I'm pissed off. I have been torturing myself over the past few days, not wanting to post on my blog about my petty issues and problems because whole nations are under siege by war and poverty and natural disaster. Who am I, to sit here whining about a past I can do nothing about or a few extra pounds that I can't seem to shed? How shallow and self-absorbed am I?
And then I turn on the TV or the computer. Apparently not as much as I thought.
We live in a world where a genuine tragedy is lost in the mania of spotlighting the trivial, the fake celebrity, the latest meltdown. People who are overpaid, pampered and idolized just because someone has decided that they should be promoted into the limelight, lose their shit and we lap. it. up. Maybe they have talent, or charisma, but do they really count more than unknown people who are suffering simply because nature is fighting us back for our moronic notions and self-aggrandizement? Does someone's grief or tragedy only prove worthy if some celebrity in designer jeans and an equally designer dog decides to get on the public relations bandwagon of giving a fuck about the real issues that have torn the very fiber of our existence to promote it?
Do we want to be known by future generations, if there will be any left, as the ones who are fascinated with a bunch of illiterate, morally degenerate, tasteless and classless idiots getting laid, doing laundry and fist pumping? We churn out the minute men and women, boys and girls of celebrity. We line them up in our single-minded obsession with entertainment. Entertainment at someone else's expense.
At work, today, they were gleefully watching the latest YouTube child stars brought to the public by production companies paid by parents to spotlight their kids in sugar-coated meaningless music videos. Students know all the lyrics and happily sing them causing a mind torture like no other to those within earshot. Those same students who cannot read or follow instructions properly or remember how to footnote their sources, or how to put together a cohesive sentence, know. all. the. lyrics.
I don't know where to even begin. My brain hurts.
4 comments:
I have a tutor who works in the school system who comes and teaches my Lil one once a week. yesterday we chatted for 2 hours !!! I couldn't believe it.
But we both needed to vent about the system, the culture the strange disconnectedness of it all...
So if it helps, in anyway..
I HEAR you, and I understand...
Thank you Illuminary! :) I wish common sense would kick in sometime soon! :)
Genie - I hear you too!
Something that you need to know, & know that it's ok to do is post about your perceived 'petty' issues - no matter what else is going on in the world.
I have just been through this whole scenario of feelings - first hand.
We had an earthquake here in Christchurch in February. There was destruction & there were deaths.
This impacts on every thought you have. I mourn the loss of my city as I knew it, all the lovely old buildings - but then stop myself doing so, by reminding myself that people have died & buildings are replaceable.
The same with the lack of facilities available at the moment..or some cherished possessions that have been lost. The reminder of those that have died causes me to smother what, at any other time, would be valid emotions.
You end up feeling guilty, but really there is no need to because those emotions are still valid. They still apply to you, effect you & shape you. Life has to go on & I've finally figured that if I wait there is always going to be one disaster or another that will cause me to feel guilty about posting my thoughts or concerns.
If you want to post them you should.
Hiya Deb! Thank you for posting! I'm sorry to hear about what you've been going through and I'm glad you've found a way to navigate through it.
You're right.
Life does go on I wanted to acknowledge that we need to take time to honor people's pain before we move on to the latest celeb scandal.
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