Medicated World View

Hi.

I'm at home. Called out from work. Not feeling well. Typing this very stream of consciousness style because...well, reasons.

Let's see...what am I thinking of....can he get impeached? What about the electoral college? Could they save us all and not vote him in as president? Can we just get rid of the electoral college? Where are the heroes? The Churchills? The FDRs? The Robert Kennedys? The people who usually stand up for what's right despite crazy odds against evil?

I have to be careful what I put out into the universe because the universe listens and makes that shit happen. But this is one of those times I hope its listening.

Am I nervous about 2017? Yup. Do I think it'll be as bad as 2016...(whisper) Yup.  Do I think the world is worse than it ever was? ...Yup.

Still, I believe that man is generally good. I don't mean white men (definitely not what I meant), but more like man as a species...maybe I should say humans. I don't know, maybe not. I think there's been a lot of senseless deaths this past year.

I think I'm going to puke...wait...no...I'm okay...nevermind brb!

....

Ugh. Don't feel good. Okay, where was I?

Deaths, right.

I feel ridiculous writing my book. Like trying to explain that character's pain and issues seems really self-centered of me considering that the rest of the world is suffering more.

And romance? Like, writing it? I'm sorta torn. I mean, on the one hand, we need stories about love more than ever. I get that. But on the other, we use books to escape reality, because it's one of the last safe places we can go to. Some of us would stay there forever. We don't ever really look up and see the world. We don't care. And I think that contributes to the problem. There comes a point where we've numb ourselves with pop culture and entertainment so we don't have to face the war, the government corruption, and the senseless greed of powerful people.

I really can't understand why we aren't more united as a people. Not just Americans, but like as a world.

We, the common folk, outnumber them, the offensively rich, a million to one.  (Okay, I just made that up, but it might be a close guess. Let me do the math).

So 1% of 7,000,000,000 is what...70 million?

Shit, I was nowhere close. 70 million strong? Per one?

And the 1% of the 1% is what? 70,000? That's not a very large group at all. Barely a busy city.

I don't think we can really imagine what that looks like. Here check this out for the visual.

I find it surprising how many of us are sheep. We seem to forget our own power and think money is the true value of a life. That and race, of course. Oh and sex. Okay, so basically a rich white man...which is the basic stereotype for the people who hold power in this world.

I wonder when we'll head into another war. C'mon, you know it's coming. Ignorance breeds intolerance. I think a man who doesn't take the wisdom and advice of the State Department is a fool. I think a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt. I hope the casualties for the future: gun violence, race crimes, police brutality, and probably more terrorist attacks...well, I hope...I don't know... I wish they wouldn't happen, but nothing is being done so they probably will continue to happen. We're not going to talk about gun control or peace. We're going to talk about arming each other so we can all have the opportunity to kill each other. It's just the way it is now.

Ironically enough, the terrorists seem to be getting their shit together and we seem to become more divided. We're more vulnerable than ever.

I've thought about why this is all happening. Why are some in this country so hateful and unkind?

And I think it all comes down to money.

See, the income inequality between the very rich and the very poor has never been this wide before. The last time it was like this was 1920s and right after that was the Great Depression. We passed that point years ago. We're kinda living a swaying Jenga tower when it comes to money in this country. And the people who know about it can't fix the problem because whenever it's even put into discussion, the rich are very quick to hush it up.

Chris Rock once said, ""Oh, people don’t even know. If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets." 


Yeah, people have no idea just how bad it is. I think they genuinely believe that they'll have that chance too. That you'll invent something or write something big or hell, win the lottery and become a billionaire overnight. 

Chances are very, very low. 

But the ones looking down at us perpetuate this myth because it keeps us productive and hopeful. It's our little belief that gets us through the days working for them and forgoing the ticking clock in our own lives. They pay us for our time. Time meaning minutes alive. You could have been doing anything else but you chose to give them that part of you. 

Man, I think the dizziness is making me think super deep thoughts, right? 

Anyways, where was I? 

Right, the economic class tier. 

There was an experiment about overpopulation in mice conducted by a guy named John Calhoun. He put a bunch of mice in an environment that could support them comfortably (food, water). But then the mice all reproduced like crazy and the population got out of control. 

What's fascinating is a pecking order got established. The mice at top had access to everything (food, water). They stayed in one area and nested. They ate and slept and did nothing.  They were passive creatures. 

The next one down the line, the mice in the middle, would not challenge the mice at the top (I know, right?) and they just accepted their shittier lot in life. They had to fight for the resources but eventually they'd get what they needed. 

The mice in the bottom were the poor mice. They didn't nest, frequently moving and fighting for resources. They fought each other a lot, some of them didn't even fight back. It wasn't unusual for one of them to start eating the other's tail while the victim just laid there and did nothing.

...Tell me you see the correlation between them and us. 

It's always about money. I wonder what kind of world it would be if the very rich gave half of their wealth to the very poor. Or really just shared it. I don't know. What kind of world would it be if people weren't hungry and had homes and were safe from crime and had access to education? 

That all requires money. And people struggle to get their basic needs met. Education is the first to go bye bye to survive. 

The consequence of being highly educated is tolerance. 

Safe to say there's a lot of intolerance in the world today.

So, the people of our world aren't educated.

They are ignorant. 

Ignorance breeds fear because they don't know any better, because again, they're not educated.

And that ignorant bred fear breeds hate. 

And hate means we destroy each other.

Sigh*

Lovely unending cycle thanks to greed and stupidity.  I don't see it stopping any time soon. 

Welcome to the world, Children Who Were Born Today.