Sunday, June 26, 2005

You know what really bugs me...

Has anyone out there seen those shows about high schools, and all the kids are all in there little groups. Football team, cheerleading squad, goths, guys who play obscure role playing games, well that really bugs me. I don’t believe that accurately represents high school life. See, at my high school there is no real social structure beyond the obvious. Principal as possibly non-existent dictator, Vice-Principal as the Darth Vader-esque tool of suppression, teachers as the mindless drones that spill out government censored sedatives for the masses and the legions of kids who couldn’t give a shit (dear God, I just swore on the Internet). Why do they portray the world that way? Probably is and I just never noticed, but I never noticed that any form of segregation in my environment. Anyway, for me school is nothing like what it is portrayed on television.
You know what else bothers me, the whole hype surrounding the Christian religion. Why can’t Christianity be a more toned down religion like Islam or Buddhism? There is just all this, I don’t know, aura of (I can’t find the right word) not good-ness of modern organized Christianity. See, I think the problem is that Christianity got caught up in politics. The Roman Catholic Church was a way for the Roman empire to hold on to power for a century. I don’t mean to insult any Catholics out there, God knows you guys are getting enough bad publicity from all the child molestation charges, true or not that’s some bad publicity. Anyway, I think that Christianity should take some lessons from one of the best religions in the world, Buddhism. I’m not saying that Buddhism is the only right religion, I’m just saying that as religions go Buddhism has had the best history. I mean, whoever heard of a Buddhist War? I think that Christianity should do a few social reforms and try getting back to basics.
Also, I saw this Christian news program that was talking about how they found undisputable proof that Jesus was actually the son of God. Well, ‘while back there was some big hype in the Hindu world. Seems like Ganesh was thirsty and decided that he felt like having himself a drink of milk. So when they put down the milk on the altar, it disappeared. Gasp. Could that be indisputable proof that Hinduism is true? Well, quite possibly, but don’t you hard-core God fearing Jesus freaks out there worry. Hinduism believe that you can worship God anyway you want because he/she is to complicated to be comprehended in one singular, universal form so its split up into all kinds of other little bits. So technically your still right, your just wrong. Again, I’m sorry about this, but when I start writing I get on a roll.
Finally, and I’m pretty sure that no one will be offended by this one, all this stuff going on in Africa. Whenever I hear about some starving kids in some country in Africa I don’t even know about, well I change the channel, but I have an excuse. I can’t take it. There are people with bugs crawling in every part of their bodies. And all this suppression going on in the world. I did a project on Iran, did you know that people of the Baha’i faith are being killed by some Shiite Muslim group and the government isn’t doing a thing about it, odds are half of the Islamic "Republic" of Iran are on that thing, and then there are all these child soldiers in practically every country. Writing this down I go into a state of mind that you norms can’t even begin to understand, I feel that we should take all these people who are hurting these other people and we should yell at them, and humiliate them, and treat them like they treat those people. I speak off the weed of humanity. The curse that we cannot escape from, the root of all human suffering. I speak of the Tribe. That snavelling beast in the back of all our minds. The creature makes men and women raise their heads in pride, and makes men kill men who are just like them. It is because of the Tribe, I believe, that humans cannot build the great civilizations that we strive for, that we cannot create a world were all are created equal because it is obvious to every hick knows that he’s better then that guy because he has the right-God, or the right-skin colour, or butters his bread on the bloody right side. Grow up, you stupid apes, grow up.
Sorry. This is how I feel, I guess I may have insulted some people. And I am Sorry. This is how I feel, and I can’t change that. And only a fool can say that I can.
Postscript: When I was going on about the Tribe, I was talking about humans in general and not narrowing out any group. I was worried I came out as some sort of anti-Muslim nut.

10 comments:

Steph said...

If it was in any way possible for you to hear me, I'd be applauding you right now.

Now to address your post and it various parts:

The high school thing, my high school was more or less the same way. There WERE people that personified those stereotypes, like the goth, and football jock, etc... but for the most part, especially in my last 2 or 3 years there, there wasn't any "competition" or anything. Like, even if you were characterized as a nerd or geek, the "popular" kids would still have a civil conversation with you, so long as you both interested in the topic. However, televised society took high school to the extreme. If you've ever seen "10 Things I Hate About You" one of it's main purposes was to poke fun at how the media has portrayed high school, and teenagers, and such.

As for Christianity, (and ignoring for the moment that I am, in fact, a Christian), I once came up with a conspiracy theory for it. It was a while ago, but I'm sure it's still lurking somewhere in the darkest reaches of my memory. Perhaps if I think of it, I'll email you. But what I do recall of it touches on the bases of some of the stuff you said in your post. (Oh, and if they'd actually proved that Jesus really was the son of God, there would hardly be any dispute over God actually existing, now would there?)

