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I just want to say that while I am deeply disturbed upon hearing the news of the Virginia Tech tragedy, does anybody else feel that non-stop media coverage of this terrible massacre is pretty revealing of how when 30 of our students die we stop everything on television to broadcast it, but when hundreds of people die every day for an unjustified,
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This is more or less universal, people have always been more interested in who mary jane slept with than with who's dieing in a distant land. It's easier to focus on what's in front of you than what's far away. This is the way we are built, physically and mentally. If you think about that, also think about this, it's easier to work with what's in front of you than with what's far away. What we're theoretically trying to do in iraq is like trying to thread a needle from across the room using very long chopsticks. It's very hard to tell what you're doing! The trouble is, whatever we do, people die. Especially at this point. Find the moral right ground there, if you can.
Our big problem is, people far away are dieing, and we dont' seem to care, but we should. I am cynical enough about government to believe, if you will remember my metaphor earlier, that we can never thread a needle from across the room with a very long pair of chopsticks. That is to say that there is nothing WE can do, from across the room, no matter how long our chopsticks are or how good we are at using them. It is natural to accept what you can't do anything about. When someone very important to you passes away, you do the same thing. I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of at this point.
If I were less cynical about government, i would say "Well, there IS something YOU can do, write your local representatives, and national representatives. Organize community meetings where you can share your ideas to build the momentum our nation's leaders (present or future) need to set things right."
BUT! I am very cynical about government. No one can every have the power to "set things right."
My..... odd naive belief that keeps me from walking around with my head hung low every day is this. I believe in the human race. we can't concern ourselves with everything, but we can focus on what's immidiate in our lives. The things we do know, the ideas we have found to be true, we can share. We can assert our beliefs and when it's extremely important, overide other's bad decisions but ONLY on a personal level. There's a story about a gentleman... here it is... http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/01/20/petrovaward.shtml
Interesting that I started by ranting on transcendentalism because this way of thinking is almost certainly the same way of escaping by taking the big picture and blurring it so much that is looks the same (be the scope one life, or the existance of humanity).
People will kill each other, terrible things will contiunously occur. That is part of being human. Now is were i would go all sappy and talk about all the reasons life is worth living. I'll spare ya. Suffice to say, as long as someone still has something to live for, I'm willing to accept the terrible stuff that happens. As long as we never kill ourselves off completely (and i.. sure hope we never will. I don't think we will anyway, once we start colonizing other planets, complete extermination will become very unlikely.) that to me is proof that it's all good. anywho.
Lost a bit of coherence at the end there. Thanks for giving me something to yak about hoffman.
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