There Really Oughtn’t

I hate people.

Okay, so that statement might be taken the wrong way by many – oh wait, that statement most definitely will be taken the wrong way. Whatever… The fact of the matter is that I, for one, have basically reached the end of my line when it comes to the myriad of idiots in our society these days. And I’m not about to claim that I am smarter than everyone else – far from it! What I am wondering is exactly how have we (the “normal” people) let the admittedly few douche-bags of society have so much power? Or perhaps – as usually seems to be the case – I’m wrong here. I doubt it, but I suppose it’s possible. Hear me out on this…

As I’m sure many of you already know, Penn and Teller have this wonderful show on Showtime named, aptly enough, “Bullshit!” Seeing as I decided long ago not to spend money on any of your premium cable channel offerings (it just seemed like a waste of money to me), it wasn’t until late last year that I stumbled on this show using the rather recently introduced “Instant View” feature on Netflix. Once I discovered it though, I was hooked. Finally! Somebody out there is asking the correct questions and basically showing these scam artists for what they are. Unfortunately, the more I watched, the more I realized what the actual problem is – your average Joe Schmo (at least the one’s living in America today) is more than willing to throw away any and all common sense for the opportunity to believe pretty much anything. If the bullshit were true, life would seem better; therefore people relish the idea of taking blind faith in the bullshit. Whatever happened to demanding proof? Have we honestly turned into a society where belief in ideas has become more important than the search for truth?

And what the fuck is with this latest rash of husbands going to rehab for “sex addiction”? Come on … sex addiction?! Are you kidding me?? There is no such thing as sex addiction. What’s next? We’re going to be treating people for oxygen addiction or food addiction (oh wait, that second one already exists…)? I hate to say it, but if the male of our species weren’t “addicted” to sex, you and I (and pretty much the entire human population) probably wouldn’t be here. The problem is not that these guys have an addiction; it’s that they have a penis. Personally, I consider these guys weak. I’ve written about this before and my opinion remains unchanged. Society attempting to justify infidelity as a disease, however, is pure bullshit.

But that’s what we’re looking for, right? – A way to justify our actions without having to actually legitimize them. That way we can do whatever we want and pass any consequences onto somebody else. For these “sex addicts”, it’s not their fault – they’re the real victims here. I guess if they did the impossible and didn’t sleep around on their wives they might have had to suffer blue balls for a bit. Sure, they could easily alleviate this on their own (it’s called masturbation and man has been doing it since man has been…); but I guess that’s too much to ask of these alpha males. No … it’s far better to give them a pass and let them do what they do so well – it’s not like they’ve promised not to do it… Marriage, after all, is such a dated concept.

Then there’s this new fad (and “fad” is how I would best describe it) where peer groups and, even more disturbingly, school officials are being blamed for teenage suicides. Now I understand how somebody committing suicide always has a devastating effect on those that loved them; however when was it decided that the best way to deal with these tragedies was to find somebody else to blame? We’ve all been teenagers. We all know what teenagers need to go through. For those that forgot, it’s called “growing up”. Each of us had our own unique experiences during this period and each of us found ways to cope. Unfortunately, this journey is more difficult for some; but that’s life. Holding friends (or enemies) and teachers responsible when a teenager fails to cope accomplishes nothing more than passing the feeling of failure (because I’m sure that’s what the parents feel) onto somebody else.

So what we end up with is kids being punished for being kids and adults being punished for not being able to see the future. And how, exactly, should we punish these (what should I call them?) “accomplices” for the extremely vague crime that they are supposedly guilty of? Throw ‘em in jail, perhaps? Oh, I know, let’s make the school pay millions of dollars to the kid’s parents – that’s almost as good as a resurrection I suppose… After all, the kid would still be alive if the school did its job … right?

But that’s not exactly what I’m on about and before I get too far off subject, let me return. The point I am eager to get out there is that people need to stop taking often asinine claims as truth based purely on faith. And yes, I include all religions in this basket as well. We are currently living in the most scientifically advanced era that this blue-green sphere we have chosen to call Earth has ever seen. Why, I ask, are so many people almost eager to ignore basically everything we’ve learned to get us here? Fear of the unknown is no excuse to act like a lemming…

I watched the latest episode of South Park last night – the “Medicinal Fried Chicken” episode – and almost died laughing. That show always does a wonderful job of pointing out the absurdity of our culture, usually in an even more absurd way – men purposely contracting prostate cancer in order to legally purchase weed … classic… This is yet one more example of what I am getting at. I’ve been to Amsterdam. I lived for nine months in Germany where (and I doubt many of you are aware of this) it is perfectly okay to posses up to 10g of marijuana for your personal use. They understand the dangers (or lack there of) associated with letting people smoke grass if they so choose. However here, in the “land of the free”, you’re not allowed to – although, in more and more states, this restriction is only being placed on healthy people. Now how stupid is that…?

And it all goes back to somebody, somewhere, insisting that some fact existed (smoking marijuana is a “gateway drug” for instance – that always cracks me up…) supporting whatever agenda (usually religious – always about controlling others…) they want to push. What this oftentimes results in is a loss of freedom and it’s looking more and more like nobody cares. The anti-smokers out there have basically outlawed smoking (any and all, not just pot) in pretty much any public area (if this hasn’t hit where you live yet, just wait – it will) using lies. They blatantly over-exaggerate the effects of breathing secondhand smoke to make it seem like this nuisance to them is life threatening for all. It’s not and nobody is insisting that anybody stay in an uncomfortable environment – I’m sure nobody would miss these tight-ass, presumptuous kill-joys if they decided to leave the bar… But making it illegal for all to smoke … isn’t that going a bit too far…?

I don’t know … perhaps I’m missing something here. Did I miss the meeting where it was decided that everybody should stop considering others and just assume that whatever belief system they’ve decided to subscribe to is the only valid viewpoint that exists, even when this system is based on nothing more than pure faith? As Penn Jillette so often puts it, “When somebody says ‘there ought to be a law,’ there probably oughtn’t.”

bis später,

Coriolis