Rantings From the Shameless Generation

After looking into finding a better blog, I came across www.blogsome.com and was very impressed. So impressed I immediately signed up for a new account. That's right, I am done with LJ! This place sucks anyway! Limits, awful organisation, terrible features! I denounce you LJ! Ahahahahah!

http://comrade.blogsome.com

Feel free to read my thoughts in a better atmosphere.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Killswitch Engage - "A Bid Farewell"

Behold the wonders of modern medicine! Today you can cure a cold or fever in mere days, correct any problem with surgery, and grow muscles overnight with the aid of a simple injection or pill. This makes me sick. With the dawn of science and medicine, I've watched as the value of life has continued to lower until one day I am sure, life will be gambled away with the click of a button. Oh, and it's not only the scientists that are taking the greatest gift of all from us, but the idiots that take it upon themselves to attempt insane stunts such as skydiving or anything of the like. Is the "ultimate thrill" really worth losing your one and only life? Not in my humble opinion. Which brings me to my point:

"In the midst of life, death is among us."

This saying could not be more true, and it is not any philosophical pondering or a bible quote; it is a fact of life. One cannot realize the meaning of this phrase until a situation where it is applicable happens, some life-changing event that will make them think immediately of this phrase. When this does happen, when the realization hits, one will feel how fragile life is, and then one will mature into enlightenment and hold dear what is the greatest gift of all. Now don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist myself, so I'm not promoting the idea that all life comes from God. Life is a gift, one your parents have given to you, so don't fuck up and make them regret it for the rest of their grief-filled time on earth. I think they earned that right at least.

Sometimes, though we don't have the choice. To explain, I have a short story I'd like to share with you, all of which is true. While on vacation in the Dominican Republic, a family decided they'd go a fun excursion to let their hyper kids tire out for the day - the excursion was actually an activity with many parts, but the part I am speaking of has the participants swinging on a rope and then letting go to fall into what must be the ocean. Well the family's eleven year old boy gives it a try, but when he tries to surface out of the water, the waves pulls him back under. He drowned. The funeral was yesterday, but unfortunately, I could not make it. My parents went, however, and when they returned they told me that the family in question was a wreck. I could only imagine...and this was an accident.

Anyway, to make a long story short (as I'm sure these aren't your favorite things to read) I think we should all just be really thankful we are on this earth, well and alive, and have the opportunity to do whatever we want - that is, if we apply ourselves. So don't take life for granted, go out there and make something of yourself, have fun doing it, and don't let anything or anyone get in your way or try to stop you. Sure there's the law, but if my advice has pushed you to break it...then I'm truly sorry for writing this. On that note, I'm signing off.

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Peace Orchestra - "Who Am I?"

"If you govern the people legalistically and control them by punishment, they will avoid crime, but have no personal sense of shame. If you govern them by means of virtue and control them with propriety, they will gain their own sense of shame, and thus correct themselves."

From this quote I will begin to introduce myself, my beef, and what I am going to have to say in my first online journal. Examining this quote, I agree whole-heartedly with the intention and the wisdom behind it, but then I look over my shoulder to the chaos that is today's society and shake my head. The plan laid out by Confucius might have worked in his time for him, but today, it would be impossible to put into effect. Could you imagine 100% of the population acting like Confucius, behaving like this? The problem is not motivating people with intrinsic motivation to behave, the problem is the deviants who lack the capacity for intrinsic motivation to behave. These kids will one day take over society and continue to rob the future generations of shame. What is the difference between a democratic society acting lawful because they fear the repercussions of their actions and an authoritarian government where fear controls the public. Nothing.

So now I am caught between wishing for an ideal society that would follow the ethics described in the quote, and yet at the same time my cynicism is telling me, logically, that this "perfect society" would be impossible to achieve because those that make up the society - the citizens - won't yield to this law, won't open their souls for improvement. So what do I do? I give up hopes of living in a reasonably better world and expect only the worst from the future. I curse the society that I currently live in and drown my frustration in what I call personal enlightenment. I share my message with like-minded people, giving me futile hope that people will begin to see or be told why we are going downhill. Basically, I become the misguided, foul-tempered, arrogant philosopher...but all this at an age that has been robbed of its youth by oneself.

From that mind-set I bring you this journal, with which I will write my cynical thoughts down in hopes to sway you to see the world in the way that I behold it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, well so is ugliness. This journal is written in hopes to open this beholder's viewpoint to you, the reader. My introduction done with, I am ready to sign out, but I have my next entry already in mind, and I'll tell you now, it only gets uglier.

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: Beethoven's Für Elise