Hope for the future
I look at people and see just a sea of bad decisions and self-destruction leading to 100% avoidable repercussions that stick with you forever. And it's no wonder... What hope is there for the future? What are we living for? We grow up to enter a lifetime of debt, abuse from others, and general hopelessness. The only way to prosper, it seems, is to behave like the sociopaths who are ruining it for everyone else. If that's the only thing we can hope to aspire to, what's the point in trying? I think this is the root of the widespread hopelessness I see. This is why people living self-destructive lives, not caring about the consequences, only wishing to avoid having to deal with the world.
I wonder how many people I know who are happy. I only know one person from my generation who is doing what they want to be doing. I know two who seem to be completely content with what they're doing, which is about the same thing. Still, I see more than half the people I know drifting aimlessly, stuck in a deadend job, unable to maintain a lasting relationship, just sinking further and further into an emotional hole. When did this become normal?
What can we do about this? This isn't normal! We need to start putting our feet down. If the customer is an asshole, he is never right and your business is better off if you send him packing. If your politician is a crook, you must send him packing. If a law is unfair, you must get it changed. If someone is a habitual liar, you're probably better off not being around them. If someone uses women (or men!) and brags about it, let them be ashamed, not the ones who save it for something real. Scrabbling around in the shadows like a rat looking for a crumb is not how we are meant to live. We must walk into the light and put the evil men and women who are in charge scrabbling in alleys. Good, intelligent, honest people are taught that they are worthless and have no hope, but the world really belongs to them. No more anti-intellectualism and general dishonesty.
The US government currently works this way: Lobbyists fund candidates for office. It's very hard to run successfully without this funding. Even if you do get into office, you will be badly outnumbered by the paid-off people and basically shut out, powerless. Once they're in office, they must do as the lobbyists say, or their funding will be cut off. Thusly we get a very small percentage (1%, if you will) of the US calling all the shots, and the will of the people is ignored. The laws are increasingly changed to reward this rich minority (less benefits for workers, less checks on toxic waste, less laws interfering with lobbying, etc.), making the system more and more ingrained. The Republicans even have a 24-hour propaganda network newspeaking that bad is good: health care is socialism! The poor are lazy! The rich must be trusted explicitly! Only Christians are capable of being moral! Global warming is a conspiracy to make money! It's all crap to gather votes for the lobbyists. It's no wonder people are depressed. This is not a healthy society.
We don't want a revolution. Revolutions are ugly and new bad guys usually step in to fill the shoes of the old ones. But if things don't start improving, people might become so desperate and angry that a revolution is what we get. I feel it's our responsibility to make sure things don't come to that. I don't know what that entails, entirely, but as stated above, intolerance of sociopathic assholes is a good way to start. Make sure they know they're not welcome in our lives, on any level. Don't just look down in embarrassment as they wreak havoc, but instead send them on their way. Things can get better, but first we have to feel empowered to do so.
I wonder how many people I know who are happy. I only know one person from my generation who is doing what they want to be doing. I know two who seem to be completely content with what they're doing, which is about the same thing. Still, I see more than half the people I know drifting aimlessly, stuck in a deadend job, unable to maintain a lasting relationship, just sinking further and further into an emotional hole. When did this become normal?
What can we do about this? This isn't normal! We need to start putting our feet down. If the customer is an asshole, he is never right and your business is better off if you send him packing. If your politician is a crook, you must send him packing. If a law is unfair, you must get it changed. If someone is a habitual liar, you're probably better off not being around them. If someone uses women (or men!) and brags about it, let them be ashamed, not the ones who save it for something real. Scrabbling around in the shadows like a rat looking for a crumb is not how we are meant to live. We must walk into the light and put the evil men and women who are in charge scrabbling in alleys. Good, intelligent, honest people are taught that they are worthless and have no hope, but the world really belongs to them. No more anti-intellectualism and general dishonesty.
The US government currently works this way: Lobbyists fund candidates for office. It's very hard to run successfully without this funding. Even if you do get into office, you will be badly outnumbered by the paid-off people and basically shut out, powerless. Once they're in office, they must do as the lobbyists say, or their funding will be cut off. Thusly we get a very small percentage (1%, if you will) of the US calling all the shots, and the will of the people is ignored. The laws are increasingly changed to reward this rich minority (less benefits for workers, less checks on toxic waste, less laws interfering with lobbying, etc.), making the system more and more ingrained. The Republicans even have a 24-hour propaganda network newspeaking that bad is good: health care is socialism! The poor are lazy! The rich must be trusted explicitly! Only Christians are capable of being moral! Global warming is a conspiracy to make money! It's all crap to gather votes for the lobbyists. It's no wonder people are depressed. This is not a healthy society.
We don't want a revolution. Revolutions are ugly and new bad guys usually step in to fill the shoes of the old ones. But if things don't start improving, people might become so desperate and angry that a revolution is what we get. I feel it's our responsibility to make sure things don't come to that. I don't know what that entails, entirely, but as stated above, intolerance of sociopathic assholes is a good way to start. Make sure they know they're not welcome in our lives, on any level. Don't just look down in embarrassment as they wreak havoc, but instead send them on their way. Things can get better, but first we have to feel empowered to do so.