Humanity is Screwed

I have come to one very depressing conclusion: humanity is screwed. The environment is collapsing, the water is polluted, political systems are failing, society is crumbling, and civilization is on the verge of a mediocre smothering. I know, it’s been said thousands of times before, but come on people. The writing is on the wall. The worst part is most of you are too illiterate to read it.

Now notice I don’t claim the world is going to end, nor that life will cease to be. Trust me, we are way too full of ourselves if we think we’re capable of obliterating this rock we exist on. And life will continue to thrive long after we become extinct. That is what evolution is all about. Sure there will be tons of cockroaches and rats, but they have the tools to survive. Hell, we’ve thrown everything at those creatures short of an atomic bomb and even if we did that, those twin species would continue to scramble to all four corners of the globe.

So why is humanity doomed? Well, it’s quite simple. It’s our mindset. We all know the all important question posed to humanity: Why am I? Now we’ve come up with some interesting answers as well as some very skewed ones (scientologists, I’m looking at you). The problem is the question shouldn’t be “Why am I?” The question is “Why should I be?”

First, why the initial question is not only worthless but a threat to the human mindset. To think we are so unique that we warrant an investigation into our origins smacks of narcissism. Do you want the literal reason for why you are here? Sex, my friend. Do you want to understand how life came to be? Chemicals, energy, and chance. Do you want to realize your purpose? It’s balance. Always has been, always will be. The universe is a complex equation of check and countercheck, everything balancing everything else out because too much of anything is detrimental to the whole. So to believe that humanity ranks above the ecosystem, the plants that make it up, or the animals who thrive in it is to remove ourselves from our natural environment and place us in a land of confusion. Just because we have a gift called reason doesn’t mean we should do the equivalent of masturbating with it by dreaming up tons of questions that will never lead anywhere. Reality is a subjective thing. What you think makes sense I know I sure the hell don’t agree with. So seeking out some universal answer to some philosophical enigma is nothing more than a waste of time. You have reason for a reason: to figure out real world problems and create solutions. We are a part of the grand equation, each of us serving as a cog in the machine. The only question we should be asking is what cog are we meant to represent. Believing ourselves special because we are human and sentient is ridiculous. Sure, I know I’m an entity. What is so special about that? If we were to make man vanish, the world could easily get on without us. That is because we’ve so removed ourselves from the life cycle that we’ve become more of an irritant retarding life’s growth. We don’t balance things. We tip the scales in our favor. We play the role of the measurer rather than of weight on the scale. We are so distant from the world, sealed in our tombs called the modern home, seeing the world through television instead of through windows, we really have no clue what is going on around us. We’re oblivious to the fact we are destroying the world. Luckily, tipping the scale too far will only lead to us sliding down and out of the picture allowing it to bounce back. We, sadly, won’t be there to see it.

Now I’m going to shock you. All that crap you’ve been told since birth about being special: you’re not. Yeah, mommy and daddy wanted to build up your ego, aid in the building of some self-esteem. Well, face it. You’re not special. In a world of over 6 billion (6,000,000,000) humans, what exactly sets you apart? You have the same organs, the same senses, and likely the same skin and hair of some fraction of the rest of humanity. So are you a stand-out? Are you some demi-god or messiah, some superhuman? No, you’re not.

Let me shock you some more. We are not all equal. Yeah, the introduction on the United States’ charter would have you believe otherwise: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. First off, if that were true then why were only the educated upper classes representing the rest of the colonies? Why was there an aristocratic elite even in a backwater like America in the eighteenth century? It was a nice little idealistic spiel but not an honest one. If ol’ Tom Jefferson wasn’t winking when he wrote that then the man was obviously broken in the brain. No my friends, we are not all equal. There are those who are smarter, stronger, more aggressive, more creative, more innovative, etc. We are a multifaceted species and that is a good thing. It allows us to look at problems from different angles, to each play some role. If we were all exactly alike, all “equal”, then why should one guy get the chance to hold a position over another? Why are there hierarchies? We all have gifts, usually not the same as others. The pathetic part is television, the media, and our very culture rams down our throats that we are all capable of the amazing and nothing is beyond our grasp. People, stop driving yourselves insane. Not everyone is capable of being the greatest. The slots are limited, the competition intense, and you very likely do not possess the tools to accomplish victory. Sad but true, yet it doesn’t make you pathetic. You play a part, you’re just not meant for greater things. There is no shame in realizing your limitations. But to believe yourself capable of far more than you really are; that is hubris and that is the direction humanity is going. If we continue to believe we can do the impossible, the frustration is going to kill us.

