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Re: What's wrong with the world today?
FTFY.
Meh, pretty much everything went downhill come turn of the millenium (sp?).
Now for something completely different.
Let's see, what to rant about . . . China? No, Malacite pretty much covered that . . . cars? No, I think I would be a minority in my opinion of them (maybe I'll save them for later) . . .
Ah, I know! Pride. That's going to be my main peeve of this post.
So, yeah, what's with people and their pride nowadays? It never leads anywhere except dillusion and conflict. Yet, why does society look upon it as a virtue? Just because rampant gluttony was socially acceptable in in the Greco-Roman times (vomitoriums, et al), doesn't make it any more right. And I have the same to say with pride in society today.
(And before anybody pulls any bull about "the sin is different!" I want somebody to grab a Webster's Dictionary and show where there are two clearly distinct and different meanings of the word. Otherwise, shut up.)
Nationalism has to be the worst of it all, as well. It's how a select few justify the mass killing of the peoples of which they are supposed to be protecting, all throughout history. (Though, as a vice, I find it kind of ironic that, even with all that, Human population is just way too dang large, but, I digress, and world population is a rant for another time.)
Why are people "proud" to be a part of a concept that's just entirely made-up, anyways? I'd blame the Old World European school of thought, what with the "conquering" of lands, justification of crimes against humanity through racial myths (two times off the top of my head: the enslavement of the Africans, et al, and the Holocaust), and so on, but there was obviously at least one European mind that thought differently, and that mind, as silly as it may sound, was King Arthur of England. Fact or myth, the point still stands, and let me pull out a story which emphasizes my point:
Arthur was taught about life by Merlin, usually by changing Arthur in to different animals, or so the story goes. The final lesson involved Arthur becoming a hawk, flying up in to the sky, and reporting what he saw. After flying around for a while, looking as hard as he could, he just couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. When he said "he saw nothing," Merlin left Arthur to make it in England by himself.
Fast forward to after he became the King of England. He and his knights (not just yet of the Round Table) were at war, and Arthur was questioning the concept of "Might is Right," as in, to the stronger side recieves what land they were fighting for, to expand their boundaries, et cetera. This is where Arthur recalled that last lesson with Merlin, and how he saw "nothing." It dawned on him then: that was exactly what he was supposed to see. The wars they were fighting: all for some land that ultimately wasn't even "theirs" anyway? So why bother fighting at all? Of course, after conversing with Guiniviere about it, he decides that the end justifying the means, or "Might is Right" isn't what he'll fight for, but he'll be then dedicated to the cause of "Might for Right," and from then on put his power to good use to help create a better world for all of mankind, instead of just for Britain. To assist him in this cause, he decided to create an order of knights, and to symbolize the egalitarian cause, he wanted a table which had no head, to show that they were ultimately all peers and equals. Thus began the Knights of the Round Table, as best as I recall.
Unfortunately, we are living, nay, trapped in a nationalistic fallacy that we are so deeply in to, that if we were a boot shoved in to someone's butt, that someone could easily taste leather. What reason has humanity to be "proud," even by its own twisted double-standards? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Neit. Zero. Diddly. Jack. X minus X. One over infinity. Actually, better make that last one "zero" over infinity, just in case.
Every time someone mentions the term "pride," especially on a nationalistic scale, I just get so peeved. But, I'll end my rant here. This one's dedicated to 2.
Originally posted by Pai Pai Master
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Originally posted by Jarre
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Now for something completely different.
Let's see, what to rant about . . . China? No, Malacite pretty much covered that . . . cars? No, I think I would be a minority in my opinion of them (maybe I'll save them for later) . . .
Ah, I know! Pride. That's going to be my main peeve of this post.
So, yeah, what's with people and their pride nowadays? It never leads anywhere except dillusion and conflict. Yet, why does society look upon it as a virtue? Just because rampant gluttony was socially acceptable in in the Greco-Roman times (vomitoriums, et al), doesn't make it any more right. And I have the same to say with pride in society today.
(And before anybody pulls any bull about "the sin is different!" I want somebody to grab a Webster's Dictionary and show where there are two clearly distinct and different meanings of the word. Otherwise, shut up.)
Nationalism has to be the worst of it all, as well. It's how a select few justify the mass killing of the peoples of which they are supposed to be protecting, all throughout history. (Though, as a vice, I find it kind of ironic that, even with all that, Human population is just way too dang large, but, I digress, and world population is a rant for another time.)
Why are people "proud" to be a part of a concept that's just entirely made-up, anyways? I'd blame the Old World European school of thought, what with the "conquering" of lands, justification of crimes against humanity through racial myths (two times off the top of my head: the enslavement of the Africans, et al, and the Holocaust), and so on, but there was obviously at least one European mind that thought differently, and that mind, as silly as it may sound, was King Arthur of England. Fact or myth, the point still stands, and let me pull out a story which emphasizes my point:
Arthur was taught about life by Merlin, usually by changing Arthur in to different animals, or so the story goes. The final lesson involved Arthur becoming a hawk, flying up in to the sky, and reporting what he saw. After flying around for a while, looking as hard as he could, he just couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. When he said "he saw nothing," Merlin left Arthur to make it in England by himself.
Fast forward to after he became the King of England. He and his knights (not just yet of the Round Table) were at war, and Arthur was questioning the concept of "Might is Right," as in, to the stronger side recieves what land they were fighting for, to expand their boundaries, et cetera. This is where Arthur recalled that last lesson with Merlin, and how he saw "nothing." It dawned on him then: that was exactly what he was supposed to see. The wars they were fighting: all for some land that ultimately wasn't even "theirs" anyway? So why bother fighting at all? Of course, after conversing with Guiniviere about it, he decides that the end justifying the means, or "Might is Right" isn't what he'll fight for, but he'll be then dedicated to the cause of "Might for Right," and from then on put his power to good use to help create a better world for all of mankind, instead of just for Britain. To assist him in this cause, he decided to create an order of knights, and to symbolize the egalitarian cause, he wanted a table which had no head, to show that they were ultimately all peers and equals. Thus began the Knights of the Round Table, as best as I recall.
Unfortunately, we are living, nay, trapped in a nationalistic fallacy that we are so deeply in to, that if we were a boot shoved in to someone's butt, that someone could easily taste leather. What reason has humanity to be "proud," even by its own twisted double-standards? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Neit. Zero. Diddly. Jack. X minus X. One over infinity. Actually, better make that last one "zero" over infinity, just in case.
Every time someone mentions the term "pride," especially on a nationalistic scale, I just get so peeved. But, I'll end my rant here. This one's dedicated to 2.
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