Heavier Things
As the title indicates, I'd originally intended for this blog to be a repository for all the things I have time, over the span of a few days, to ponder, but never discuss. It quickly became, or perhaps even just started out as, an online diary instead, except for a few exceptions here and there. I like that, but I think every now and then I should do what I'm calling a 'throwback' entry, one that's made exactly like I'd originally intended. So, here goes:
The world is going to hell in a hand-basket. While several people would immediately protest that that simply wasn't true, it remains, in my mind at least, a sad fact. In my meager span of years, I've watched as, in the name of progress, or enlightenment, or religion, or patriotism, or whatever you wanna call it, we've taken all the things that made humanity great and flushed them down the toilet. The world is no longer ruled by morality and good judgement, but instead by the Almighty Dollar.
Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that there is absolutely nothing good left in the world, but I guess I am saying that you have to look so much harder for it now then you used to. Every day I watch the world fill with more and more hate, so many people suffering for no other reason than that others can't be bothered to help. I'm guilty of it myself, everytime I walk right past and pretend not to see the man who needs the change in my pocket a lot more than I do, and so many other opportunities to do good that just slip right under the radar.
But the sense of malaise goes much further than just globally. Or perhaps I mean strikes much closer. Friends of mine are genuinely afraid to walk home at night, simply because they're pretty girls. What does that say about us as a society? When did the focus of our lives stop being the betterment of mankind in general, and start being the betterment of ourselves personally instead?
Focussing only on ourselves has left the world in some pretty dire straights. Our demand for everything to be easy, and for nothing to hurt our feelings, has left us, as a society, nearly completely disjointed from reality. "Political Correctness" is just one symptom of this, but it's pretty indicative of the mentality. Schools no longer fail students. Why? Because it may hurt their self esteem. So now, there are kids in sixth grade who can't read. What a tragedy! Children are completely unprepared for the real world.
Then again, I nearly had a nervous breakdown 10 months ago, not because I was stressed out about work, or with personal issues, although those did contribute. What finally brought me down was the realization that I felt alone in a battle. I spent so much time worrying that I was treating everyone else fairly that I forgot to treat myself fairly, and when my world suddenly came crashing down around my ears, where were the people I'd spent so much time worrying about? Too busy worrying about themselves to give 2 squats about what was happening to me. With some notable exceptions, obviously, or else I wouldn't be around to write this lament. You know who you are.
But where does that leave us? We are a society that, while it wants to be built on fun and laughter, is really built on fear, now more than ever. Why are we worried about kid's self esteem? 'cause if it gets low enough, they may decide it's a good idea to bring some kind of weapon with them to school, and take their frustrations out on their schoolmates. But it doesn't end there! We're so worried about offending someone, who may then decide to hurt us in retaliation, that we've invented this system of checks and balances that have forced us all to live in even more fear than before, because now we've acknowledged the possibility, and it just goes on and on, getting bigger and bigger, until it's too big to not fear.
And I worry. About the future. About the future of the world. About the future of my life. About the future of my children's lives, God willing. And I wonder if anything I can do can make even the slightest difference. How, in a world that seems so lost, so hugely uncaring, so destined to destroy itself, can one man have any effect, let alone a man who barely feels out of boyhood?
G'night.
posted by Brian @ 2:32 AM
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