Oh Boo Hoo

I don’t watch as much television as most, don’t have cable, and only have two shows I plan to watch each week. Yet even limiting my television viewing I see countless advertisements for antidepressant medications. The ads are obviously flowery and beautiful, with smiling people and sunny days—but that isn’t where my train of thought took me after seeing them. I began to wonder why it is that now in our history, when we, for all intents and purposes have everything we NEED, now have the want (contorted into a need) for constant smiles and medication to help us to it.

Are we more unhappy now than ever? If that is the case, I am not surprised at all. Humanity needs to realize that there is more to life than the necessities. When people work jobs indoors with no windows and never spend more than five minutes outside, it is bound to result in a listless existence. We are animals no less than deer are, and when we are penned up we react like an animal in a zoo. We find ourselves pacing, whether literally or figuratively, dreaming of days filled with sunshine, and yes, flowers.

I cannot help but to think of the Victory Gin in 1984, and the Soma in Brave New World. Perhaps we should dwell on the fact that these were meant (at least by most interpretations) to be avoided in the actual world. In a society that necessitates drugs in order to maintain sanity and order—perhaps there is no society at all—but an artificial existence only.

Western society tends to pretend that death does not exist, any mention of it being ignored and covered over before true emotion can be expressed. The concept of suicide cannot be grasped by most people, and so to avoid the chance of it drugs are ingested at a startling rate. Those considering death in a society wrought with destruction are labeled as “crazy” and those ordering war are “heroes”.

I am not telling you all to go out and stop taking your mind altering medications, but I am telling you to evaluate what is making you unhappy in your life. Are you frustrated with your cubicle job? Are you wishing you could be outside more? Is it too cold for you here? Well I have a crazy idea! Think of what makes you unhappy, but in the same breath consider what it is that makes you happy as well. List the things you love and that make you smile. Then, GASP, go do them, live them, be them. Our society of psychologists and prescription writing fools seem to fail in this one simple conclusion—this society is created to cut out your mind and let your soul float away, leaving a drone that works 40 hours a week and cooks out on weekends with other drones.

Refuse to be another Soma addict, toss away the Victory Gin, and find happiness beyond the pill bottle.

Change you can't forget to QUESTION

My views on inauguration day were mixed. I was excited, and there is no question about that, but I was pretty scared too. I voted for Obama, as most of you know, and I am nervous for him and all that he will have to face in his presidency. More than experiencing nerves for him, I am nervous for the well being of the citizens of this country. What on earth could I mean by that? I mean that blind faith is a very dangerous thing to play around with.

I watched the swearing in and the inauguration speech by Obama while sitting at work, and the obvious bias of the newscasters on MSNBC unnerved me even more than the clouded and slightly shadowed bias that was apparent during election time. I watched as the nearly two million were brought nearly to tears (some did cry) by the swearing in of “America’s first African American President”. I found myself go from anger to joy as Obama said all of the things I needed him too, and as he filled me up with the hope he has preached for the last two years.

As I sat in my office I kept hoping no one would walk in because I was so entranced by the proceedings. I was merely 18 during the last presidential election and didn’t pay much attention when Bush continued his term. This was, for me, the first inauguration I will remember into my adult life, and so I paid attention. It was while I paid attention over the last two days that I began to get a little panicked.

I know that Obama just had his first full day in office today and that not much is expected to happen, but I am panicked because I feel like the American public is brainwashed. For those of you who know me, or even read this blog, I am sure you know I don’t think much of the average American voter to begin with, but this is different. I have watched as my insanely intelligent and critical friends cease to question, cease to push, when it comes to Obama. They tear up and smile, and that is all.

If Obama is to be successful we cannot hand him a get out of jail free card before he even unpacks! America, we have to be sure that our President understands that we will not follow him no matter what. He is elected because of what he promised to do, and if he isn’t going to follow through on his word (or at least most of it) then he has to know we will be outraged.

The media all but slaughtered our previous president over the last four years he was in office, yet they label Michelle Obama as “the next Jackie O”. The media talks about the handsome youth of our new president and fails to mention how he stumbled over his words when he was sworn in. I understand he was nervous and that stumbling over words doesn’t mean much when it comes down to it, but I haven’t seen ONE mention of it since I saw it happen live.

When will the media stop gloating over their young handsome president and start treating him as what he is, the leader of a nation in trouble. A leader that will, undoubtedly, make mistakes. The media is responsible for sharing the news, telling the truth, and (hopefully) showing many sides to a story. I have not seen anything negative about Obama on mainstream media since Hillary dropped out of the race, and that worries me.

To my friends and fellow educated people out there—don’t forget to pay attention and to question, because when a media is openly biased and doesn’t even hide their favoritism anymore is when we are most called upon to look closely.

Hope is a very powerful thing—but without pressure many, namely politicians, tend to accomplish much.

Stop digging for a problem, America

I am so sick of people doing study after study to prove that we as a society are racist. Umm, okay—I understand that some people are, but why are we focusing on this? There are problems enough in society without creating and expanding problems that are slipping away. Humans as a whole are intolerant to differences between themselves and others. People tend to congregate and socialize in groups that are most familiar to them. Perhaps then, it has nothing to do with race, and a hell of a lot to do with perceptions of cultural beliefs, practices, and upbringing that are so often taken as judgment on a certain race.

I grew up in a predominantly white community. I have come into contact with relatively few black people throughout my life. There were only two black people in my high school. One I didn’t know well, the other I did. The black man I knew turned to drugs, dropped out of college, then randomly decided to move to Florida. I had a black roommate several years back, he was my age and had a girlfriend who lived an hour away that was pregnant (he was 20). He was on a full ride scholarship at a university that didn’t accept me with a 3.5. How did he get in? He went to an inner city school that had a program for students that guaranteed admission to the best university in the state if they simply passed their courses. So, he had no debt for school, and get this! He had already failed out of college once, and they let him back in, continuing his scholarship!

And people wonder why there is such bitterness toward race. Here I am, white, raised in a middle class family, with good grades—and I can’t even get INTO the college I want to go to. Now, I have graduated college, and I have piles of debt because the system doesn’t help those who have a family that has helped themselves to become middle class. I will be paying off loans for at least a decade—my old roommate? He dropped out of school again, married and divorced his girlfriend, and now struggles to pay child support while on welfare.

Can I be blamed for my anger?

No, I am not racist, but every black person I have known personally has been given everything—and come to nothing. So the people in cnn’s most recent article that were polled and found to be “subconsciously racist” I think are far from it. People tend to stick to what they are familiar with. If they are anything like me, I am not surprised they chose the white person in the room to be their partner in an activity.

When digging for a problem, you will undoubtedly find one. Affirmative action, scholarships, and the like, tend to favor minorities—and thus cause bitterness in the “white” population.

So perhaps before studies are done to scream racism, we should evaluate the underlying bias that created the ideas for them in the first place.

CNN Article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/07/racism.study/index.html?iref=mpstoryview