A P(r)etty Rant

I suppose it would be only fair to admit before I divulge my opinions on modern society that I truly have a love & hate relationship with my fellow humans.

In the story of Adam and Eve we are taught to believe it is Eve who tempted Adam to eat the fruit of knowledge. Shortly after, Adam is quick to put the blame on Eve when confronted by God. It seems to me that we put ourselves into predicaments out of our own volition and in the face of our predicaments, we are quick to judge one another and say it is not our individual selves at fault.

The first two humans were sinners and liars.

Alas, we are sinners and liars.

Although I am not particularly religious, I do believe that the oldest stories that we are raised with are the building blocks in the personalities we come to manifest for ourselves. And as far as I am concerned, if the first stories we have come to know are a reflection of ourselves, than the more we grow as a species, the clearer this reflection becomes.
We are quick to tempt one another and we are even quicker to blame one another. We are taught to take responsibility for our actions yet we find ourselves easily forgiving others misgivings, especially when we find they have been manipulated by somebody else.

We tell our children to be the best person they can be and that they have the mental capacity that can be trained to distinguish right from wrong, yet our justice system gives leeway for those we sympathize with. Are victims exempt from blame even though they had a part to play in their own oppression?

I understand mistakes happen and hands may be forced. I suppose I would just prefer that people stick to a coherent notion of justice and at least make the attempt to not forgive people when they are at least slightly at fault.
All should be punished according to the weight of their sins. The heavy and the light.

We are constantly finding ourselves in a dilemma, a pickle if you will. As a collective we are constantly destroying the home that we have built for ourselves yet we are even quicker to say it is not our individual fault, "Its big industry", "its the corporations", "its the people destroying rain-forests". Eve convinces us to use the luxury society provides. Adam blames the earth dying on Eve. One tempts, one blames. Either way, we are thrown out of the kingdom of heaven. And rightfully so.

Are the cars and planes we use to transport not emitting gasses that destroy our environment? Yet, we fly more planes and cars than we ever have before, with numbers increasing daily.

We are the ones purchasing.

Are the smart phones and computers chips we use to connect globally and electronically, not made from the minerals and stones that we forcefully extract out of caves around the world? Yet, we are constantly making more phones and computers.

We are the ones purchasing.

Are the papers, pens, newspapers, brushes, canvases, tables, chairs, cabins, oils, rubber, wooden you-name-it and so many other things that are now integral to our society not part and parcel of operations that have raped forests for centuries not something to be appalled at?

And do not even get me started on fracking.

No.. Instead we emphasize plastic. "Don't use plastic bags", "There is a plastic island the size of America in our oceans",

"We need to stop the plastic".

And naturally, we should.

But why do we blame the individuals and not the companies? Why should the consumer be environmentally friendly when that person isn't the one manufacturing plastic? Why don't governments who "truly" care simply put a tax or a complete ban on plastic?

I'm sure the real answer is rather ambiguous. And I'm sure a part of that answer is that although we're screwing the ocean, plastic is not the biggest threat to our planet. It may not be biodegradable but at least it's not destroying our ozone layer.

I think we try to stop the use of plastic in some sense to rid ourselves of the guilt of everything we do to destroy the planet. We preach about the plastic because we are lost we have no idea what to do about the world at this point. We want our cars, our convenience, our phones and so much that this new age of technology has brought us. And it's a shame. We can't have our cake and eat it too.

But at least we are trying. Face-palms

Humans are a collective, a community - based species that acts although, often unknowingly, as a unitary organism. We are meant to work together and instead divide at our peril. The idea of the world and all the societies that it comprises of is an abstraction that we often dismiss. It's only natural that humans would ignore something beyond their comprehension, myself included. But in that dismissal, we lose something very important. That regardless of which part we play in this world, we still play a part. And with every part, every action, comes a reaction.

In the end of the day, When Dr.Wong lectured Rick Sanchez for a couple of minutes, I think she had it right.
Rick[humans], the only connection between your unquestionable intelligence and the sickness destroying your family[earth] is that everyone in your family[earth], you included, use intelligence to justify sickness.
You[all] seem to alternate between viewing your own mind as an unstoppable force and as an inescapable curse. And I think it's because the only truly unapproachable concept for you is that it's your mind within your control. You chose to come here, you chose to talk -to belittle my vocation- just as you chose to become a pickle.
You are the master of your universe, and yet you are dripping with rat blood and feces. Your enormous mind literally vegetating by your own hand.

We are all in a pickle. In a limbo between our ability to be flawlessly rational and our inability to control our emotional inclinations.

It's a shame that instead of fixing the problem of our inability to mitigate the damage between the pendulum of our mental realities we focus on scapegoats and finger-pointing. We are the masters of our own universe, yet we are so blind to see how and in what way.