Okay, I'm going to ignore all of the swirling sub-topics in this thread and try to talk of OP's thread title.
WARNING: LONG
How are we doing? As a species I mean...I'm going to make it a little more personal. I haven't had the easiest life. I won't say my life has been too too hard, but it's not been the easiest. I've lived in a broken home where the parents scream at each other every day. I remember going on a trip across America (driving) and my father and mother yelling at each other pretty much for the entire car ride. Not trying to cause pity or anything, just saying.
That kind of thing, please pardon my French, really fvcks up the mind of a twelve year old. I've dealt with suicidal impulses, days when I could cry myself to sleep at night, times when I would hear my father yelling at my little sister and ache, just
ache, to go downstairs and end his miserable, freaking life. I hated my parents. Hated them. If they would have died in front of me, I would have laughed in joy, and I'm being deadly serious. Just recapping this bring the emotions up to the surface.
So, I have a really hard time believing in the good-will of people. It's not that everyone I see is that way, just that over a decade of hate is nearly impossible to erase.
Part 2:
Please, please don't be offended. I'm not knocking anyone's beliefs with this, but it is crucial to who I am and my feelings on this issue.Our family is part of a church. The pastor, my pastor, is a person who really cares for people and doesn't like to see them hurting. In fact, he's told me and my sister several times that anytime, if we needed to get away from it, we could come over to his-and-his-wife's house, and just be there, away from the craziness.
Anyway, through many conversations with him, I gradually, gradually, learned that not everyone was like that. Not everyone was a time bomb just waiting to explode in your face; that there was such a thing as love. He asked me one time if I ever wanted to get married. I said no. I didn't want any chance of turning out like my parents. Over time, though, he showed me that few are that way. He showed me that I didn't
have to follow the footsteps of my parents. Oddly enough, they say that's one sure thing about kids: they turn out very much like their parents.
His key phrase was, "Someone has to do it right." I guess that someone was me.
Part 3: Safer Territory
My friends were a mixed bag in many ways. I haven't had very many friends, maybe six or seven at once. And, often because of the things I've felt, I'm extremely introverted, which isn't too compatible with friends, and more than a little weird. At times they (my friends) could be very cutting with comments they made, which would make me draw back into my cocoon and not talk to anyone. However, as I've grown up a little bit, and they as well, they've gotten used to me and that has allowed me to open up and see a little more of the goodness in them.
So, I've had my share of heartache, at the expense of other people, indeed at the expense of the two people who ought to be the opposite of "heartache." That has caused my worldview to generally lie around the idea that people are devious, evil, heartless creatures, who belong at the
bottom of the food chain, as opposed to the top.
However, I've come to realize that all people, in fact a great deal of people, aren't that way. There are genuinely good people out there. One recent example that comes to mind is a guy I heard do a little speech named Eric Klein, who started an organization called Can-Do.
Link to website. This guy's story is basically that when the big tsunami hit several years ago (I think about 2004),
billions of dollars were given in aid to help. Several months later, he was watching the news, and nothing had changed. The people were still living in rubble. He said it p1ssed him off He wanted to do something about. Then, a few weeks later, he got hit by a drunk driver. Instead of taking the money to get surgery, he took a friend with him with a camera and they went over to...somewhere, I believe it was Sri Lanka, to see what they could do. he showed us a video.
It was amazing. There were places with Red Cross warehouses stocked FULL OF FOOD, and with people starving across the street. It wasn't being distributed. At one place there was a bunch of food at an airport, but no one was transporting it to the villages that needed it. And he said it was easy, just flag down a truck, give them one hundred bucks and have them deliver the stuff. So easy, but no one was doing it. And the cool about him rebuilding the villages and stuff, he didn't go in and say, "okay, we're doing this, and this, and this." No, he went in and asked them what they wanted done. What they needed. And another thing that was cool: at one place he said that when finishing up rebuilding a village, he really wanted a way to bring the village together...so he had all the kids in the village help build a playground. Not build it for them. They helped. He did that with the adults, too--he supplied the money and supplies, and they helped build. Very thoughtful.
I personally don't tend to go in for this kind of stuff, but you could see it clearly in his face and voice,the frustration...that he was real. It wasn't fake. He wasn't saying this to get us to give him money. He was saying it because he believed it with all of his heart.
Stories like that inspire me. They show me that there is good in this world. As for how we are doing as a species, I have to say we tend to go in the direction of our leaders/mentors/celebrities/sports heroes. I don't follow that stuff too much, but with what I hear about people like Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus or Barry Bonds or <insert name of latest sports player taking roids (I live not too far away from Ohio State, which I hear has a lot of problems this season)>, it doesn't look too good. DO we have the potential to do better? Sure. Are we? I don't know about that.
And on our reflection on the environment, that's an interesting question. We are burning up fossil fuels at an alarming rate, but think about this: we now have (or know of, but aren't allowed to drill there) access to more fossil fuels than ever before. Vast reserves in the Middle East, even in Israel, I believe. Lots in Russia, or perhaps more accurately that area surrounding Russia. I believe one of the largest natural gas deposits ever was recently found in the East-to-Midwest USA. The more we consume, the more we find, it seems. I do believe we need to reduce our consumption, but cries of impending doom are over the top.
I think I'll stop here, because this seems like a lot. I look forward to seeing responses.
Modifié par EternalAmbiguity, 06 septembre 2011 - 07:20 .
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