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Gods Among Us

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Introduction

Super heroes have long been a main stay in western culture, for they represent everything we strive to be. Fast, powerful and moral, these characters are psychological projections of our ego. No super hero typifies this more so than Superman. He fights for truth, justice, and the American way, even though he’s an illegal immigrant. He protects humans even though he could dominate them. While I’ve never found him as interesting as Batman, I get the appeal.

Wish fulfillment

Who wouldn’t want to fly, or be able to move things with your mind or any number of other powers these characters have. At their base super heroes are modern gods. We look to them like people of old looked to the stories of Beowulf, Hercules, and Thor to explain the cruelties of the world and find hope for tomorrow. They speak to that part of us that wants to transcend the mundane and become something great. To push ourselves beyond our limits and challenge the status quo To be an uber mensch.

Control

The worlds they inhabit, while under constant threat, are safe at the end of the day because of them. It’s no surprise that super hero movies have been big business in recent years due to economic and global instability. Super heroes often have messianic qualities which appeal more than ever to people today.Conversely, having that kind of power is comforting to those who feel powerless.

Conclusions

Ultimately super heroes tap into our deepest desires, what Carl Jung called our shadow self. What power a person chooses and why can tell you a lot about them.

If I could have any power it would be pyrokinesis. Of all the elements fire is the strongest and most alive. It require oxygen and fuel, and left unchecked will consume itself. Its versatility is matched only by its volatility. Unbridled and proud, it is a primal force that demands respect.

So what power would you choose and why?

On Characters

Introduction

Characters are the life blood of fiction. Mess them up and no one will bother with the story you’ve slaved over. Good characters breathe life into the work because they like, real people, have strengths and weakness. But most of all when characters are developed right readers will care for them if they were real. But how is this achieved?

Identity

While the reader may not like the protagonist, they must identify with him/her otherwise they won’t care what happens. Using first person and third person limited point of view are popular ways of establishing an intimate connection with readers, when done right. Done wrong and it comes off as ranting of a whinny brat eg Catcher in the Rye or Twilight.

Another way is to have the protagonist experience universal events eg the death of a loved one, birth of child, or coming of age. Also if the protagonist is meant to be unlikable balance this out with more appealing minor characters.

Believability

A major problem when developing characters is giving them believable flaws, powers/abilities, and motives. Overpowered characters stretch readers’ suspension of disbelief and are ultimately boring because no matter the threat they always survive.

Superman is a classic example of this. He has no flaws, no crisis of conscious, and his only vulnerability is chunks of his home planet and red sunlight. A good rule of thumb is only have the protagonist be an expert in one field, not the greatest, and for every ability give an equal weakness eg super speed but it causes sickness or wears down the body.

There are various Mary Sue litmus tests you can put your characters through to determined if they’re over powered. Use them but take the results with a grain salt because many of the criteria are staples of the mono myth. The stronger your protagonists are, the harder their obstacles and enemies should be to over come.

The Onion method
One of the best ways to develop characters is by revealing bits of their back story and personality as the story progresses, so you don’t get bogged down with info dumps or flash backs. Use the conflicts and obstacles set before them to demonstrate their core characteristics. This allows you to gradually build up characters in a believable way without the plot suffering, or breaking suspension of disbelief.

Motivation and Morality

A well crafted antagonist is someone who readers love to hate ,and hate to love. Without them there’s no story, but like their counterparts, the mix has to be right or it descends into cartoon villainy. We’ve all read and seen villains whose motives for doing bad boils down to evil for evil’s sake.

Yawn. While people in the real world commit random acts of violence, more often than not they have reasons for their actions eg, revenge , jealous, rage, but the most disturbing people are the ones who believe they are doing good. Walter White from Breaking Bad is the perfect example. He goes from antihero to full villain as the series progresses, because he rationalizes his actions in the context of the greater good.

Questions of morality provide ample opportunities to show case and develop your characters. Black and white morality is the most simplistic moral system found in narratives and tends towards the cartoony. No matter how many people Lex Lutor, Magneto, or the Joker murder, the good guys will never kill them, because that’s wrong.

On the flip side of this you have protagonists who rack up more body bags than the villains. Sure it’s satisfying to see John McClane blow away the terrorists, until you stop and think about it. Sure the villains were stopped but what makes him any better than them?

Welcome to black and grey morality and antiheroes, where the characters’ actions aren’t always nice, but at the end of the day they saved the world and that what counts. Sure they may have bribed a couple of people, or screw a few people over to get to there, but that’s part of game.

Antagonists also need balanced flaws and abilities, and must act in believable ways. Take Voldemort, he’s described as the most feared dark wizard in Pottervile ,yet is nothing more than a minor nuisance for the bulk of the series. Even when he gets a new body his attempts at world domination are pathetic at best. Riddle should have perused the evil overlord’s list and then maybe he‘d been a force to be reckoned with.

The Last Enemy to be Destroyed is Death

image by Gregory Zamets

Death of a Super Hero chronicles the life of Donny, an Irish teen fighting cancer. While this subject matter has been dealt with in other movies, the thing that made this movie unique was the animated cut scenes which the viewer learns is the world Donny retreats to when he can’t deal with reality.

The thing I liked the most was the realism. Had the director gone the route of only showing Donny’s point of view it would have been a chore to watch, but by show casing how Donny’s friends and family deal with his condition it added layers to the story.

When his cancer goes into remission you get a glimpse at the real Donny, a typical teen just discovering the opposite sex and enjoying life. He goes to parties, smokes, drinks and thinks he’s immortal, until his health turns for the worse.

Another thing I like was the way in which it was filmed you had no idea if Donny was going to survive until the end. I’m glad it ended the way it did, because if it hadn’t then the ending would have been too saccharine.

Movies seldom resonate with me the way this did. It took me right back to being a kid stuck in the hospital, fighting one infection or another. The countless surgeries, always getting my hopes that this time things would be different, only to find some new problem that needed fixed. Fucking Murphy’s Law, the bane of my existence from age seven to fourteen. Overall I give Death of a Super Hero eight out of ten.

The Perks of Being a Reader

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I was 19 the first time I read Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and it was like Chomsky crawled into my brain and put everything I felt going through high school on the pages. Sure Perks covered the well tread coming of age story, but the thing that differentiated it from other books in the same vane was Charlie, a well crafted and lovable narrator who you couldn’t help but root for. So when I found out they were adapting it into a film I was hesitant to watch. Films based on books tend to not be as good as the source material, but I put it in my DVD que and waited.

Unfortunately my fears were confirmed. First, the image of Charlie on the book cover coupled with my mental image of him painted a character far more scrawny looking than Lerman, but aesthetics aside once the movie got rolling I forgot about that.

However, Emma Watson was dreadful in this. While I give her kudos for attempting an American accent she fails miserable and the movie suffers as a whole for it. Moreover, in the book Sam came off as a sophisticated, troubled young woman. Yet for reasons only known to Chbosky, Watson plays her as a pretentious hipster with all the depth of wet paint.

The other problems I had with the movie was Chbosky over emphasized somethings and omitted others altogether. Yes not everything can be put into a movie that was in the book, but Charlie’s relationship with Michael was vital to the story and yet he’s mentioned three times tops in the movie. I understand the subplot dealing with Charlie’s sister Candice having an abortion was dropped due to rating concerns, but it resulted in their relationship being superficial at best.

I also take issue with the needless scenes of Charlie popping pills, a classic case of telling instead of showing. His mental problems were hinted at in the book via scenes of Charlie breaking down and crying when things got overwhelming, but in the movie they turned him into the poster child for teens with mental illness.

