I hate America, and you do too

 With a title like that, you'd think I'd start spouting verses from some cult pamphlet.

 Searching through the mountain of crap that is Facebook just to find out if a friend dropped a message about the Saints/Patriots game, I discovered how much less I like the service when every other friend seemed to have an opinion about God or America that was pretty narrow in scope. Having a belief is not a bad thing, but as I've said before, things are getting to the point where insanity is a gentle way of describing the way humanity has become.

 The reason is that all of these beliefs are becoming antiquated, or at least they should be. When I was a child, I believed that the American way of life was the only way to go. Even now, I don't see anything particularly wrong with the hope that if one works hard, one can succeed and reach their desired goals. Our rights should be protected, because we are human beings, but the entire concept of this has gone out the window. "Real American" is a term that actually fights against what we're supposed to believe in. If the "American Way" and our unofficial Christian religion actually had anything to say, then each individual American wouldn't spend their time defending how it is their God-given right to use others as a pedestal. Seriously, listen to these people who get up on their podiums and say, almost exactly, these phrases:

"If the government gets any more control, I will no longer be able to field a company of fat CEO's, and that is un-American."

"You are a traitor if you believe that caring for the well-being of others is a priority of the country."

"It's OK to take liberties away from people, as long as its not me. That would be Socialism/Communism."

"It's OK to cheat people our of their money. Asking me to spare a few bucks from my multi-million dollar bank account to make sure someone doesn't die from a cold is not OK."

"Our President showed respect for another world leader? Well, he must be an evil socialist, because a true american capitalist would have pissed on his shoes."

 I could go on for hours, but I don't care who you are, you simply cannot argue that these things have been said. We're not Americans. We're elitist pricks who care nothing of others, so long as they aren't bombing us.

 You can save your hate mail for another few minutes, though, because Americans aren't the only problem. Rather, the country is just making obvious what the real problems are, and sometimes it's even nice to be part of a country that is at least willing to tell some nutcase that no, he can't have a mass murder device to play with.

 It's people, in general, that are the problem, and it is a problem that I've been dwelling on for years. It hit me like a ton of bricks and has been raking at my brain ever since I read an article about how we haven't found intelligent life "out there" yet. This has everything and nothing to do with alien life. The ideal behind the article is one that has been debated ever since we've seriously considered first contact a real possibility. If there's intelligent life out there, how come they haven't contacted us? Are they smart enough to stay away? Are we egotistical to think that our green time bomb is worth the trouble to a species capable of interstellar travel? Maybe there's nothing out there. Maybe it's already extinct. Maybe we're lucky.

 Or, maybe, as the article pointed out, the entire idea of "civilization" is a counter-productive word in itself. Maybe having the brains to create a civilization and the ego to shape it is ultimately what prohibits us from advancing to the point of being star-tourists. When the time comes, are we really going to be able to save ourselves from anything? At this point, no.

 People think that communism is evil, but that wasn't always the idea. On paper, communism was the perfect idea that needed a little tweaking, but communism has never existed as it was meant to. Communism is meant to be something along the lines of a zombie survival clan. The team is led by the best brain or two, the guns go to the best shooters, the rest gather resources, and the food and shelter is shared. If someone is cut loose, it's for the greater good and not for greed. Even that doesn't ever play out well, so you can see why communism never worked. People have needs and desires, and these needs and desires will clash. If everything is shared, someone will want more. Communism was always corrupt this way.

 Capitalism, on the other hand, is a bunch of people who don't know when enough is enough. There is a girl I know that is the epitome of capitalism. She has never worked hard in her life and has always had everything handed to her on a silver platter. She has never earned anything, but rather, gets on the good side of those who would give it to her for free. She honestly believes that if it came down to it, she deserves health care more than your un-insured mother. Why? Well, despite her supposed belief in sharing, it is also her belief that despite the fact that her name has never been the primary recipient of health care, it is being shared with her in a capitalistic fashion, so that makes it OK. It bothers her that the government would allow someone to have health insurance that didn't work for it, even though the main priorities of her day are makeup and playing with her iPhone, none of which she bought. Though, I do suppose that this description would classify her as a pet more than anything, so maybe my argument is moot.

