THE HUMAN RACE
Given the week that has been, I was going to do a post on the things I hate about people. After thinking about it a while I realised that there is no point in this when what I hate could be summed up in 5 words:
THE WHOLE FUCKING HUMAN RACE.
The stupidity, the greed, the superficiality, the basenes. Jean-Paul Satre was right: Hell is other people.
Do I live in hope of a change for the better? Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski sums things up nicely:
"When It comes down to it, what is hope? Impotent rebellion against despair. Whoever says that one cannot live without hope is simply asserting that one cannot live without constant rebellion."
I hope when I go to sleep tonight I never wake up. Either that or the planet earth ceases to exist.
posted by Aleks - Anarcho-Syndicalist at 5:52 pm
12 Comments:
oh thank christ* - i thought you were dead. Only existential angst, but i still detect a pulse :)
* said with all the sincerity that a pagan can muster
8:13 pm
aleks. i have nothing to offer you here. your last sentence is so hopeless and angry.
tell me, why are you so ANGRY
and don't faff on about inequities, injustices, politics, etc and other broad things. tell me something personal. how can someone be so filled with hate? how did you arrive at this point? how can you feel the pain of the world so strongly and personally? what has been done to you to make you like this or are some people just born like this? and are you really like this, or are you just trying to get attention?
people like me who love life, and can face all of the shit that goes with it, get irritated and angered by people like you who are so negative.
i suppose we are equally alien to each other. as much as you can't imagine being another way, neither can i. but i just don't understand it. and i do feel sorry for you.
i'm sorry for you and your world.
9:21 pm
Dude, if your lucky A Vogon contructor fleet will fly in over night and take the pain away.
Ditto MG, can't stand it when you go on like this. Is this just an attention seeking exercise or what?
Snap out of it.
9:27 pm
Yeah people suck the big one.
Except we are some of the less sucky ones, which does suck, because we realise the suckage, and it is upsetting.
But bad things happen because good people do nothing, so I guess we just gotta keep on truckin', else we start suckin' too.
10:15 pm
Am I seeking attention? In my experience being negative/realistic (depending on your point of view) turns people away, it doesn't gain you attention.
Why am I so angry?
Because I have come to realise that people who I respected, who I cared about and who I believed were working for a greater good were only doing things for their own individua ends. And what they wanted wasn't something understandble or justifiable, what they wanted was motivated either by stupidity, greed, superficiality or baseness.
And when I think about it, everyone is like this given the right circumstances. And when I look inside myself I realise that this also applies to me. Even Mother Teresa did what she did because she though it was her duty to do it as a Catholic to ensure she got into heaven.
So what hope is there for the human race or the world?
11:41 am
larry - you can see the badness but at least you have some positivity and hope
without hope, people just curl up, dry out and die. and bore the shit out of people in the meantime. you see, people don't want to be brought down. alot of us are working really hard to keep our heads above the water, and it's too depressing to witness others who sink below.
i'm sorry if that sounds harsh. but i'm being honest.
aleks, you were naive before and that is ENTIRELY NORMAL. part of growing up is seeing how much things suck. but part of growing up also means having choices, even the most simple of them, to make your own small world a better place for you and your loved ones. i know this sounds meaningless, because you are a big picture person, you see all the injustices and you have a kind heart, want to do good and right. you have to turn your attention to a place where you can make a difference. eg your family. if you can try and make one person a bit happier, ie do something to make that person's life a bit better, then THAT is valuable. i know it sounds wanky and hippy but i believe it.
have you looked into buddhism? this is a serious question. i know you are not religious. neither am i. i couldn't see any truth in any of the religions. but with buddhism, which i started to explore over the last couple of years in a very gentle way, and by no means have become full-on with, the lessons i learnt have stuck with me.
every day is a struggle to remember them, but this is the distilled version:
1. nothing is permanent. the only guarantee in life is change.
2. to be happier, you need to look at your attachments. we must become less attached to things and to people. this doesn't mean not loving, and not enjoying. it means not putting our whole souls into the pursuit of these things. [you already feel this with your rejection of material/commercial things]
3. take pleasure and solace in nature. it is very healing. [this includes the wonder of babies and children]
4. look after your health. a poor diet and too much alcohol etc really affects our wellbeing.