The final issue I have with the movie is how Ezra Miller played Patrick as flamboyantly gay. First the movie takes place in the early nineties, long before Will & Grace or Queer As folk came on the scene, so it’s unlikely Patrick would as expressive about his sexuality.

The scene in the dinner where Charlie asks him and Sam if they’re a couple is not believable for a second, because Patrick was constantly staring at Brad. Thus a major plot point that Patrick is dating Brad and Charlie has to keep it secret comes as no shock to viewers, unlike it did in the book.

Overall I’d recommend this movie to anyone who hasn’t read the book, and caution those who have, that the book is still better. While the movie was enjoyable, were it not for Logan Lerman’s acting and the ending it would have been a chore to get through.

Not Our Fight

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After it was revealed the Asad regime used chemical weapons on its people,the calls for America to intervene swell by the day, but should we?

With the economy still struggling to come back couldn’t our resources be better spent at home rather than dumping billions more in a region that has been a sunk cost? We have infrastructures here that need rebuilding, and millions still unemployed or underemployed.

With budgets already slashed to bone why should people sacrifice more for another circle jerk in the dessert? If it’s imperative we aide Syria, then close loopholes for the super rich and corporations to fund this little endeavor.

No matter what the US does, it will be blamed for the problems facing the Middle East. Did we not learn our lesson from the Arab Spring? There’s no grantee once Assad is ousted, someone worse won’t take his place. Current info is that Al Qaeda is involved, or plans to be involved, with some sects of the Syrian rebels. So how would we differentiate the good rebels from the bad?

Moreover, if the situation is so dire, let the UN or NATO handle it. The US is often criticized for policing the word, so why not sit this one out. America has been at war for over a decade,the people don’t want another conflict, and our troops have been stretched thin for years as it is.

Yes it’s awful what Assad has done to his people, but bad things happen everyday across the world. We’re not Superman, we can’t save everyone.

A Bitter Pill

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Introduction

Zachary Pil, Of Monsters and Magic By Tim Greaton is book one of The Dragon At Station End, Trilogy. It follows the eponymous protagonist as he learns that he and his family are the last of a powerful line of wizards and rightful rulers of a place called Pandemone. The current King of Pondemone, Krage, begins eliminating the Pil men after Zachary gets into a fight at school and requires the services of a shady troll, who spills the beans that the Lips are still alive.

The Good

Zachary is your every teen,making him easy for young readers to identify with. I loved Bret, the sickly boy from across the street who befriends Zach once he moves to Madam Kloochie’s house. The reading level is about forth or fifth grade, but younger readers shouldn’t struggle with the text.

The Bad
I have several problems with this book. While not as bad as some ebooks, it could have done with professional editing. There were a few typos, redundant words were the author typed one thing, changed it but forgot to delete the other phrase, and formatting errors like walls of text or huge gaps between words. The prose is also full of clunky phrases mixed metaphors, and weak nouns and verbs propped up with adjectives.

While likable there’s no reason to care about Zach or anyone else because there’s zero character development. This is made worst by the lack luster plot which resembles the bastard spawn of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.

While there are some interesting elements to the story i.e. Zach being part fairy and being able to communicate with and be healed by plants, it tries entirely too hard to imitate these other series and fails.

Yes Hero’s Tale a side, there was no coherent plot to the story and what was there was so thin because rather than develop the world, Greaton spends half of the book getting Zach to Madame Kloochie’s and pointless chapters dedicated to him cleaning her trash heap of a house. Just when we’re getting somewhere it end. No climax, just a full stop on a weak cliff hanger.

As for the magic and monsters, don’t hold your breath because nothing regarding those is ever explained and that’s the worst part about this book. It isn’t bad enough that he commits the cardinal sin of telling instead of showing, Greaton violates the contract with his reader that if a mystery is introduced in the beginning of the story it is resolved by the close.