 In reality, it all comes down to what mankind is capable of if we would just drop these labels. It's sad, but if a republican, a democrat, a communist, and a socialist were driving in a limo with a trunk full of food through the Sahara Desert and they came across a starving toddler....do you really think that there would be any argument as to what happens next? This is what we are capable of. If we took all of the food that this country wasted in the span of a week and tallied it up, we would find that world hunger is quite possibly the easiest thing in the world to solve, but we just refuse to do it. If the top ten most profitable companies in the world decided that they would take half of their yearly profits and were to fund new schools with them instead, then we would make a significant leap forward in our planet's overall education. We won't, and sometimes we can't because of other ego problems. Let's face it, if you start dumping several million dollars of goods in front of a country that hasn't stabilized itself yet, then someone is going to demand control over that for some stupid reason.

 Then, there's religion. Please, somebody, ANYBODY, write me and tell me a religious doctrine that includes the decimation of non-believers. I actually don't know the answer to that. It would seem like religions mostly say, "live a good life in this way, live by these rules, and you will be rewarded."

 Since when has humanity ever obeyed by those rules? In the average day, and American knowingly breaks at least one religious rule that they claim to believe in. Just owning a TV is grounds for getting thrown into Hell if you pay attention. Religion ultimately makes us go at each other's throats more than anything else when it comes to the grand scheme of things. You'd think that it was the US Armed Forces vs. terrorists, but some people have even spun that into an Americans vs. Muslim cage fight.

 And we make weapons. Lots of weapons. We call it defense, but we really just perfect the art of killing. We can do it clean, quietly, and make sure no one ever knew it happened, or we can create the biggest bang in the history of bombs. It all comes down to style and the message you're trying to get across. They don't call it the "business end" without reason.

 One day, none if it will matter. A black hole, supernova, meteor, alien death fortress, grey goo, polar shift.....none of those will discriminate. It won't matter what color you are, what race you are, what religion you are, what country you're from, what clothes you wear, what car you drive, etc. It's just going to kill you and bring some peace and quiet to the solar system. Funny thing is, we're entirely capable of handling all of that.

 Most likely, we'll kill ourselves off first. Here we are, arguing about global warming, and the entire argument is the most worthless argument ever seriously debated in the planet's history. We're pumping tons of toxins into the air every minute of the day, and nobody in their right minds can honestly say that is a good thing regardless of whether or not it's causing the warming or not. If the world is cooling or warming, shouldn't we also stop arguing about who started it and maybe, you know, use our powerful human brains to decide what we're going to do when it ultimately happens? We're screwed. We're never going to get off this rock. We could, but we don't want to. We're incapable.

 Watch Star Trek IV. Kirk winds up in the 80's with the crew of the Enterprise in an effort to save the future Earth because of the destructive sins of its past. In particular, humpback whales went extinct due to excessive and needless hunting practices. Yet, even though this point is pummeled through your brain like a jackhammer, it's something else in the movie that makes even more sense. Kirk gives away a few bills to each crew member, saying that the people of 80's Earth still use currency.

 With all of the clamor made about having to start using Chinese currency or joining the EU, think about how things would be if we ditched money altogether. If we actually put ourselves to the test and did what humanity was capable of, we wouldn't need the stuff. It's really up to you to think about the different flavors of good that could be.

 You may argue that you are absolutely against a world government. That's fair, but it makes no sense if the government was a good one. You may argue that religions would die out, but I don't see why they would have to. No one ever said that in order to succeed as a race, we had to block out the eastern sun or bulldoze a temple. You may also argue that capitalism would die, but why is that a big problem? You mean to honestly tell me that the value of a person's music or the ability to write "yes" on a sheet of paper makes them worth more than the person who works hard to make sure that their buildings are safe to sit in? I, for one, can't make that judgement. No one can. If music was free, would we have pirates? If we didn't have pirates, would we get spied on as much? If a person had all the resources in the world at their disposal to improve themselves, then how many frustrated people would we lose in this world that potentially could have caused the rest of us harm?

 Sure, it sounds like utopia, but we are a species, and we're supposed to be surviving. We're not doing a very good job of it. Surviving means eventually getting off this rock, because it's going to go away eventually. Utopia on Earth would not mean that our species would lack a goal or challenge to push us forward and retain our humanity. We'd find trouble elsewhere, and we'd always have a little chaos on the homefront, but at least our species would have finally done what our parents always told us to do; go out there and be somebody.

 Which is funnier when you consider that every politician and pundit whines and cries (see Beck, Glenn) about how their parents don't know anything. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit