Talking To Myself

So, recently I was privy to (read: subjected to) witnessing an argument between two friends over the current political landscape in this little corner of the world we call the USA. These two friends (eh, let’s go with "associates) represent not only conflicting ends of the political spectrum, but also give embody the worst things about their respective ideologies. The "Democrat" is a ‘Yes We Can’ t-shirt wearing type whose political bend seems to tip towards the trendier issues, like health care (which he doesn’t understand), stopping wars (because he read an article that said they were bad) and the promotion of peace, love, and happiness (because he is a moron). As laughable as this cookie-cutter embarassment to the organized DNC seems, his right-wing counterpart is a dumbass of comparable size and severity. For starters, this "Republican" is a self-proclaimed, self-styled "Tea Party member." This is a distinction I don’t really get. Are you a Republican or are you in the Tea Party? Is this like where Harry and Ron were in Dumbledore’s Army but there were still in Gryffindor at the same time? I don’t know, I don’t care, but applying this label to yourself seems worthy of the same contempt and censure reserved for self-labeling "hipsters." To round out this girl’s worldview, she is virulently anti-Barack Obama, terrifyingly pro-Sarah Palin, and, I swear to God, I have heard the words "revolution" leave her mouth. What these two sadsacks have in common is that neither of them really embnraces the issues at hand. They pride themselves on their spirited political "debates" but the couple of times I’ve had to witness them (clarifcation: I’ve only actually had this displeasure in person once. Usually I catch glimpses of wall-to-wall news feed clutter on FB) they stick to party line chest thumping, sound bites and rhetoric. Left-wing numbnuts quotes articles from Rolling Stone, right-wing dipshit paraphrases Glenn Beck. Both of them are so close-minded and short-sighted that there is no way either will be swayed by argument, and I’ve concluded they only get into these "discussions" to impress themselves with how much Kool-Aid they’ve been drinking.

I feel like our generation is totally fucked.

I’m not saying this because I hold myself as a sort of paragon of political enlightenment: open-minded, fair, with compassion to all and malice to none, that old rigamarole. To be honest, I am apathetic to the point of paralysis when it comes to politics. Everybody lies, everybody steals, get over it. In reality, my presumed attitude of not caring is probably more dangerous than the misinformed, good-intentioned gusto of the aforementioned idiots. Even if they're not very good at the game, at least they're trying to play. Meanwhile, I'm standing on the sidelines like and asshole saying, "This is fucking stupid." I realize this. Apathy is a poison to the system, and my piss-poor attitude is one of the many things eroding the foundations of the American way. Seriously, I know that voting and engaging in public discourse are important but it's discouraging to see it done wrong--or, if not wrong, a proximation of what I think is wrong. And, let's face facts, I don't exactly see eye-to-eye with the world when it comes to right and wrong. So, I guess I'll keep sitting this one out.

I had this discussion with someone at work today, and they offered me this pearl of wisdom: "Well, you can be part of the problem or you can be part of the solution." I wanted to ram my head through a filing cabinet. Why? Why did I only have two options? I don't want to be a villain, but, then again, I'm not too crazed about the prospect of being a hero either. Why can't I just be a guy? If there's a hole in the wall, that's a problem. If a guy is trying to fix it, he's the solution. What about the rest of the wall? They're not causing any trouble. The way I look at it you have three choices: you can be part of the problem, part of the solution, or part of the circumstances. I consider myself part of the circumstance. Alright, well, I almost accidentally made a Pink Floyd allusion a couple sentences ago, so I'm gonna go throw up now.