This book was infuriating at times with its refusal to divulge the simplest of answers to basic questions. If Krage was such a threat, why then didn’t Zach’s father bother teaching magic to defend himself? And if being around plants was so dangerous that he’s told to avoid them least he sprout branches, then why was he given plants as birthday and Christmas presents?

More over there was no conflict for Zach to overcome or goals for him to reach on his journey. Overall this book was a big pass for me, and I have zero desire to read the other books in the series, even if they were free.

BO is Watching You

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This is how democracy died, not with a whimper or thunderous applause, but with a shrug. So what the administration that promised greater transparency has been spying on 3 billion calls a day, and trillions of bytes of information. So what America has become a police state where mere suspicion is enough to resend your constitutionally protected rights to a fair and speedy trial by a jury of your peers.

So what American citizens have been assassinated by this administration without ever being charged with a crime or seeing the evidence against them. So what when asked if they would ever conduct drone strikes against US citizen on american soil, the DOJ waved their hand and said that would never happened. Right just like this government would never imprison its citizens,but they did exactly that during World War II.

But so what, because we’re safe. Yet this administration with its massive security apparatus failed to even predict the Boston Marathon bombing, nor were they able to stop the leaking of the existence of these programs. So tell me why we should allow the government continued access to our private data?

If your answer is to shrug and say so what, remember that when the next administration
deems it necessary to install security check points, or when the one after that says they must monitor you via video valiance at all times. So what, it’s for your safety.

Why So Serious?

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Part of being an adult is accepting certain responsibilities( bills, work, family, etc.)and taking things serious where appropriate, but you can’t be uptight about everything. Unless you want to be old before your time relax a little.

Moderation is the key, don’t sweat the small stuff, or blow things out of proportion. Yes there are a million problems under the sun to worry about, but you’re not superman. Change what you can, accept what you can’t.

In the hustle of everyday life it’s easy to forget to take care of yourself. Stop and breath everyday, if even for just a few minutes to recharge.

Also don’t forget to disconnect form technology and enjoy the silence.
With the current state of affairs concentrate on the good, and remember to laugh or you’ll go crazy.

10 Reasons Being a Kid Sucked

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10. You don’t know anything

Yes childhood is full of discoveries because as a kid you don’t know much of anything and will believe everything you hear. Raise your hand if you thought stepping on a crack would break your mother’s back, or if you’d die from breaking a pinky swear.

9. No control
Sure you don’t have any responsibilities outside of school, but you also have no say in much of anything. Every aspect of your life is controlled by your parents and other adults form the moment you wake up until you go to bed. How many of you remember begging to stay up longer or get to do something because your friends’ parents let them?

8. Ungrateful
As kids we took for granted all the things we had because they were given to us, where as once we started working and paying bills we gained a new appreciation for our parents and the value of things.

7. Myopic view of the world
As kids we thought the universe revolved around us and our problems, and while some never grow out of this, as adults most of us realize there are people worse off than us.

6. No sense of proportionality
As kids and later as teens everything is either awesome or apocalyptic. As adults we learn to see things in shades of grey and choose the lesser of two evils.

5.School sucks
Even if you enjoy learning school sucks the fun out of it by forcing you to read things you don’t like and cramming your head with knowledge that you’ll never use outside of the class room. Seriously when was the last you needed to know the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite or how to do long division?

4.No respect
We were constantly told what we thought didn’t matter, and when we didn’t understand our parents’ decisions we’re told “You’ll understand when you’re older.” While this was true of some things, raise your hand if there are things your parents did that you still don’t get.

3. Bad taste in everything
As we mature so does our taste, so its no surprise what we thought was cool at 8 is lame at 13 and godawful at thirty. How many of you have had that moment after you’ve watched a childhood favorite and said,”How did I ever like this crap?”

2. Puberty
Yes there is no time more confusing than this. Your body goes through embarrassing changes you don’t fully understand or appreciate, your emotions run wild, more is expected of you, and you’re forced to go through all this with hundreds of others watching you. Yes once is more than enough thank you.