Another problem with civilization is our glorification of those who feed our hunger for illusions. We deify athletes, movie stars, and musicians yet forget soldiers, teachers, and others who contribute far more to our society. Sure, that boxer overcame the odds and knocked out the champ in the last round in a Cinderella comeback, but what about the soldier who took a bullet in a unknown battle in a forgotten part of the world? Wow, that actor was really good in that movie. Real blockbuster stuff. Did you see all the explosions? What about the teacher who taught the actor to read the script, the writer to write, etc. We glorify our dreams and forget the reality. There is a reason why past societies considered entertainers lower than prostitutes: because they take you out of the world. Sure, they can make you forget the problems in your life for a few hours because of them, but when it’s over you sure the hell still have the same problems. Why not glorify people who actually strive to change the world, not make you forget about it?

So, I ask you, why should you be? What do you have to offer humanity? What do you have to offer the world? If you’d just drop the damn narcissism and realize you’re part of a larger whole, that you’re not special or unique but belong to a larger whole that can’t function without you, then maybe we could stop the fragmenting of civilization and actually turn the world around. You exist so that there is a tomorrow. That is why you are. Try to find a way to make it happen. A life well lived is one where you left the world better off because of you’re life. It’s not material possessions or fame, historical precedent or a even a large family. It’s having done what you could that things improved.

Come on guys. You all have reason for a reason. Stop wasting it, shutting it off, squandering that potential. Stop letting other people tell you what to think, how to act, what should be. Make a mark. Let those sparks of thought fly, burn bright with your inquisitive nature, illuminate a path to a greater tomorrow. Make me eat my words. I’m challenging you. Now do it!

Will Smith SUCKS!!!

I know that everybody makes bad movies, but Will Smith is in a league all his own. I'm not sure if making shit movies so that the audience will appreciate if you make good ones is a valid argument for the heinous nature of his career. That's like banging your head with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop. More often than not, these days people make bad movies because they can get away with it. If there were any justice, all parties involved with making drek like "Wild Wild West" would never be allowed to work in Hollywood again. But they did, and while that's great for Smith, every time somebody makes a piece of garbage like that and then brags about how they could put all of the money he made off of it on a 16 wheeler in his next family friendly rap song, it lets the studio just how much rancid shit they can get away with making. Now look where we are today in the movie industry. Perhaps one movie in 50 is any good at all, but that's okay because they're "trying". If I made as many fuckups in my job as they do in Hollywood, I'd be eating government cheese right now, but in the movie industry it's like "Nice try, here's 50 million dollars and a goodie bag."

Every actor makes bad films once in a while. You can't always pick 'em. But Will Smith makes the same bad movie over and over again. Moreover you can tell that every one of these films is framed and written to make Smith look as good as possible every second. They should call every one of these shitty films "Will Smith: The Movie Part 2 or 3 or 5" etc. The guy has all the clout in the world and he still can't bother to use it to make a literary adaptation that isn't a complete bastardization of the source material. He's not swinging for quality; he's swinging for the lowest common denominator because he knows he can succeed by appealing to the simple. Anyone using box office receipts to prove a point obviously never had one to begin with. You can sucker the idiot American public into seeing and loving anything. Look at the success of Jumper and Cloverfield and any Adam Sandler movie. He's a big box office star. Big fucking deal. It says more about the general public than it does about Will Smith as a talent.