5. try and laugh
the last two points are not particularly buddhist. they are what i think.
about politics and what sounds like a huge disillusionment for you. when did this happen? it is so depressing to know the workings of world politics. but humans are fallible, this is the only explanation. and money and greed and power really corrupt. have you read machiavelli the prince? i read it when i was 17 and i tell you, i got it. and it has stayed with me.
you have to let go of all that. not your ideals, but find a place where you can operate to your moral standards, without compromise, but at the same time keeping away from the pollution of what you hate. it's hard but i know you can do it.
that's my pep talk. what i hate is not people. how can you hate people. we are all we have??
i hate the pain people feel and their lostness.
mother theresa, what do you know about her motivations? don't you believe there can be people who are good? who's motives are pure and honest and transparent? and as for looking inside yourself, don't beat yourself up. you are human and you are flawed. we all are and that's a beautiful thing.
if i was to believe in a god, i think the meaning for us is to do good. to do the right thing. to help people who are weak and vulnerable. to be kind. all the soft, nice things.
now i've got to get some work done. i wasn't going to comment again on this post, but aleks thank you for opening up a bit about what has made you so angry.
don't stop searching for people who think like you. and don't hold ANYONE up to be a perfect human.
12:18 pm
Thanks melbournegirl for your concern and your words of comfort.
I have tried to find meaning in the major religions, including buddhism. I found nothing other than hypocrisy and a system that seems to maintain the status quo.
There are 2 historical religious groups that give more some food for thought though.
The Bogumils in 13th and 14th century Bosnia and Bulgaria who believed that to exits was to suffer. As such god had a dual nature: he/she was good because they offered salvation in the afterlife, but they were also bad because their creation of the world is the cause of all suffering.
The other group is the Arians in 16ht and 17th century Poland-Lithuania. They believed that a person cannot serve both the state and god, and as such to serve the state was a sin. They also believed that all property should be held in common (no private property) and that all people should be work together and share all work equally regardless of background.
But this is off the point.
My family and friends do provide some solace. But at the same time it is my caring about them that contributes to my anger to the world. I look at my little nieces and wonder what they are going to have to go through because of the colour of their skin and the bigotry in the world. I look at my little nephew and wonder how his life will turn out; will he continue to be one of the fortunate ones in the world, or for whatever reason will he become one of the unfortunates who struggle to survive daily.
For reasons beyond my control the lows far outweigh the highs, so much so that the highs never compensate for the lows. As such when I think about the above it fills me with despair, which leads to anger, which leads me to hate the species that could cause this suffering; the human race. And it makes me not want to be a part of it, it makes me wish for non-existance because I know that it isn't good to feel such despair, anger and hatred, yet often I can't feel otherwise.
My last comment seemed to indicate that only recently have I become aware of the flaws in all people. This is not the case. It's just at times I tend to forget it. But each time I am reminded of it it makes me angrier.
In a day, a week, a month, a year, the hatred, anger and despair may subside (and I hope it happens soon). Until it does I cannot help but wish that I was not a part of the world or the human race.
4:04 pm
So we're in agreement then, dogs should rule the world, because we can't be trusted.
I, for one, welcome our new Canine Overlords.
5:32 pm
you back from the dark side yet?
9:06 am
Yeah Aleks, there is an unwritten blogosphere rule, if you stop blogging for 4 days or more you have to claim to be on hiatus.
Post something!
9:39 pm
Larry, if you are going to try and quote the Simpson, please get it right, it is
"and I for one welcome our new insect overlords"
as for the blogosphere rules, nuts to that.
AOF, unfortunately life is not like a crappy hollywood film with muppets (Return if the Jedi) where Darth Vader comes back from the (different) dark side. Look out my posts, I think they all indicate a certain level of bleakness; I am always on the dark side, it's just at times things are pitch black, at other times it is like an approaching dawn. Thanks for your concern though.
11:12 am
About the people who let you down, who disillusion you: look at it this way: you're not like that, and not everyone is like that.
You have high standards, so you'll be frustrated. When you want people to do right all the time because you know that for WHATEVER reason it is R*I*G*H*T, you are gonna get frustrated sometimes, and angry.
But there is still contentment. Not as in you don't want anything to change - I want things to change too. But in the mean time, enjoy what's here. Be grateful. Thank FUCK you aren't, you know, paralysed in bed, or in a trench somewhere, or getting a HIV result back, or on Big Brother and thinking that's what life's about, or in a shakey turbo-prop at 40,000 feet with a jihadi pilot and Courtney Love for a hostess.
Excuse the preaching.
A man I used to work with committed suicide recently.
11:35 am
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