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Rant #336
(published June 28, 2007)
Directions?
by Zachary Biehler
As we rumble along this wild adventure called humanity the road seems ever more uncertain the further we go. Sort of like one of those country roads that starts out paved, then goes to gravel, then dirt, till finally you are just driving on something your not even sure is a road anymore, but is too narrow to turn around on. Such seems to be our present predicament. One result of this is that a trend towards assumption seems to be taking deep root the more lost we get.

This is a time honored tradition for mankind, but the levels it is reaching in my lifetime are getting to dizzying new heights. To me this indicates a sort of unconscious reaction to the mounting evidence that we are: A) transient compositions of subatomic particles laking any definite form B) behaving more like bacteria than mammals C) have no idea what we are doing or why we are doing it. Reactionary rhetoric is bound to occur when people find themselves confused and/or scared, such is the nature of modern man. The only real problem with this is that instead of just comforting ourselves with our words and shenanigans we have now made a destructive habit of changing our surroundings to conform with them.

I'm not big on pointing fingers at people or groups of people, and thus will not blame anyone for this monstrosity. Now this is a really nice planet, and I hate to see it be needlessly destroyed because humans have issues, but it's a big universe so I'm not all that horribly upset. After all, we are all just leasing our carbon and if we as a species choose to just shit on everything around us, then the sooner we will be returning it. Having said that I can't help but want mankind to start enjoying our place without this frivolously fanatic fantasy that we so ironically call progress. When it is all boiled down, most human behavior can be categorized as entertainment. We prefer to think of it as something else, but we are really just doing our damnedest to distract ourselves from the minuteness of our place and that we can't do a damn thing about it but fuck with each other in a last ditch effort to avoid facing the reality that surrounds our little globe on all sides. The poor assume they deserve more and the rich assume they should keep what they have; that's a classic drama that always gets good reviews. Here's a more time specific example- America feels her position of authority is threatened by others, others feel threatened by America's position of authority. Let us get even more personal- I want this to happen and that not to happen in my life; probably the most popular skit of all time. Now don't get me wrong, all this is entertaining as hell, but at some point the curtain must fall on this show. If I'm around I'll give it all a standing ovation, but refrain from requesting an encore. Humans used to just wander around earth enjoying the twin pleasures of our omnivore status all day and our ability to contemplate the cosmic mystery at night. Since then we have tilled a lot of soil, built a lot of cities and fought a lot of wars, but found a better existence we have not. I would just like to see a shift from presumption towards honesty- let's admit we don't know shit.

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