Wednesday, November 17, 2010

everything kind of sucks right now

Another old blog entry from July of 2008 that I feel fits in well here. Considering no one ever read anything I wrote back then, I am happy to repost here for your reading pleasure.


As an American who celebrated the birthday of her country the other day, I must say I am disappointed. I am disappointed in myself and in the rest of this country. I read this article:

America's Bad Mood

and at first I agreed with it. Yeah, everything kind of sucks right now. Yeah, the rest of the world despises us. Yeah, we have more than anyone else has ever had. Yeah, people are still depressed. Yup, yup, yup. But why? I can give an answer--it probably won’t be very popular. I’m giving it anyway:

We are all lazy, greedy escapists who don’t want to admit that our lush lifestyle is destroying the rest of the world. We all know it in the back of our heads, though, and so we feel empty, sad, and scared and we try to claim that we don’t know why.

Are you feeling depressed? Have you lost all joy in life?

Well maybe that is because your subconscious mind understands that while you sit in bed feeling sorry for yourself and worrying about the price of gas there are children in Africa who are starving to death or dying of AIDS. There are funerals for innocent victims of terrorism all over the world. Our own young men and women are sacrificing their lives in Iraq for you. How does that make you feel? They are there for you. So you can put gas in your car and drive to the mall and buy shit you don’t need. Aren’t you proud of them? They volunteer to go to war so they can pay for college or support their families or become citizens. Can we not offer our young people a better option? Do you think they really support the war or even understand why they are fighting it? Maybe they do, maybe they don’t--I can’t speak for them. But I can speak for myself and I say I am willing to sacrifice my lifestyle so we can end this thing. And when I say “this thing” I don’t just mean the war in Iraq. I mean the famine around the world because we are taking their corn to make ethanol, the fighting in Darfur, the AIDS epidemic, the energy crisis, pollution, global warming, poverty in our own country, the worlds’ low opinion of Americans in general. Are you willing to do that? I sincerely feel this way, which is why I label myself as a Socialist. I just don’t understand how people who live in million dollar homes that sit half empty and use thousands of dollars in energy can sleep at night. If you have more than you can use why don’t you share it with others? Now I understand saving for retirement, education, etc., but who really needs millions of dollars in boats, vehicles, electronics, property, etc.? It is ridiculous and it is destroying this country and the rest of the Earth. The decadence is disgusting. We sit in our homes and watch the horrors of the world on TV and tuck ourselves in tight and sleep soundly hoping that someone else will take care of it. Well, guess what: that ain’t gonna happen. If we don’t change our ways we are doomed. We might be doomed anyway, but we can at least try to make things better. And please don’t think I am pointing the finger at others, because I am guilty of these things myself. I don’t own a million dollar home, but I do play video games, watch satellite TV, drive my van, and buy things I don’t need. It’s my fault, too. I just wish it wasn’t.

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