Wright, Shut the Fuck up!

You haven’t heard, which wouldn’t be surprising due to the amazing silence of the majority of media outlets, Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, recently said, “God damn America.” Now I am not going to chastise the guy (amazing, I know!) for that comment as I believe each and every person in this nation has a right to say whatever they wish. Freedom of speech is a glorious thing which has allowed us as a nation to advance as far as we have in science, civil rights, and the arts (though we’re regressing on that last point). But, as I believe in freedom of speech, thus I am going to exercise it to dispute the rather short-sighted, ridiculous claims made by a demagogue in Christ’s raiment.

There are those saying that Wright's words were taken out of context. That he was not blatantly damning the whole of America but racist views which have held his people back (the man is black), made them into criminals, and attempts to extinguish them as a culture. The pastor related various incidents leading up to his condemnation of our country. He spoke of his days as a Marine, returning from war, and being told he couldn’t eat at certain restaurants or go to certain areas because of the color of his skin despite the fact that he fought for this country. He railed against blacks being relegated to the lowest rung of the economic order, being forced into criminal acts to survive, being locked up because of a system which prevents them from rising up to middle class status. I call bullshit on his entire argument and I am going to tell you why.

The pastor complained about public segregation. That complaint is near forty years too late as all forms of segregation, whether in schools, water fountains, bathrooms, restaurants, etc. ended a long time ago. The last time I checked, no restaurant turned away a customer based on the color of their skin.

On the economic order of things, blacks were not the first people to suffer through economic misery. There were Irish immigrants, German immigrants, Italian immigrants, Jewish immigrants, and even the new wave of Hispanic immigrants who all came to this nation without money or education, had no political power, and had to suffer through privations until they rose up and took their place alongside the citizenry of this nation. Political theory has shown that any group can, and will, eventually attain equality unless there is true discrimination going on. Through hard work, a group attains money. Through money, a group attains stature. Through stature and economic value, the group attains political voice. Through this political voice, the group attains power and thus becomes a part of the system. The average amount of time this system takes is usually forty years. Not counting from the point of slavery’s abolition, but instead from the end of the civil rights movement in the 60s, blacks have had the prerequisite amount of time to have completed the system and to have the equality they seek. The problem is they do not want it.

Listen to the average black politician. They will consistently play up black urban plight, the repressive system that holds blacks back, the difficult economic situation of African-American culture which forces a disproportionate number of their young in the criminal system. Yet black culture glorifies urban culture. The majority consistently complain about how they are “owed” something. The problem with black culture, and you may call me racist for being so blunt, is that blacks want things given to them rather than to earn them. Where this view originated I can’t really tell you. The Civil Rights movement was made up of men and women who fought against the system that kept them and their children back from a host of possibilities. They faced brutal repression to give future generations a chance. Once they had the door opened, perhaps it was the way they were invited into the political system which warped their style of politics. The nation bent over backwards to give blacks a chance. There was desegregation of schools, the creation of public housing, the establishment of quotas, and more which not only leveled the playing field but outright gave blacks advantages over other groups. In other words, government “gave” blacks what they wanted rather than made them “earn” it. By that, I mean we did more than strip away racist laws; we created laws which discriminated others and forced people to step aside that blacks may become a favored class. Whenever someone steps forward and complains about preferential treatment, and to state a quota of any sort is based on merit rather than on skin color, then they are labeled racist and politicians back off for fear of the backlash. Why not call it what it is? Blacks are racists who believe they are entitled, partially due to government’s pandering to them reinforcing such behavior, and they do not want to give up that status. The blacks have virtually become like the whites of the early twentieth century: too stubborn to allow merit, over skin color or flawed thinking, to determine what is best.

