Perpetual Anger

I constantly go through life angry and cynical. In the past few years I've really gotten into anger rock music, like Rage Against the Machine. I like to play it loud — really loud!

I often wonder why I'm continually angry. Sometimes I wonder if I'm angry and cynical just because I like being that way. Maybe it gives me comfort, in a weird sort of way. People often tell me I'm funny, but my humor has a bitter, cynical, and sarcastic edge to it. I'm a sick puppy.

The reason I'm angry is that I find that people are ambivalent, shallow, petty, and extremely selfish. People, in general, don't care about anything except for things that immediately benefit them. Yeah, I know, that's sick, but true.

What I find unfathomable is that people are so wrapped in their little selfish worlds that they do nothing to prevent their own self-destruction, the destruction of their children, and the destruction of their planet. Humans will deny and rationalize, or they simply won't be interested in the issues. I spend a lot of time randomly visiting other people's blogs and I find the vast majority of people to be petty simpletons.

A fellow activist had me pegged when he said something like:

You seem frustrated by the fact that people just don't get things that appear perfectly obvious to you.

For instance, there are major problems in this world like terrorism, abortion, and mass immigration. Your average Six Pack Joe or Caribou Barbie just wants to address the symptoms of the problem with some harsh measure, and on one ever thinks about the "root causes" of the problem. For example, terrorism is directly related to oil wealth and the dysfunctionalism and corruption in the Middle East. Everyone forgets that it was mainly Saudi nationals who attacked us on 9/11. One of the best ways to fight terrorism is to stop buying oil from nations that do NOT respect human rights or provide equality to women and minorities. This should be a given, yet we totally suck up to the totally dysfunctional royalty of Saudi Arabia. Come on, princes? That's right out of a fairytale book, yet we give these people billions of dollars to buy their black goop.

Or, let's talk about Iraq. We send our finest men and women overseas to be slaughtered so that oil companies can get back the contracts that Saddam Hussein stole from them 30 years ago. Yet, our government wraps up their true motives in lies and rambles on about patriotism and democracy, and the mothers of the U.S. heartland willingly give up their sons for corporate America. And all of this is accepted by the average American, or worse yet, they simply don't care either way.

And then there's all the denial about global warming. The right-wing radio show hacks continue to say global warming is NOT human caused, even though a vast amount of data shows otherwise. Yes, sometimes the Earth's orbit shifts and changes, which affects temperature, but that hasn't happened for 10,000 years. But since 1750 humans have been burning coal and other fuels, and releasing millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, yet right wing talking heads and religious conservatives have the gall to say that global warming is a result of "natural causes." These individuals believe their lies so sincerely that they draw others into believing their lies as well.

I could go on and on and on .....

The point is, humans are given no mandate for survival. It's up to our own intelligence to survive as a group. Right now we are destroying ourselves, which bothers me some. A human being is an endlessly amazing and complex animal -- I love the species. But I am heartbroken that the human animal is not able to use its great intelligence to override "human nature" and save itself. It's just a horrible waste. And what REALLY makes me angry is that when we destroy ourselves, we'll be taking millions of other animal and plant species down with us, and perhaps an incredibly beautiful planet as well.

I'm not sure what we'll destroy us first: weapons of mass destruction or environmental degradation. But what I do know is that humans are capable of great good, yet they are totally hellbent on killing themselves. And this is the reason for my endless anger. And this is the reason for my blog, which is appropriately titled, "Goosed."