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Today I would like to touch down on a few issues that have been on mind as of lately. Most people will call this an incoherent rant, and I'm sure many people will disagree with my thought on this matter. I would like to make it clear that I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything with the things I am going to talk about here. It is more just my observations of people and their actions since the escilating disputes that started September 11 2001. Since the World Trade Center was toppled over on 9-11 we hear that the "world will never be the same". Obviously our description of world is defined only to be the safety bubble we call North America, since the rest of the continents on this earth don't really amount to anything and we therefore don't need to consider them a part of OUR world. This frame of mind, although very disappointing to me, is understandable when looked at from a completely non biased point of view. We as North Americans try to keep things as fair as possible, and I believe generally do a decent job at doing so. In some other countries you don't look at people the wrong way, you don't talk about people the wrong way, you'd better not get caught stealing, women had better not dress the wrong way. etc. And if they don't follow these rules... well of course as a North American I don't even want to know what is done to them. Why?... because that is not the way we do things here, and I don't want to imagine a world where things are dealt with in a more severe manner. My last statement gives ME great insight as to why the people on this earth are so misunderstood. "I don't want to imagine a world where X happens". The reality of the situation is that we all live in a world where these things happen. We may not all live in a neighbourhood (thank your lucky stars) where those things happen, but to forget that these things happen is a very dangerous thing. As far as I am concerned we may as well all be living on different planets, because North America does things differently from England, who does things different from Germany, who does things different than Japan.etc etc and we go down the line. And of course the only PROPER way to do things in this world is the way YOU AND I do things. Not how the French do them, or the Italians do them. Hell, I can actually look right here at home for these invisible borders of friction. Take Canada and the United States for example. Other countries may consider us all the same, but to us.... we are worlds apart. To Americans we are all a bunch of "tree hugging wusses living in Igloos", and to the Canadians they are all a bunch of" trigger happy yokels living in Trailer Parks". So what's wrong with Americans, Canadians, Germans, Italians, Afghanistanians? There's nothing wrong with any of us. If Osama bin Laden grew up in Canada, with Canadian morals, living the typical Canadian dream he would not be the person he is today, and most of us in the western world (or at least Canada) would consider him a positive member of society. This is where things become tricky. #1 I said Osama bin Laden could be a "good" man, to anyone that has a personal vendetta against him I'm sure my demise is being invisioned at this moment. #2 I would be a hippocrite if I was to say that the only way Osama bin Laden could be a "good man" is for him to be a Canadian. But this is my whole point on the matter. Many Canadians can only invision someone being a decent person if they are like other Canadians. And it goes deeper than that.... We as people can only invision other people being decent if they have similar traits or ideals as ourselves. I once heard a very interesting analogy from an English teacher of mine. She said "Religion and Politics are the reason wars begin". Once again this could spark a plague of debates and arguments just by its presence in this article. How ironic could that be.. a statement about "religion and politics starting wars" that actually does start a verbal war. After hearing this I thought very long and hard about what was said to me. I would have to say that for myself to blatantly blame religion and politics for all the problems history has stumbled upon would just be too easy and way too sloppy. BUT differing beliefs are the backbone of every debate or argument. So whether it be that you like driving a Dodge rather than a Chevrolet, or something more serious like whether or not to believe in god, there will always be someone else that believes the opposite as you. And for some reason as human beings we feel that we must recruit others into adopting our ideas and beliefs. This is where the real friction, and miscommunication begins. Everyone develops ideas and ways of doing things through trial and error in their lives. Since everyone leads a different life there would never be a 100% concensus on specific beliefs or ideas. And since we all developed our ideas through trial and error, when we see someone doing or saying something that we don't agree with and our experiences have taught us that "this is the wrong way to do it" many people feel obligated to say something. Sometimes dependent on the amount of passion that is focused on a topic of belief is also what is reflected onto others. If the passion is so great, there will often be a birage of unjust blame and hatred focused toward the "opposition". This is where great disputes arise. Differing beliefs (whether it be political, spiritual etc.) lead people from another country to fly a plane into the World Trade Center. Differing beliefs brought the Americans to attack back. Differing beliefs are leading the Americans to re-establish a dispute with Iraq (due to past and present differences in belief). If this is a free country and we are trying to make the world a peaceful and free place why is everyone violently forcing others to "do what we do" and everyone holding someone else accountable for not doing things the way they're "supposed to be done"? Which brings me to the next point in this web of mixed thought. Control. All of the above examples seem to me to be linked to the pursuit to control. For some reason we as human beings consider the key to success being control. How many things will I "own" or "conquer" or "control" (which roughly translates into the same thing) before I die. I don't think anyone can say that they don't desire control over something or everything in their life. If we don't know how to control the things in our life we don't really have a grasp on life. And if we don't have control of ourselves and environment our life MUST be a failure. I am going to go back to the cheesy saying "if everyone were the same the world would be a pretty boring place. Although it's typical hippie talk, and if you were a fat kid growing up you're bound to have heard it from your mom at least 2 times a year, but it's very true. What if Hitler would have convinced everyone to believe as he did and conquered the world. We would all be caucasian, blonde haired, blue eyed people driving VW Jettas and have an average family size of 2.5 kids. Wouldn't it be perfect? I don't know. But I can say that I for one cherish the choices AND problems that I am faced with. If I didn't have them I wouldn't be human. You may be wondering what my point is to this rant so I can tie it all together in one big amazing piece of compositional genius? Well I'm sorry to disappoint, but this article just explores my ability to be very confused as to why people do the things they do. So after successfully confusing, angering, or inspiring you (pfft ya right) I bid thee farewell and hope you have a great day! |