Couldn't sleep the other night. Been thinkin' of the Track of Common Discourse. Perceptions, Attutudes, Opinions. That kinda stuff.
So- I got up, poked around in the fridge, came up with a slice of cold pizza and a nearly full can of Pepsi, and grabbed the remote. Slim pickins' that time of night: Infomercials, Ancient Aliens, Miracle Diets. Typically, I opt for the Ancient Aliens thing: wide-eyed characters with crazy hair positin' even crazier theories, cheesy re-enactments, even cheesier special effects. Good stuff. But that night, I found myself slowly clickin' further and further down the digital dial. Down to that Dark Place where Twenty-four Hour Cable News lurks.
I knew better. But I thought I'd just zip through...
Didn't take long. Bad stuff. All of it.
Particularly all the Meanness. The Hateful.
And then I got to thinkin' about some of the folks I know and have known. People and families that have a damn tough time makin' it- good people. People that work hard, raise good kids, go to church (or don't), help their parents and families. Good people.
I even know some people that used to be in a decent spot- maintained a comfortable, if modest, livin' for them and theirs, but now find themselves in a bad way through no fault of their own. I've also known some that never had nothin', and never would. Not because they missed or misused a chance, but because they just never really got one. And from the look of things, I'd bet money they ain't about to get one any time soon.
Know what? Everybody that falls on Hard Times ain't a Sorry-Ass Slacker. The World just ain't that damn simple.
Sure, there are plenty of Takers around. With a population of over three hundred, seventeen million, the rough number of people in our country alone, it would be ridiculous to think otherwise. Again- ain't that damn simple. But, there are also a whole lot of other people, people of all kinds, people from a near-infinite number of backgrounds in a near-limitless set of situations. Plenty of Users. Plenty of Liars and Cheats- some Poor, some in the Middle, some Rich as Hell. Hippocrites, Bigots, Racists, Extremists, Fools and Intellectuals, Greedy and Giving, Compassionate and Cruel... on and on, ad infinitum. (I use that a lot, I know. Sorry...)
But, when we choose to embrace the Bullshit spewed by parties with somethin' to gain through redirectin' our gaze in a particular direction, when, in Times of Great Frustration and Confusion, we allow ourselves to be conned into feelin' the Need to Lay Blame so intensely that we choose to lock arms with folks that paint our very own people with such broad strokes that Common Sense and the Simple Law of Averages alone would prove it a Falsehood Absurd, when we choose to participate in the Wholesale Condemnation of large groups of our citizenry en masse, then we are guilty of behavior that is neither Devout nor American.
It's time for us to once again view television and radio as forms of Entertainment, as Diversions. Time to stop turnin' to 'em for Advice, for Moral and Spiritual Direction. It's time to Think for Ourselves and scrutinize the Words and Deeds of Others and take them to task when we witness use of the Media to spread Dogma and Supposition as though it were Irrefutable Fact.
Time to end the takin' of pride in our Selective Ignorance. Time to wake up, open our eyes, and engage our brains.
Time to stop bein' so damn lazy.
Fish~
