I am angry at the fools who have been in control of virtually all of the Earth's resources for the last two-thousand years.
I am angry because there is a giant, toxic, black spot of oil, spreading its way across the Gulf Of Mexico. I am angry because there is a an island of plastic floating around, somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean. I am angry because the air in our cities is poisonous, and so are our rivers. I am angry because the "humans" continued their foolish practices of polluting the planet, despite repeated warnings by my people about the ice around the poles melting...and they still do.
I am angry at the world's leaders, who can do nothing but strut around like peacocks, bickering over the few remaining scraps of planetary resources while their people perish...they send children off to die in their senseless war games as they fatten themselves with their pillages. I am angry at the clergy, for their failure to act purely and for their greed...they make war in the name of God, and line their pockets with money from the poor and the faithful. I am angry at the wealthy; some for their naivete, and others because they are truly evil. I am angry at the poor; some for their complacency, and others because they are truly stupid.
I am angry because there are homeless people everywhere I look, while at the same time, huge, empty, corporate-owned office-buildings with controlled environments, hum along day and night, with only a lonely janitor or security-guard to occupy them.
I am angry at the professional world...I used to believe that hard work and loyalty would be rewarded, but no longer. I am angry with myself for my continuing participation in this rat race; I know better, and I only fall deeper into debt every day that I do. I am angry because my temporary position pays me less than my unemployment (which didn't give me enough to survive in the first place). I am angry because I have to drive to my assignment alone everyday with 100,000 other people, all jam-packed, bumper to bumper in our cars at 8:00 in the morning.
Most of all, I am angry because there is nothing I can do to change this hopeless situation, and although I know that many people care, there is nothing they can do to change it either. All we can do is run around madly like rats on a sinking ship, somehow instinctively sensing our doom, yet still looking for a way to higher ground...
David Settino Scott, 2010
Very well written, Dave.
ReplyDeleteYou totally can change some of this situation, specifically your current money issues. You are living in a city with exceptionally high costs of living. Get the hell out of there, it might not be cosmopolitan "in the middle of nowhere", but if you can survive and thrive why not?
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-living-calculator.aspx
You can move to Albuquerque from SF, according to this calculator, have almost a 50% cut in your salary, and continue to have the same "quality of life". Get the fuck out of SF!
Now, as for the bigger issues, you can still help to change some of these things. I am a believer that knowledge is power, and that one of the most effective things you can do is teach others. Teach others that capitalism is a sham and that you are bound to get screwed over in the end. Help the masses not let another well break happen again or to lessen the waste in the ocean by teaching them better and less wasteful methods of living. AWARENESS is the only way to overcome ignorance, but people aren't going to become aware themselves. They need people to tell them about what's going on, and how to change the current situation if they want to.
Anger is a pointless emotion, unless you -don't- want things to change. Accept the world for what it is in its current state, and then work to make it better. You are one person, but one person can affect a dozen others, who then affect a dozen others and soon you have the whole country changing. If you accept the hopelessness that you cannot change anything, then you are just as bad as all the people you have written about in this post. Even if things just change on the local level, it's still change.
All is NOT hopeless, all is NOT lost. I have seen change, it can happen. And you are not alone, either. You just need to feel the fire inside, the desire to see the bad lessen and the good increase. The fire is there in a lot of us, but it's a mere ember when it needs to be a flame. Who will rise up and fuel the flames?
Thank you for all of your great comments, Becky!
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to know that someone out there is reading my stuff.