1. Kids are assholes
Yes kids are mean spirited, vicious creatures who won’t hesitant to tell you exactly what they think and make fun of anyone different. Of course this is because they haven’t learned to put a filter on their thoughts and haven’t learned empathy yet, but it still sucks because you’re forced to be around them 8 hours a day, 180 days or more a year from pre-k until the end of high school. Sure as adults we still have to deal with assholes but now we have the freedom to not associate with them.

So what things sucked about being a kid for you?

The Holden Effect

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The Holden Effect

Since its publication The Cather in the Rye has gone on to be one of the most often banned books, and rightfully so for being plot-less anticlimactic garbage, but there’s no denying its impact on society. Catcher in the Rye codified teen angst and alienation as hallmarks of the coming of age process, and heavily influenced the counter-culture movements of the 60s.

He was the prototypical anti-teen, nonconformist before it was cool to be one, and gave social misfits a hero to root for, but since its debut countless other stories have traversed the same themes and better. Moreover, Holden is everything wrong with teenagers and the world in general. Holden Caulfield is held up as some deep intellectual who sees the world for what it really is, but he’s not.

Hypocrisy and Cynicism

Holden’s trade mark god damn phony is thrown around so much it loses meaning after two pages. Everything he criticizes others being phonies for he does himself: repeating things, lying, being self centered, etc.

This notion of calling out phonies has taken new heights online where like Holden people aren’t happy unless they’re railing against the latest manufactured controversy, or bashing the latest Holly Wood blockbuster. Never mind they’ve done nothing to help their cause de jure besides signing a petition on change.org, or that they’ve liked similar movies in the past.

Moreover like Holden they brand anyone who calls them on their bs trolls or haters. Words like racist, sexist and misogynist are thrown out to shut down debate, and failing that they run away.

Pretentious

Holden fancies himself a literary genius, yet he’s flunked out of four prep schools and about to be expelled for a fifth. Never mind we’re told, because all the teachers were out to get him, yet when we see his writing, it stinks!

With the advent of the internet and other new media everyone is now an expert or leader and thinks the world ought to know about their grand insight about life, but the truth is the majority of things posted on social media sites is banal.

Come on do you think people care what you ate for dinner or that you like band x over y? Or who you think is the greatest director/actor? Yes you may have infinity plus one friends online, but does that matter when you seldom, if ever, interact with them? Especially when people craft online personas worlds apart from their real life ones.

Entitlement, Narcissism, and Victim Hood

Holden’s biggest problem is he doesn’t realize most of his problems are self made. He blows things out of proportion, takes offense at
everything and always blames others for his failures. The kid thinks he’s owed the world and thus never puts any effort into things.

Like a perpetual two-year-old, Holden thinks he’s the center of the world and throws tantrums whenever the spotlight isn’t on him. He expects complete strangers to drop what they’re doing to hang out with him when he graces them with his magnanimous presence(snark off). He makes up stories to garner sympathy or to run away when his half-ass attempts at playing adult backfires.

He loves to play the victim card and would fit in with the PC police and nanny state of today. He’d be a cause celebre of any number of special interest groups dedicated to saving the children, with his raison d’etre either pornography or bullying.

Moreover his need to be recognized as a great writer leads me to believe Holden would a bitchy blogger who spammed twitter and other sites about how OMG awesome sauce he is, and would have no scruples about signing up for an American Idol style writing competition. And then retreating to his blog and writing about how the show was ridged when he’s eliminated in the audition phase.

Kidulthood

Holden constantly says how he doesn’t want to grow up then hits up bars and picks up a hooker. Gee kid, make up your fucking mind you great big phony. The real issue with Holden is he wants the rights of being an adult without any of the responsibilities that come with it.