Lastly, the part of your post that not only would have gotten applause from me, but also a standing ovation accompanied by much cheering and whistling (assuming I could whistle loud enough to make a difference) was your take on humanity. If you insulted anybody with that, they deserve to be drug out into a street and flogged pubicly because anyone who takes offense to such a truth as you wrote out about humans is only part of the problem, and is one of those people who, as you put it, needs yelled at and humiliated.

The end. :P

Dylan said...

Wow. Thank you. I was worried about what people would think about this. Wow. Thank you. I'm speechless.

Dylan said...

I think I should point this out. I am a peaceful human being. I don't want to hurt people, because we would be no better then the people who were doing the hurting in the first place. I just have very strong emotions and that is what I think sometimes, but know that I calm down and realize what I said, I am glad that I didn't actually do it because I would feel even worse then know that I have said it. I hope you understand.

Steph said...

I understand completely. I'm also not violent, and while I often say things that would make people assume that I am taken to random acts of violence (such as publicly flogging people :P) I could never act on it. As you said, it would make me feel considerably worse later. However, I DO think there is a point where words just aren't good enough. And that there are some people to whom words wouldn't make a bit of difference, which is why I've never referred to myself as a pacifist.

Dan said...

I've had the same observation concerning school stereotypes. The weird thing is that I'm not sure if it's because some communities just don't have that problem, or if we have trouble seeing it because of Asperger's.

Oddly enough, the main thing I disagree with you on on the Christianity issue is that Islam is a more toned-down religion. I don't know if you hear as much about it in Canada, but it seems like American news is always going on about how radical Islamic extremists are doing something or other. I think that the deranged Christian extremists are just as ridiculous in trying to use religion to justify disturbing ideas, but they're allowed to get away with it because they don't blow as much stuff up. I do wish they'd stop trying to take over the world and pretending that people agree with their kooky ideas though. I'd like to see Christianity go through a few reforms in the near future so that it isn't led by a bunch of oppressive whackjobs.

I have to wonder why anyone believes anyone who claims to have "proof" of any particular belief system being correct. Usually it's something that seems to confirm the beliefs, but could also work against those beliefs. Like for example, when the scientific community found that there were some common genetics in all humans, they concluded that that means that all human beings must share one common mother somewhere down the line. Most Christians claim it's proof of literal Creationism, most scientists threw it in the evolutionary theory column. It didn't really prove much of anything, even though people say it does.

I agree with you 100% on that last one. I have to wonder why people keep making ridiculous excuses for not making the punishment fit the crime.

Dylan said...

When I said that Islam is more toned down, I meabt in commercilization. Christianity is a pretty commercial religion with all the W.W.J.D braclets and religious icons and stuff. I probubly should't complain because I own a Jesus action figure.

Dylan said...

The proof they found were some scrolls that talked about Jesus' reserection during the life of Jesus. Personally, I don't see why these Christians you always see on the television are so concerned about being right.

Also, wasn't Jesus keeping the bit about the resurrection thing quite. If so, what they are saying is that they have scrolls that discredit things in the bible.

Steph said...

I read a book once called The Case for Christ. It was interesting. It offered quite a bit of POTENTIAL proof that Jesus is the son of God. Mainly it was just little prophetic things that could be dismissed as coincidence, and I don't remember too much since I only skimmed it rather than actually reading it. But an example of something the book said was that according to the Bible, Jesus told his deciples that he would be crucified "whole". In case you don't know, typically, crucifixions are done by first breaking the persons legs and sometimes arms before nailing them to the cross. They didn't do that to Jesus. I don't know why. If they said why, I don't remember. One thing I liked about the book however, if I recall correctly, not only did they present the one side, saying that Jesus is the son of God and that He died and rose again, but they also discussed the counterarguments to it in detail, instead of just dismissively like you see in so many other Christian books.

Dan said...

Oh, I see what you mean. I agree, it's upsetting how much Christianity's been commercialized. It's particularly disturbing considering that Jesus actually spoke out against that kind of thing several times. To be fair though, I do like some "Christian" music. I think some people in the irritating "Christian" industry are well-meaning types that just got tangled up in that mess.

Regarding needing to be right...I think someone told a bunch of Christian groups that relativism and postmodernism are evil. I really don't see how interpreting the idea of truth differently destroys religion, so it seems really silly to me. For some reason they're really afraid of the existance of a second side of anything.

Those scrolls sound interesting. You have a point about the resurrection thing being kept quiet until after it happened though. I seem to remember one of the gospels claiming that Jesus said it in some parable but no one understood what it meant at the time. It'd be interesting to compare the two and see how they work with each other.

Dylan said...

To tell you guys the truth, I want to end this conversation.