Government policies have ruined black communities. These policies are entitlement programs. What incentive is there to work if welfare exists? From the cradle to the grave, that program alone destroys any drive a person may have. And it has become generational. Then there is desegregation of schools. Through busing, kids are taken out of their neighborhoods and put in other communities’ schools in order to “force” diversity. Yet there has been no real improvement in black economic or educational growth. This program has helped to ruin inner city schools. Whenever a school fails, the parents blame educators and want their kids shipped to more affluent areas for better education. Education is not simply teachers in the classroom. Education also happens at home. How can teachers teach if parents are setting bad examples, failing to discipline their children, and refusing to help their kids through their studies? It is the family unit, not the schools, that has failed blacks in America.

Over 70% of black children are born illegitimate. 70%! Children grow up without a father and that leads to all sorts of problems. Daughters seek out that missing male in their life, taken advantage of by sons who have never been taught what it means to be a man. Single mothers have to take two or more jobs to support their children (if they work) and thus are not available to supervise their children who get into things they shouldn’t. Children feel lost and alone and thus attach themselves to peer groups in the shape of gangs who give them that first true feeling of belonging they never had. Black children grow up angry and upset because their community had failed them. Rather than own up to their failure, the black community plays the race card (like Nazis with Jews) and take all their problems and embody them in white repression. They focus all their anger and frustration at whites to direct it away from the real problem because they simply don’t want to deal with it.

Black culture glorifies gangstas and athletes, sexuality and bling, violence and drugs. There is no talk of education, activism, or sacrifice. Blacks want the easy way because it is the simpler way. Whites helped to pave that path. Blacks refuse to deviate from it.

I’m sorry if this rant has insulted some. To me, this is the truth. Someone had to say it. Might as well be the quiet guy who can’t shut up anymore.

Me

I am not expecting anyone to understand the complexity that is me. Neither I, nor my ex-wife, ever understood what I am. I am a miasma of so many emotions; a conflicting series of wants, needs, and desires. Sometimes I wish I were in a different time. A simpler time. I feel so out of place.

I know you don't know what I mean. Maybe you do. I pressed myself so hard in my youth. I had to achieve the impossible as soon as possible. There was not ime to waste. I had to be the prodigy. I had to change the world. When I failed, I faced depression beyond belief. I wanted to be so much more than I am. Then reality finally came and I began to see I am only human. That is an amazing thing.

I loathe those who strive for perfection. Man was never meant to be perfect. We all have flaws. No one will ever be perfect. No one can ever achieve the impossible. I believe that is part of my hatred for Christianity. That faith lashes one for their inablity to live up to a standard; a standard of a man who liekly never existed, and if he did, he did not exist in the form that he did.

The human condition is one of learning. It is a lifetime of stumbling, of discovery, of self-assertion. There are those who do not understand this or who refuse to. I do not hate any race, any sexuality, any view. I realize we are all diffrent. We are all unique. For anyone to hate a person becuase of who they are is short sighted, shallow, and ill-informed. We are all special in our own way.

I know I may be rambling. I am quite intoxicated as it is, but I felt it important to share my views. So many people fail to understand those strangers just a few feet away; fail to hear what it is they wish to express. We are all human beings who speak a shared language, yet are incapable of understanding what we mean.

I'm a solitary man; a lonely man. I wish there were those who understood me. But I have come to realize mine is a lonely path of discovery. I envy you, those who have those to join them on their path of discovery. Learn from these precious moments given to you as I struggle forward hoping to understand why I am and what I was meant to be.

What I've Been Up To (Shudder)

The past few days I've been putting together the beginnings of an alternate history surrounding World War II. I know. This has been done to death by hundreds of thousands before me. But I need something to keep the mental gears fluid and rolling, and I definitely need some time off my second novel. I only have fourteen more pages left to edit/re-write and then I'm officially done with it, but still: I'm a procrastinator and need something new to do after six months of that novel. If you want to watch my "history" unfold, just click away.

Bono is an idiot and this is why!

