Okay, I have to give a little presentation thing tonight so I wrote this little piece up to read. If you guys have any thoughts on it or if you think it's good, then please give me some sort of comment..at the very least tell me if you follow it. I hate public speaking and I'm trying to make a somewhate sarcastic social commentary piece. So, that's the basis. Here it is:
I believe that every generation is looked at, or perhaps even asks itself if they are the last one. It is easy to think that when people are young and feel invincible. Eventually, though, all those thoughts will come to a point when they are true. Could that be this generation, I wonder?
As I look at politics, humanity seems to disappoint me in ways I never really knew. On one side we have a president waging a war on an intangible thing, an international snipe hunt if you will. I think the only way our troops are getting out of Iraq is if someone finally catches “terror” in a sack, ‘til then well…we’re screwed. On the other end of the spectrum we have the most insane and outspoken idiocy I have ever heard. We have celebrities like Sheryl Crow telling us how to wipe our own asses to save the planet. Some how, I don’t think that’s really going to help.
As you all know, the Virginia Tech shootings occurred recently, and while I will not make light of that tragedy, I will direct scorn towards the media and people en masse. Not one day after that tragedy, I observed openings and closings on CNN showing pictures and videos like it was some kind of sports game. Is the media that insensitive? How much and how long are you able to milk a story? In addition, NBC spread that psychopath’s ramblings across the internet and TV…helping a crazy person get their anger and ravings out to the public? Probably not a good idea. Perhaps the thing that angers me most is the armchair psychologists trying to blame that violence on outside sources. As we know, people aren’t capable of such atrocities, right? Surely it was something else, because if someone else is capable of that…then aren’t we as well? Nah, can’t be. This brings me to the broader point of that train of thought, when we as a society don’t assign blame to individual actions. These days, it’s always a “disorder” or “childhood abuse” or “He was lonely and acting out”, to that I say bullshit. Society does influence people, but it does not make you a killer or any other kind of criminal. It may make you desire more Baby Back Ribs or Gap Jeans, but murder and bloodlust I think not. A society that does that to its people is doomed to failure.
The world today is nothing but depressing if you take all things seriously. You will also wear yourself out trying to be angry. I think the safest approach is to pick and chose your battles and regard other things with apathy. Or if apathy isn’t your thing, then try to stay away from pessimism and at the very least develop a sense of humor…I find sarcasm works pretty well, myself.
Maybe the world is going to hell in a hand basket, but no one said you can’t try to have fun along the way.
