Illusions of Power

Nothing puts more in perspective for me than nature documentaries. I'm an avid fan of national geographic and I have been for most of my life. Perhaps I've always had a few screws loose, but I remember finding the ones on natural disasters a bit funny at times. I know it sounds a bit sadistic, but it's actually not as bad as you'd think. Surely people losing their homes and families are terrible, but I think I find the humor in the fact that those kinds of situations tend to lay bare the true nature of people. They calmly lived their lives day to day in the false assumption that they had some control over what happens on this planet. I remember watching a clip on the news several years ago that featured footage of a man in his underwear clinging to a tree in the midst of a massive flood. Now I know that flood victims usually don't have much notice, but this dude obviously didn't get the memo until the last minute. I thought it hilarious that this fellow finally got his few seconds of fame wearing only a pair of soaked tighty whiteys.

Nature seems the earth's equalizer, shuffling uppity creatures back into their place. Humans can get pushed down a few notches in a matter of seconds. Somewhere in the midst of our growth as a species, we developed a rather nasty case of arrogance. I'm not saying that we have achieved nothing nor that it is unimportant. The point I mean to make is that it is only important to us. Somewhere in our twisted monkey logic, we equated our adaptability and ability to create, with superiority. However, what defines superiority depends on the competition. A human is a tool user. We are essentially the batman of the animal kingdom. We are Indiana Jones. Take away all the tools and all that's left is one's mental capacity which differs from person to person. You take your average person and they aren't going to be as smart as the fictional characters I mentioned. In essence they'd be done for.

Our fatal flaw is that all it takes is some really bad weather to kill human progress. Our mutant monkey species is nothing without it's tools. We create things that are only important to us, and we are misguided enough to sometimes view ourselves as the planet's guardians. We've got people trying to save species that won't mate and people feeling that we've royally screwed over a planet that is still strong enough to squash us like bugs. We build civilizations and governments, then forget what the purpose was behind it. Humans trapped in a vicious cycle, unknowing as to why they feel like something isn't quite right.

The only thing we truly have power over, is ourselves. The rest are things we make up. Things like money, and government and religion. They all serve as tools of humanity to deny the inescapable truth that there isn't much between us and every other animal. You knock out government and it'll be pretty easy to see the resemblance. I have nothing against government. I only think that people have come to a point where they feel they lack the power to control anything in their lives when it comes to obtaining certain rights. Government is supposed to help us. Originally people banded together to make certain they were all taken care of. We give elected officials the ability to make decisions on our behalf. We give away some of our freedoms to have better lives. If a government doesn't benefit the people, then it should be fixed. The power those people have relies solely on our cooperation. We are the cities, the towns, the government. These seemingly unstoppable forces are made up of many individual people. The idea that there is some invisible control over us is a fallacy. When all is said and done, nature is our equalizer and no one is truly ever above it.

Things I learned in 3rd Grade

I know I've been gone a few days and that technically this is the morning, but I felt this needed saying in light of yet another high profile case in florida. You may be wondering what my 3rd grade experience has to do with Trayvon Martin, but I promise that this is Relevant.

Alot of eight year olds are not going to learn this. Perhaps schools are more careful now, but what I encountered was my first real taste of injustice. Keep in mind that at the time I was a rather shy child, heavily bullied and alienated. I hadn't a friend really in the world. Some of the popular students had been messing around and I attempted to join them in their conversation. I am not certain whether they had heard incorrectly or if they'd just wanted to get me in trouble. A student lied to the teacher and said that I had sworn and said a heavy curse word. She said I would be suspended for such an offense. I made a passionate plea, breaking down into tears. I was a good kid. I never got suspended or acted up. My father would have beaten me for it. I was terrified of him. Strangely enough he believed me, and tried to reason with the school. It was probably one of the last times he ever voluntarily did something good as a father. In the end I received a one day suspension despite the truth. It was me against the honest faces of popular children that were generally more liked than I.

I don't know how many people ever grow up with that lesson. The lesson that sometimes the truth doesn't matter to them. In college I took a course in psychology with a professor that had the teaching passion of sock lint, but what I took away was the idea of brain development. Now according to a theory, the human brain develops overtime allowing their morality to develop as they age. What I mean to say is that when you are young morality is black and white. When you are older it becomes shades of gray. The weight of decisions that children make can sometimes not be felt by them until they are far older. I have entered adulthood with the expectation that human morality is more sophisticated in the average adult. Yet all I seem to see is the opposite. What I see is masses with a disgusting thirst  for blood and retribution.