Bono is on a crusade to end poverty around the globe. I am not going to bash him for his idealism, though I'm a realist. You see, realists see idealists as fanatics far out of touch with reality. They won't let something such as facts or common sense get in the way of their attempts to give substance to insubstantial wonderings on how the world should be even though if the world were meant to be that way wouldn't it have naturally evolved in that direction? Have I lost you yet?

Anyway, Bono has been shaming governments into forgiving debts of third world countries, pleading with westerners to donate massive amounts of cash to these poverty stricken nations, and to uplift our poor brothers. I love the irony that this man lashes us to give all we can while he himself has not contributed a dime to his cause. We wouldn't want this to seem a vanity project!

Poverty is not the illness aflicting third world countries nor the cause of homelessness and joblessness in our own country. Poverty is a symptom of the overall economy. If the economic system of a community is maladaptive, corrupt, or just plain not working, then money dries up, jobs disappear, opportunity lessens, and people become poor. Donating cash, such as welfare and Bono's plan, does not solve the overall problem. It only masks the symptom. If we do not assault the actual problem, the poor economic systems within these communities, then these peoples will remain poor forever. Africa is suffering through poverty because of corrupt governments, poor educational systems, a lack of infrastructure, and no entrepreneurship. To solve their problems, first these nations need to stop breeding at intense rates (their flimsy economies have no room for them let alone twelve kids). A shabby economy can only further breakdown under the stress of a large population. Second, improve their educational background that these peoples may become competetive. Most importantly, though, is the need for transparent, effective government. Corrupt governance is what is holding Africa and its people in poverty, not the West and unfair business practices. Financial capital is funneled into the hands of the few, government officials sign deals detrimental to the long term well being of their nations, and the cycle persists.

There is so much more I want to say on this but I would really just get into a rambling diatribe. Suffice it to say, if Bono wants to solve the economic problems of Africa, he should be trying to reform the governments on the continent. Until that is done, you'll see chaos such as Zimbabwe and Kenya where even meager and/or impressive economic gains are again and again wiped out by tyrants and corrupt government. All Bono wants to do is create international welfare. If these African nations do not learn the value of cash (by earning it, not by debt forgiveness and donations) nor find a way to keep it out of corrupt governmental coffers, then Bono will solve nothing.

Man and the Urinal

Despite wanting to forget some of the things I've discovered in public restrooms (and there has been a lot I wish I had never seen), I have noticed an interesting bit of behavior when it comes to men and the urinal. Through naturalistic observation, I have seen man's strange behavioral patterns surrounding the urinal:

• The ashamed type: one who chooses to use the enclosed toilet, safely emptying his bladder behind obscuring partitions despite the readily available urinals for his use because of a fear of someone either a) seeing they pee like the rest of the human race or b) they are terrified at the possibility someone might make a "comparison" between his equipment and theirs if even for mild curiosity versus actual phallic competition. There is also the rare c) the fear someone might ask to touch it, though few are willing to admit to this due to the belief even an inkling of such thinking makes them "gay".

• The social type: one who chooses to occupy the urinal right next to you despite there being urinals a much more comfortable distance away. They may sometimes try to initiate conversation. May induce similar fears as those suffered by the ashamed type (see (b) and (c) under said type)

• The obsessive type: one who refuses to use the toilet or any other urinal save for the one you are using. They will stand there breathing down your neck until you finish. The irony is such behavior tends to force the individual using the urinal to take longer because of the pee-freezing anxiety caused by someone trying to make them hurry up.

• The amnesiac: the one who forgets to flush the urinal immediately after finishing. They usually exhibit the trait of very strong, pungent urine.

• The sprayer: one who manages to get urine everywhere save in the urinal itself. May sometimes even spray their neighbors leading to fears of (b) or (c) under the ashamed type because they were too busy watching their neighbors.

• The staller: one who stands in front of a urinal for extended periods of time doing nothing. Also known as suffering from pee-fright, urinary performance in a public setting.

• The eroto-maniac: one who derives intense pleasure from using the urinal to the point of moaning, smiling, and repeatedly uttering, "Oh, yeah," while in the act of urination.