005-04-01 08:08 am (UTC)I have generally found that to be true. It sounds like you are going through the disillusionment phase.
{{{{NOLAwitch}}}
Agreed. Very true.
Date: 2005-04-01 09:52 am (UTC)The depressing thing is that I'm only 20 and already cynical (with *brief* phases of idealism and, sometimes, of apathy). I think that ultimately, being idealistic (and thus doing what you can to make things better) while developing/maintaining the ability to be apathetic to preserve your own sanity is probably the way to go...
simply put: no ...
Date: 2005-04-01 09:21 am (UTC)"How do I achieve blissful apathy" was hanging (in it's german version ...) on my wall for a long time. NOT that I took it down because I found apathy, either.
I know for myself that in my cynic phases, I'm absolutely fed up with the world. And I fantasize about struggling my neighbor if she *once again* puts a bag full of glass bottles into the normal trash. It's the simple things that put you over the edge :)
But then, sometimes, I can get a warm feeling because I manage to make my small corner of the world a better place. And I don't feel so cynical any more.
(In above mentioned example, I managed to convey to another neighbor -- with the help of a turkish dictionary -- the concept of recycling. She understood! Felt good.)
Short answer: nope.
Date: 2005-04-01 03:15 pm (UTC)*sigh*
:o(
no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 07:55 pm (UTC)People ARE basically good
Date: 2005-04-13 04:34 am (UTC)It works the same way with the media -- bad news sells, so that's what they look for, so that's what we see. So we mistakenly conclude at some level of the brain that it's a representative sample and that there's a lot more bad news than there actually is, and we become afraid.
During my first trip to Liverpool, I took the bus in the wrong direction, and wound up in Kirkby, "the bad part of town", after dark. Nothing bad happened to me. I met friendly people who helped me get back to where I needed to be. During my early trips to gay bars/clubs in London, I was horribly, horribly niave. Nothing bad happened to me. I met a few nice women who took me aside and explained some basic common sense behaviors for safety. I am not saying I think nobody ever does anything bad, and I have no intention of pushing my luck by intentionally doing dangerous things, but I point these things out as times when something bad could have happened, BUT DIDN'T. There's thousands of these, times when people were good and helpful, but you usually only hear about the times when somebody gets raped or stabbed, so the rest goes overlooked.
The two enemies here are groupthink and fear. Groupthink because it makes an "us" and a "them", and makes it OK to hurt them "them" by starting a war or dumping industrial waste in their drinking water. The second is fear -- fear keeps us apart on the rational level and makes us instead join groupthink based on the fear. Fear of being a victim of a terrorist attack, so they decide to demonize a race that they perceive as more likely to attack them. Fear of being thought a loony for opening their mouths to say to their neighbors what they're both thinking. Fear of being Not Right and being cast out of the herd where they've sought their safety in numbers, and turning into sheeple to prevent this. Fear of going to Hell (don't know how to refute this one... to me the concept of hell is utterly absurd, and I can't see into the mind of somebody legitimately worried about this). Fears that keep people down.
But even then they'll break through in little ways, still demonstrating the basic human urge to help each-other... holding doors, loaning each-other eggs needed for recipes... (that's NOT just a rural thing, it's just that city people seem less inclined to ask... but personal experience finds they're often just as willing to help if you do ask).
(Post continued in second comment, exceeded character limit.)
Re: People ARE basically good
Date: 2005-04-13 04:35 am (UTC)There are a few bad people who will manipulate the group-think, but that doesn't mean the people trapped in it are also evil. Most of the "moral majority" snarling about homosexuals probably didn't give a damn until their preachers worked them into a frenzy. Their flaw is being too easily manipulated, because they have let their fears take over and make them seek protection in the herd. Apathy about important issues like pollution is often a "sour grapes" reaction to a perceived lack of power to do anything about it. (More than a few times I've argued with SUV owners who justified it by saying "the environment is fucked anyway, so I might as well...") And, of course, the fact that the herd leaders don't want them to do anything about it, so they send them off worrying about Clinton's blowjobs instead.
The important thing to remember is that change IS possible, because the majority of people are not evil but manipulated. If we can find a way to reach to them past their fears, numbers will be on our side, and change will start happening. As somebody (Eisenhower?) said, "One of these days, the people of the world will want peace so much that the governments had better get out of their way and let them have it."
You recently quoted the Beatles in my LJ, let me return the favor:
Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Herd leaders don't have to be evil. Look at all the people whose lives John Lennon managed to touch and change for the better through his music.
And, finally, although I am not a doctor, I prescribe spending at least half a day in the company of a litter of puppies (and no other humans). The puppies will tell you the things I wanted to say but couldn't find words for.