Sure I can see the appeal of going out and getting hammered, coming home and playing Call Of Duty until dawn, and then waking up at noon and doing the same thing all over again. It’s easy when Mommy and Daddy take care of icky things like laundry, the bills, and working insane hours for not enough money. This is understandable when you’re in your twenties or early thirties and haven’t established yourself yet, but not for the rest of your life.

Conclusions

There come’s a point when everyone must grow up mentally and take on these mundane things. This is a fact no likes but must accept. Sure you can rage about how the world is unfair ad nauseum or cling to your childhood all you want, but it will change nothing. To everything there is a season and once it has passed you can’t go back.

Yes growing up is hard because all our life we were spoon fed fairy tales about how the world is, so when we learn things seldom work in such simplistic ways we feel betrayed and want to preserve that child hood innocence. We can’t go back because we know too much. As kids school, the neighborhood, our friends and family encompassed our world and everything outside of that may as well have been in another dimension. So while one phase of our life has ended, there’s no reason to mourn. There are still many more firsts left to discover before we shuffle off this mortal coil.

Netiquette

“Oh no after you.”
Oh no, after you.” The Goofy Gophers

If you’ve spent any time online you’re probably familiar with trolls, people who say rude things to cause drama. Sure they’re annoying at times but at least they’re good for the occasional laugh. However, their counter parts, net nannies, are asinine. They rove the corners of cyber space looking for anything that could be misconstrued as offensive then lecture the original poster (OP) about netiquette, which boils down to fake politeness.

Sorry but I can’t abide such phoniness. In general I’m a nice guy, but every now and then I drop crude language into my conversations. Sure I could turn every post into a thesis length treatise, wherein I parse every term so as not to offend anyone, but it would be pedantic and boring. And where’s the fun in that anyways? If someone’s feelings go
t hurt because I said a bad word, then grow the fuck up.

The only power words have is what people give to them. There are much more important things to discuss than whether a word is sexist, racist, etc. People aren’t always nice in real life, so there’s no reason to expect them to be so when online. Rather than enforcing draconian TOS why not let people police themselves. Just like in real life if you’re an asshole no one will want to be around you. There problem solved. Was that so hard?

PC Police

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PC Police

Introduction

Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

What happened to this notion, when did we become a country of hypersensitive crybabies who find offense at the most innocuous things? The cult of political correctness happened. In the past we recognized people wouldn’t always agree with us and might say things we don’t like, but we engaged in civil discussions to win them over, and failing that agreed to disagree. Now people can have their careers ruins because someone took offense at what they’ve said, but worse yet descent form popular opinions is shutdown by labeling those who disagree bigots, racists, misogynists, homophobes, etc.

Freedom of Speech
You do not have the right to dictate what others can say because it might be offensive to you. The hall mark of freedom of speech is that it covers even the most vile things, precisely because the moment we draw the line at what can be said, what’s to stop further encroachment down the line? Who gets to decide what is offensive? Who determines which words and ideas are taboo? Do we really want to live in a world where we have to carry approved scripts of conversations least we come a foul of the PC Police.

The PC crowd is quick to throw out that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of that speech, but they’re wrong. Free speech only applies to the extent the government can’t restrict it, not private entities. Thus you can’t scream about your first amendment rights being violated if you’re sent to HR for breaching their policies or whine about your comment being deleted by the mods of a website. Don’t like it start your own site.

However what you or I choose to do or say outside these private entities is not fair game because of the reasonable expectation of privacy found in the fourth amendment. Thus if people say something you find offensive call them out on it, scream it from the rooftops, but don’t call for their firing or other reprisals because what’s to stop someone form doing the same to you?

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
-Martin Niemöller

Make It Better

Introduction

In recent years bullying has been brought to the forefront due to a string of LGBT teen suicides, but has the reaction been appropriate? The media and others make it seem like bullying is a new phenomena, but kids have been picking on each other for generations. News flash kids are dicks owing to their immature brains and bullying, like other behaviors, is learned and thus no amount of legislation will completely get rid of it. Yes children deserve to learn in a safe environment, but shouldn’t be coddled so much either.

