Let's face it- there's a lot of crazy out there today. Everywhere you look, somebody is yelling or screaming or going off on strange tangents. Fear and anger run rampant. It almost feels like the world is Pamplona, the bulls have just been set loose, and we're all running around, trying not to get killed.
Or, as Shakespeare put it in King John-
But as I travell'd hither through the land,
I find the people strangely fantasied;
Possess'd with rumours, full of idle dreams,
Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear.
Charlie Tiger's Blood Sheen, Glenn Beck, and Moammar Gaddafi. This triumvirate of superwhack point out to me a lot of what can go wrong in the human spirit. Ego, fear, and selfishness in the extreme. And what's weird is the feeling of guilt I experience after I laugh at them. Because I do laugh- it's kind of hard not to when they say and do so many insane things. Bi-winning? Dressing up like a Nazi for your book cover? Ordering your people to dance in the middle of a bloody uprising? That's some funny shit. Sadly, these folks aren't characters on the latest sit-com. If they were, I'd be dvr-ing them and wasting a lot of time watching them over and over. But no, these are human beings, doing bad things, with tragic results. They have families and friends who worry about them. Children who are going to need a lot of help. And beyond their personal lives, there is the effect they have on the world. Who knows how many folks will "get their Sheen on" tonight and get incredibly high, to the point of doing harm to themselves and/or others? How many people will act against their own self interest and support their corporate overlords based on the insane- and untrue- rants of Mr. Beck? How many people will die today due to Gaddafi's mad egotism/despotism?
But I do find hope out there as well. I look at the people throughout Northern Africa and the Middle-East who are rising up, facing any and all kinds of danger, to say they want a better world. I look at the people of Wisconsin, who are sticking up for their rights and their dignity against a very well funded GOP set of goons. I remember that this is also the world that gave us The Beatles and Mozart and Free Will Astrology and, and words like groovy and fantasied.
However horrible things get, I still dig this world. I remember once, in college, I saw a holocaust survivor speak. The man was amazing. Here was someone who had seen the very worst of humanity, endured torture and cruelty that I can't even really imagine- and yet he found life worth living. He found hope, and love, and purpose. I spoke with him after his speech. I wanted to hear more of what he had to say. And also tell him how sad I always felt when considering the horrors of the world, how confused and guilty for having a much easier life than he did. And he said "If I met a woman who had been raped, I could not feel the pain she did, but I could hold her hand".
Amazing.
So, that's where I'm at today. People suck, and people rock- and life is beautiful, and worth it.