What I see is that the average person desires revenge in the face of perceived injustice rather than understanding. I keep wishing for people to change the way they think and act, to what they often preach. I see those that consider themselves religious good people, thirsty for bloody satisfaction. Most people don't know what happens in prison nor have even the slightest clue that people often come out worse than they go in. I thought the idea was to aid society with locking up criminals with the idea that it will teach them a lesson of some kind. What does killing people or raping their morality solve? It helps no one. I am appalled at what I see,

I see a man that is visibly upset that he killed someone. I see the masses crying racism while also being racist enough to immediately assume everything is a hate crime. If you have indeed found a cold blooded killer that gunned down an innocent man, what does any of this solve. Think for a moment if you are wrong. It's been proven that there are indeed some innocent men in jail as we speak. It's true that we've executed innocent men before in our justice system. Think for a moment if you are wrong. Imagine a man did get beat up and shot a person in self-defense. Imagine their guilt and imagine now that people are hungry for your death. Imagine that they have a hunger never quite sated. It is disgusting that in our society, crimes or no, that so many consider themselves civilized and still are so quick to condemn and destroy their fellow man.

Patterns

I'm hardly an expert, but I feel that there is a serious difference between being a pessimist and being realistic. The difference lies really in the person's outlook on life in relation to the negative stimulus. If seeing things turn out badly makes you constantly expect the worst you are a pessimist. However if you see things go badly and you observe how those misfortunes come into being, you can come to the conclusion that some things are very predictable. If you come to notice that certain behaviors in people follow a specific course of self-inflicted emotional pain, you can begin to expect those things. Now I remember being a kid in school and hearing a study on how negative thinking impacts life span. I remember my mother telling me I was so negative, but I later realized it wasn't true.

See If I woke up every morning expecting it to be shitty, I wouldn't bother living or getting out of bed. I find that noticing patterns in everything helps me in being prepared rather than throws me into a pit of depression. People have a problem with patterns when it comes to people. The idea of people being able to be categorized and their actions carefully tallied and graphed, seems to make them uncomfortable. These days we are raised to  value individualism over being part of a group. That's fine, but it makes everyone feel they are special, and when everyone is special no one is. I think it makes people upset to think that they have no control over their destiny, but if that's the case, why are there so many people that are religious? If you believe that a supernatural deity has a plan for you, who's to say that each is special unique and different. It's kind of hypocritical to find your free will is compromised, when you're okay with some deity having predestined certain things to happen for you that are unavoidable. If I'm becoming so mundane that my actions are predictable, I'd like to know about it. However, I take solace in the idea that there might me someone out there just like me. It's lonely being unique and if you're unique enough, it makes it impossible to have a normal social life. Sure too much predictability can be boring, but enough of it brings us together. Have fun thinking about that one tonight.

Harm

Okay I know that morality is a touchy subject for many. We're gonna talk about it anyway. Morality is something that does tend to change from culture to culture. We can discuss the idea that morality exists only as a human idea in an attempt to differentiate itself from the animal kingdom, but that would take us off course.

Instead I would propose the idea that somethings we can always deem morally wrong. A lot of it is common sense. If you hurt people, it's not going to be good for society in the long run. When you hurt people it's an action that etches itself into the memories of others and is bound to royally fuck you over later.

Now I wish something like this was simple to state without argument. However it is possible for people to debate on what denotes harm, be it mental or physical. I happen to believe that there are somethings that are universally harmful. Things like having sex with little kids, beating people, torturing or raping them. I'm pretty sure that cutting off a person's body part without it being for medical reasons is bad.

However we've got a whole bunch of cultural fuckery that wants to come in and screw that all up. We've got people calling a small bundle of cells a baby and fighting for it's birth. We've got people fighting for what they believe is their cultural right to mutilate their child's genitals. People make morality and harm as an idea, impossible to work. We have this consistent battle between what is right and wrong, because we have a battle between group ideals and individualism. We need people to think for themselves, but group ideals control crime better than police enforcement.

If you really don't give a shit about the world there is a good reason to do what's right. People are attracted to those that live morally and it will make it far more likely that people will like you. If people like you, it helps to ensure your overall survival if a bunch of people don't want to kill you. Yes I am suggesting that morality is a human adaptation. Social relationships tie you to people that will have your back when things go to hell. However you don't need to be a complete manipulative fuck about it.

If there is a lesson in this random blunder of paragraphs, it's that there are some actions that are going to universally ass rape you should you do them. So cut that shit out!

The Beginning

You may wonder what this blog is about or why you should read. Well why read anything at all? Entertainment and the hope that perhaps what they've learned has been important enough to make an impact on our lives. I'll sure as hell do my best to deliver those things. This is a blog for the pressing thoughts I have late at night that keep me awake in bed. Some of it may be profound and the rest is likely to be incredibly weird and hopefully funny. Not sure if I'll even get a following. Really this is for me, a means of collecting my thoughts. I will try my best not to bitch about useless personal shit, but I make no promises. The first real post will follow this one, the moment inspiration hits. Shouldn't be too hard. All I need to do is get angry about something and it shall flow forth from me as a wave of bittersweet chocolate. Unfortunately not everyone likes chocolate.