A strange and scary world. "Happy" New Year.
Once upon a time, there was this small world, the third in line around a young star. Swirling about in its merry little journey, this world, seen from afar as a blue and green globe with white puffy clouds moving across its surface, was even younger, with a species of humanoids growing quickly, but whose brains just could not seem to keep up with the flow of time...
One time, many, many moons ago, this world was filled with people who stood in awe of the 'gods' and 'goddesses' who ruled over them with mind games and clever tricks. Time moved on, though, and soon the little gods and goddesses found themselves lost in the annals of history; believed to be nothing more than fiction.
This was a great movement on the part of the human race - a movement backwards.
You see, from the ashes of the great reign of the devious gods and goddesses, a nasty empire rose to strike fear into the hearts of mankind. A once powerful race known as 'Wo-man' was struck down in the name of the new God, leaving 'Man' to rule all. Given power, this great new empire, known far and away as the 'Catholic Church' used its religion, 'Christianity', to dominate the globe.
There was no stopping the empire. Resistance was futile. Or so they thought.
Of course, the problem is - resistance IS futile. They just got it wrong, see - it was they who needed to stop resisting, not their conquered prey.
Eventually, some of the little race began to see the fault in this empire, and began to put little cracks in its shiny walls. Pretty soon, the empire began to see cracks everywhere, and when one peered through the cracks they saw lies and deceit, hatred and pain, which surprised the young race as they were always told it was beautiful and wondrous.
Some still see nothing but the unmarred beauty of those shiny walls, but those in the know can see the cracks, and how big they are getting.
Those in the know realize that the shiny empire is crumbling.
Those in the know realize that it will not be long before human beings grow up and realize that respect is the most important religion of all, and that they are sorely faithless.
I grew up in a world that I was taught to believe hated me from birth. Not because I was wrong, evil, scary or even mean, but just because I was born, like more than 90% of the people on this planet, not 'straight'. Even after realizing religion was wrong at the young age of eight, I still had several years to grow before I realized that society was wrong as well; my liking boys did not cause the end of the universe, or this strange 'God' to strike me down when I said, "I'm gay."
People often told me, "You're always talking about being gay. Why can't you talk about anything else?"
I found it odd though; I wasn't talking about anything different than they - how was I talking about being gay? Ah - that's right - I am now-a-days surrounded by these that call themselves open-minded and speak of this beautiful world of acceptance, but then they turn around and think it's 'gay' to talk about liking a bloke.
"Oh my God, Tommy is so hot," says Jane. "Yeah, look at his butt!" says Sue. "It's so dreamy," exclaims Steve.
"Like, do you always have to talk about being gay? It's, like, all you ever talk about, you know. It's kind of uncool."
To be fair, I do talk about 'being gay' quite often, though not as often as I am accused of. Though, I should mention that talking about being gay is quite similar to black people talking about walking into a shop and having a white old git staring daggers at the black guy in the thousand pound suit in Primark. Or the Jewish kid who has to hear his friends make snide remarks about him being stingy with money. Or the woman who has to hear a man say something disparaging about her mental capacity because someone just like her gave birth to him and the Empire told him that made her inferior.
I tend to get side-tracked, and I have done again. Let me just skip back:
I have been alone a lot recently, and I have started thinking. I know, I do that all the time and most of it leads to trouble. I over-analyze and all that.
During all this thinking, I have been looking around me and getting scared. I see this horrible world coming - all of these religious people who fight for 'Family Values' that apparently involve hating, hurting and pain. I foresaw two worlds - this one world included a horrible return to faith and a turn from science. This horrible world involved women being turned into property again, forbade to think aloud or even show they use their brains for more than following orders. A world where gays, blacks and Jews are hung in public ceremonies that five-year-old children attend with little demon parents to whisper hate into their ears. I foresaw a world not that far unlike our history.
It scared me.
Then I realized that I was doing it again, and I gave myself a slap.
That's not our future! It cannot be! Why? Because we are growing up - and these are just growing pains.
Now I see a future where everyone thinks more about respect for their fellow man than money, power or religion. I see a future in which a young child is smiled at when they kiss anyone, not just who their parents were taught to think they should. A world where the colour of one's skin is just a fashion statement, not a way of life. A future where ones religion is a private, personal matter that they are allowed to revel in privately, without being forced by state or society. A world where crime is still there, and people are still mean sometimes, but a happy one never-the-less.
It's a long way off, this future. And we have a long way to go. Some of us may never see it, and some of us may revel in it. Some of us may tell stories to children who cannot believe they were once told they couldn't play with a doll because a big corporation told them it was wrong. They will laugh and call the person mad because it just isn't possible that someone would hang a person from a tree, drag them by the neck from a truck or beat them to near death and tie them to a post to die for any reason.
This will happen. This world is coming.
And to you Family Values creatures, I send my pity. You are an ugly, sad, dying breed, and we are watching you in your death-throws. Time has spoken and you are finished, you just don't know it yet.
Happy New Year.