Societal Ills

The more I observe my external world and more specifically the society in which I participate the less I buy into the ideas that society holds as its standards. And I've probably written about this before, but I seem to keep coming back around to this discussion with myself. I take note of what our society holds as successes and things to strive for, and aside from being unimpressed I'm mostly just disappointed that it cannot be better.

We are participants in a system that bombards you with endless consumption in a finite world. I see advertisements cleverly aimed at making the human feel that a certain product can make you feel a certain way and you won't be the person that you want to be unless you own that product. I see a system that rewards flashing lights and glittery objects instead of encouraging self development and critical thought. I see a system loaded with contradictions, and an expectation to accept whatever is plopped in front of us. And each time I notice a flaw, or one of those contradictions I lose a little more faith and laugh a little bit harder.

I laugh because that is the only reaction that won't depress me. It would be easy to look at things and be sad because for the most part it is a sad world. For instance there are people hungry all over the world, but there's a show on the tv box and its main point is to see how much food can be eaten in the least amount of time. On this same tv box there are "judges" who get paid millions of dollars to deliberate cases, but the teachers that taught them how to read those cases earn only a percentage of what they make. I see the government, that I pay my taxes to, not just start wars in which I have no say but also funding both sides of the war.

And this same society wants to dictate to me how it is acceptable to dress, talk and act...why do I have to break my neck to be at a specific place, almost daily, at a certain point during the earth's rotation (time)? Why is it that wearing certain garments are acceptable in certain places and without these garments I won't be accepted to do the work I would need to do to live?

Civilization...at this point it is almost a monument to itself, with all of the buildings and businesses that we have built. The technology that we have raised and the discoveries about ourselves and our universe that we have made, while still up for debate (because I think past civilizations were aware of somethings that we have lost), show the leaps and bounds of human thinking. But somewhere along the way, I think that we started taking ourselves too seriously. We lost the essence of our nature and traded it in for what?

"They tell me I need a 9 to 5, I need to trade my jeans in for some slacks and my t-shirt for a suit jacket. They tell me I need to buy a car and get a mortgage. But why would I trade in all that makes me happy for a chance to clock-watch and wait for the weekends. I don't know about you, but I live for now. The future will happen when now comes, so the best that you can do is live, let it happen and enjoy it. Most of all, don't let the society around you dictate what is good for you. Stop being a human doing, and be a human just being."