All Bullies are Not Created Equally

Framing bullying as a primarily LGBT issue is myopic at best and disingenuous at worst because kids get bullied for any number reasons be it the clothes they wear, the music they like, their weight, height, and even how they speak.

Also labeling bullies that target LGBT students as closet cases further obscures the issue. While it maybe true some bullies are LGBT themselves they could just as easily be overcompensating for other issues such as they get abused at home, or think they’re not doing anything , and most importantly because they are sociopaths.

In the first two cases the issue can be resolved by explaining why they are wrong and addressing the underlying issues of the bully, however for the sociopath expulsion and legal action will only stop them because they lack empathy.

Victor Vs Victim
Regardless of the type of bully two things can be done to stop them before things escalate. First stand up to them. This doesn’t mean you should cave their faces, no it can be as simple as telling them to stop, or telling your teachers or parents about the bully. Confidence is the key because bullies only go after easy prey.

And if nothing is done well you’d be surprised what gets done when you mention a law suit. Second if you see bullying stop it, because when they no longer have an audience to perform the bullies will stop.

If kids are never taught to assert themselves, when they get into the real world they’ll constantly be taken advantage. Assholes know no bounds and no one is going to care when the person bulling you is your boss. Telling kids things will get better if they wait long enough is bullshit.

Yes, as you get older you get more freedom to choose where you live and who you interact with, but you’ll still have to deal with douche bags. Nothing will change unless you make them better and that requires hard and tedious work to change policies and educate people. Yes give kids hope for a better future but temper that with realistic expectations. Everyone can’t go to a liberal college or college at all, and even in the most liberal of places you’ll find assholes. So grow a thick skin and fuck the haters.

Superman is Dead

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Introduction

Ever since the presidential election ended I’ve been burnt on politics and life in general. For several months now I haven’t been in the mood to do much of anything. It seems things just get worse by the day and no one seems to care.

Sure people bitch about the state of affairs but nothing gets done in the end. We can blame elected officials all we want but the fact remains the system is broken and nothing will ever change as long as it remains in place.

The Lesser Evil is Still Evil

But how did things get so bad you ask? Because we abdicated our duty to engage in civil discourse and allowed others to shape the narrative. It became more important that our side won and instead of holding our leaders accountable for selling us out, we towed the party line and voted for the lesser evil.

The result: a political system in the will of the majority is ignored in favor of the goals of an ever shrinking oligarchy. the cruel truth is that while slightly better on social issues, the modern democratic party is no better than the republicans on economics matters, because they are two side of the same coin. The ruling elite played a massive con by giving us the illusion of choice.

Gods and Devils

To keep us distracted they gave us heroes to worship and monsters to hate. Celebrities are the modern gods, manufactured for us to consume and build up, only to be tore down when they’re no longer profitable.The zeitgeist is replete with countless stories reporting the minutia of their lives and other fear mongering stories, but why? To keep us compliant sheep blissfully ignorant of the destruction of our civil liberties and the establishment of a plutocracy.

No drama is complete with villains and we are more than willing to turn on each other when it’s politically convenient. The witch hunts of old have been resurrected all in the name of fake outrage and political correctness. People have turned being offended into a sport where they one up other up in the oppression Olympics.

No matter how innocuous a statement, it will be interpreted in the worst way possible so that people can expound upon how this is the most insert-your-pc-cause-desure-here thing ever uttered, and how the speaker is vile beyond measure. Yes because as everyone knows it’s more important what you say instead of what you do.

And when these dramas dry up there is no end to the causes people will jump on to appear open minded and part of the in crowd. Stop Kony 2012 was once such campaign that swept the internet, yet amounted to little more than people signing yet another change.org petition and then crowing about how they made a difference.

