What is it that makes people think that they know what's best for everyone else? I think about it in terms of the elementary school tattletale. It's the kid who assumes the role of Second in Command, the one who constantly tells the teacher who's doing what, based solely on indicators of right and wrong provided by the teacher (or parents), without any real personal connection or investment in the act itself. The phrase 'MYOB' would generally stifle the tattler back in elementary school, but that doesn't seem to be working now. Is the voting public really populated by so many tattletale personalities? This question leads to another: WHY ARE WE VOTING ON THIS ANYWAY? At heart, it's an issue of morality, not a social issue. Basically, if you didn't already think being gay was wrong, you wouldn't give a shit whether or not gay folks could get married.
And let's face it: Marriage hasn't ever been sacred. With the way it's abused by heterosexual people, what exactly are we trying to preserve? The right to have long drawn out legal battles for property and children? The right to get married and divorced within months, or sometimes days? The right to pay the government money for a marriage certificate? Come on. The bottom line is that you can't stop gay people from loving each other and being in relationships that are like marriages in every way (except the legal one). They're not going to disappear, or stop holding hands in public, or sleep in separate beds, or any of that. Banning gay marriage does not ban being gay, silly.
Finally, on a little bit deeper level, why do you care so much about what other people, people that you will never once cross paths with in your life, are doing? Why do people take such a vested interest in things that don't affect them, while often ignoring the things that do? As Jay-Z so eloquently put it, "What you eat don't make me shit." So MYOB!
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Why (some) People Suck
(This post is fueled by the robbery of some pretty cool, hard-working people in a land far, far away. If you feel the urge to do a good deed today, go here: http://themenzingers.tumblr.com/)
The overall obliviousness of people really honks me off. From the person who parks their shopping cart diagonally across one aisle while shopping in another, to the person who walks up to the bar and spits out an order even though there are ten other people waiting, they all suck (as a bartender, there is no worse customer than one who thinks he/she is the only person in the room). So, is it a genuine unawareness of the people around you? Do you literally think you're the only person in the room? Or is it a sense of self-importance? I have to wonder what, in a person's psyche, determines how important they think they are. I'm not talking about external forces like fame and money here. There are rich folks who are humble, and broke-ass fools who have egos the size of entire planets. What is it that makes someone butt people in line, cut people off in traffic, take things that aren't theirs, and harm other people for personal gain? It seems to be not only a sense of self-importance, but also a devaluation of the importance of others.
As a (fairly) normal person, I cannot possibly fathom stealing anything from someone else. I can't picture myself breaking into someone's car, smashing out a window, or vandalizing someone else's stuff in any other way. Any thought of violence or vandalism or harm immediately triggers the reflection, "what if that happened to me?", or in some cases, "remember how it felt when that happened to me?" It's human compassion. Now, by no means am I a bleeding heart, but I know what it's like to work hard for the things I have and, generally speaking, I like other humans. I don't want to negatively impact anyone else's life, and when possible, I try to improve the world around me. The more I think about it, I realize my upbringing in the Girl Scouts has a lot to do with that. So, to all the people who made fun of me over the years for wearing that silly uniform everywhere, suck it. I'm a well-adjusted and compassionate human, and you're all out robbing people and being jerks in bars.
Of course, my ultimate wish is that everyone would just be nice to each other. It's a stretch, I know. The vast majority of us are just trying to get through life without complete and utter failure. Remember that we're all traveling toward the same end, and for fuck's sake, stop stepping over each other to get there.
The overall obliviousness of people really honks me off. From the person who parks their shopping cart diagonally across one aisle while shopping in another, to the person who walks up to the bar and spits out an order even though there are ten other people waiting, they all suck (as a bartender, there is no worse customer than one who thinks he/she is the only person in the room). So, is it a genuine unawareness of the people around you? Do you literally think you're the only person in the room? Or is it a sense of self-importance? I have to wonder what, in a person's psyche, determines how important they think they are. I'm not talking about external forces like fame and money here. There are rich folks who are humble, and broke-ass fools who have egos the size of entire planets. What is it that makes someone butt people in line, cut people off in traffic, take things that aren't theirs, and harm other people for personal gain? It seems to be not only a sense of self-importance, but also a devaluation of the importance of others.
As a (fairly) normal person, I cannot possibly fathom stealing anything from someone else. I can't picture myself breaking into someone's car, smashing out a window, or vandalizing someone else's stuff in any other way. Any thought of violence or vandalism or harm immediately triggers the reflection, "what if that happened to me?", or in some cases, "remember how it felt when that happened to me?" It's human compassion. Now, by no means am I a bleeding heart, but I know what it's like to work hard for the things I have and, generally speaking, I like other humans. I don't want to negatively impact anyone else's life, and when possible, I try to improve the world around me. The more I think about it, I realize my upbringing in the Girl Scouts has a lot to do with that. So, to all the people who made fun of me over the years for wearing that silly uniform everywhere, suck it. I'm a well-adjusted and compassionate human, and you're all out robbing people and being jerks in bars.
Of course, my ultimate wish is that everyone would just be nice to each other. It's a stretch, I know. The vast majority of us are just trying to get through life without complete and utter failure. Remember that we're all traveling toward the same end, and for fuck's sake, stop stepping over each other to get there.
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