With such great topics for this weekend, I found myself wanting to answer more than one. I suppose I often do; life is too short to pick just one thing when we do not have to after all...
The first one that caught my eye gave me a proper laugh:
Are you an ignorant asshole?
Well yeah, I reckon I am. I think basically all of us are.
We each have our own unique experiences, ways of being raised, and feelings. This makes people equally beautiful and ugly as far as I see it. We are all slaves to our own perspectives, and most of our perspectives suck objectively. What is undeniably true in our lives is completely wrong in a different walk of life. All of our opinions are useless and jaded when applied to someone else's path.
But just like everyone else, I have tons of opinions. As much as I'd like to think I'm not, I'm judgmental. I'm short sighted. I'm tied to my own experiences in life.
A tank near the Syria-Jordan border, taken from a moving car.
I try to challenge my own perspectives and remain objective, but the older I get the more I realize that this isn't some sunny and loving task. It's brutal, and a lot of the things you realize along the way hurt deeply. The more I understand the world the less joyful I am.
After spending four months in the Middle East, I now know I am privileged beyond belief. Even my desire to look at things in a positive manner makes me an asshole. I am absolutely ignorant when it comes to the reality of most of the world. My best intentions are harmful; my desire to face things with an open heart is just veiled privilege. All of this makes me an ignorant asshole.
Some might say that is harsh or whatever, but I find peace in looking at it this way. In another prompt, we are asked what we make of this quote by Lord Byron: "The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain."
Nihilism can be natural when we look at the ways of the world directly. For me, the trick has always been not to be overcome with it. To celebrate the pain and difficulties of life in the ways we can.
Although I have no right to complain about the life I've had when so many have had it worse, I sure have had my fair deal of suffering on this rock. When I can, I've always leaned into it. Used the pain to create, to fuel my desire to be kind to others. This to me has always been the best way to attack a reality that is often unforgiving and cruel. Feeling our existence cannot always be fun.
This quote reminds me of this outlook of mine. I don't feel that happiness and good times have any meaning without the bad. In many ways our life is carved out by pain, and the gaps left behind are filled with the rest. What dimension would even small things like eating, being clean, or feeling warm have if we have never been hungry and dirty and cold?
Holding on to the sensation of life fully, even in suffering, is indeed a grand art form.
I think that life itself is designed by chaos. I don't believe that any of us can walk through life without being disoriented; losing sight of what matters and why.
In another prompt we were asked if we feel that news and media services are misleading; what our thoughts are on the agenda they might have, and what impact that has on society.
I think that they are 110% misleading, and that is because they have learned how to monetize the chaos knitted into the structure of existence.
Decade after decade we seem to be facing the "greatest threat to mankind" in different forms. Spun from a different perspective based on where you live, there is always a threat. There is always an implied good vs. bad.
Although it may not seem like much fun if you've lived through things like nuclear, Y2K, or covid hysteria, it is indeed entertainment. A distraction from daily life. A ploy to sway the audience emotionally. And it sure does sell!
I'd say the biggest agenda behind news induced fear is monetary. You can make a million people purchase differently with just one headline. The other agenda as far as I see it is division. When group A and group B are so consumed with arguing over things like paper masks, it sure is easy to pass a bunch of sneaky legislation during the choas. Why convince the voting populace to move in the direction you want when you can just distract them and do what you will?
I think the impact of non-objective news on societies around the world is massive, and it aint good. In many young people who consider themselves free thinking and righteous I see facsist tendenciecies brewing. I see exasperation from the older folks, a "fuck it, it's gonna be their problem later" kind of mentality. I see general fatigue, a lack of desire to fight back against any of the narriatives that separate us at all.
Even the desirability of having children around is something people pick each other apart over these days. Or maybe it was always this way, and I've just become sensitive to it since becoming a parent myself. I think a question like "Do you like kids?" would have confused me ten years ago as much as it does now though.
I can understand not being a kid kinda person, preferring activities that maybe do not include them, or deciding that having them is not something you want to do. Outright not liking them is baffling to me though. We were all kids once, so to me disliking them is some kind of form of self-hatred. Or maybe that is just one of many opinions I hold that I mentioned earlier probably make me an ignorant butthead.
I personally think children are the best people on the planet, although I would gladly avoid the company of some people's children.
I like children, but I do not find them all likeable. I would always go out of my way to help a kid, I'd always fight to protect any kid... Just some I could do without having to talk to.
As my daughter grows, I find so much joy in her existence. Some of her peers? Not so much. I don't agree with how most of my fellow millennials are raising their children, and I'm totally fine with owning the self-righteous jerkiness of that.
With that being said, although I like kids, I get why they aren't for everyone. I understand that my desire to be a mom is not one everyone will share, and that's a-ok with me!
I've been blessed to meet a lot of parents both virtually and irl who feel the way I do though. Ones who are also trying to raise spiritually aware and considerate little people, who take parenting as a hands-on activity instead of one that can be delegated to technology.
I always seem to like their children. Which makes me think that it is never really kids that I dislike in any given situation, it's always the reflection of the people raising them that I take issue with.
Which I guess brings me full circle to the first prompt. What do I really know? I'm just derping along on this globe like everyone else, opinions flapping uselessly in the wind.
All photos are my own. Divider made for me by Yaziris.