Change Now

The It Gets Better Campaign was another popular cause, because like Kony 2012 it required no real effort beyond making a video, and allowed people to feel like they accomplished something. Here in lies the wrinkle, substantive reform doesn’t happen overnight. It takes hundreds of people working thousands of hours before change starts. Had the movements of the past put as little effort as we do today schools and buses would still be segregated.

Waiting for Superman

After the clusterfuck that was Bush 43’s administration the nation was hungry for someone new, fresh and cool. Enter Barack Obama , a man whose personal narrative exemplified the American dream and swept millions off their feet. Obama’s ’08 campaign was a master class on how to control the narrative, but no amount of charisma or oratory skills can substitute for leadership.

The Great Con

The key to Obama’s ’08 and 2012 wins were he campaigned as a populous progressive, but once in office capitulated to whatever the GOP, the Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street wanted. Be it the public option, eliminating the Bush tax cuts, closing Gitmo, or not cutting the safety net Obama sacrificed his base’s interests on the altar of bipartisanship, which amounted to bills rewritten so that one or two republicans would vote for it, only for them to stab him in the back later.

More importantly than that the abuse of civil liberties under Obama should give everyone pause for thought. Obama signed into law he National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a bill which goes beyond the scope of the Patriot Act in terms of destroying the fourth and thirteenth amendments. Under this bill the Obama administration assassinated four US citizens abroad, including a sixteen-year-old and his friends, without ever charging them with a crime or trying them in court.

How did this happen? Look in the mirror, we have no one but ourselves to blame for not holding Obama’s feet to the fire and calling him out on his bullshit and lies. Sure every now and then he threw a few crumbs to placate the plebeians (The Lilly Ledbetter Act, “evolving” on gay marriage), but the real villain in this story has been the DNC establishment who brands anyone who dare criticize Obama a racist or traitor to the cause.

Superman is Dead

Obama is not a liberal, progressive, or whatever people left of center are calling themselves theses days. He is a spineless hack who falls to knees faster than a priest blowing an altar boy. So where do we go from here? Already those on the left are lining up behind Saint Hillary, but least they forgot she’s to the right of Obama. We can’t wait for a political messiah to appear.

No one person can fix everything, if we want things to change then it will require tons of hard work only to fail. Yes in order break the status quo that means running people who have our best interests in mind and if that means losing an election cycle of four to achieve it, then so be it. The system is broken and will eventually collapse,
so it behooves us to create our own systems to replace it when the walls come crashing down. We all have a pair of arms and legs, and it’s time we got up and started using them to make this world a place worth fighting for.

What Happened to Civility?

image by AinaM via sxc.hu

Every day it seems the limits of human stupidity and animosity reach new depths. No matter what the subject people feel the need to spew vitriol at each other, all because they have different opinions. Go on any site and the worst humanity has to offer is on display.

When did it become acceptable to treat people like shit, when in real life you’d never think of acting so crass? When did the truth become political? Time and time again partisans line up with their “facts” and battle. The casualties: civility, reasoned debate and common decency.

Anyone who does not tow the party line, or shows the faintest semblance of respect to the other side, is branded a traitor. And woe be on any who agree with the other side; vengeance and furious anger will rain down upon you. And for what?

While it would be nice to live in a world where everyone agreed, we don’t, but that is no reason to treat each other like savages. We can have disagreements without vilifying each other. Why must a difference of opinions be treated like an act of war?

Everything needn’t descend to vile ad hominem attacks if people stopped reacting based on their emotions, and used their head instead. Progress can’t be made if we continue to act like children who stick their hands in their ears and say, “La, la, la, I can’t hear you.” We have to live together ,so it behooves us to get along for the betterment of us all.

I know it may be naive to believe that things might change for the better anytime soon, but I still hold out hope that logic and reason will win out. Because every now and then I see glimmers of rational, civil debates and know I’m not the alone. But until more people speech out to silence the vocal fringes on both sides, I’ll continue to be a rationalist in an irrational world.