Oct 03, 2007 23:57
I have been asking myself this question for years. It's a question that has baffled me more times than I can count. A question that both reflects the age we live in and the state of our generation.
Why can't people be happy with being treated well?
I think I may have discovered an answer that, for the moment, satisfies my addled mind. The answer is simple; we cannot get the abuse we desire from someone who cares.
The value of the sanctity of human life is at an all time high in America. We have no real slaves. We have no major class struggles. We have no ruling class that openly subjugates the lower classes. Don't get me wrong, all of these evils still exist in one form or another but none openly. Our world is more politically correct then ever. There are no slaves, just minimum wage workers, there is no class struggle, just affirmative action, there is no ruling class, just politicians and business men.
Go to your nearest book store or library and check out the self help section, now look at the magazine rack. Next go to the new age section. Then go on to the non-fiction section and leaf through a few biographies of famous people and see what they say about the common man. Watch a few interviews on you tube with a few celebrities. You'll see a common trait; people should love themselves.
In our day and age every one is spending so much time running around patting each other on the back, telling each other how great we all are, how special each person is, how can we ever want that out of someone we actually know?
I think, and of course, this is my opinion, I think that we are so full of how much we love ourselves that we have forgot what it is to truly be full of self loathing. Hell, most people are so full of themselves that they can't even admit when they're wrong, even when it's obvious to every one else around them.
The sick thing is that every one else around them that sees a persons error just continues on, never calling the person on the error because they are so afraid of not being seen as having a positive attitude that they shrink from correcting less they be singled out.
I say that the reason so many dysfunctional relationships exist, the reason so many people get divorced, the reason that so many people consciously do things that are bad for them is because they are starved for some genuine hate.
People can't be happy happy with someone that is good for them because they get that from every where. But truly being treated like shit? That's something special.
Most people today have so much ego that they can't actually hate themselves. They can say that the don't like it when they eat too much or watch too much TV. People can dislike how we are treating the environment or how we are handling foreign affairs. But can most people actually say "I don't like me, I think that i am not a good person"?
The reason we want to be with those that treat us like shit, the reason that we continue bad habits and seem to be incapable of ending the cycle of bull shit in this world is because we crave it when someone or something truly treats us horribly.
What a beautiful step forward we've made, loving ourselves so much that being abused is something unique.