If you are familiar with Catholic doctrine, you might know there are 7 deadly sins: Greed (or avarice, if you're actually the sort who reads dictionaries to learn impressive words), sloth, gluttony, lust, anger, pride, and.....bother, what was the last one. I can never remember all of them, but ANYWAYS. That list is pretty accurate of what are the roots of the actions that causes humans to do terrible, destructive things to each other.

There is something that should be added to that list: indifference. I'm not sure 'vice' is even the correct word for it. But whatever you call it-carelessness, inertia, detachment, callousness-what it simply means is that people stand by and do nothing while evil is being committed. We can argue all day (and night, and the day after, and the night after that, beyond infinity)-about what the definition of 'evil' is, to your personal beliefs or how different cultures have different perceptions of what is 'evil'. But there are few in this world, I hope, who would argue that a gang rape is unspeakably, undeniably evil. Mala in se.

But what makes gang rape of an 15 year old at her homecoming dance is not that fact that that 7, perhaps 8 men took their turns with her, leering and laughing as she lay in an alcohol-induced stupor right on the grounds of her high school. Nor was it the brutal beatings that took course during the rape, or that she was robbed or her jewelry, dignity, and humanity. The men who raped this girl are not the ones solely responsible for this horrendous crime. The people truly responsible are the ones who stood by and did nothing to stop it. Reports state that as many as a dozen people wandered to where the ruckus was taking place, and did the first person who witnessed this horrible thing happening whip out their cell phone and call 911? Well, they certainly  did whip out their phone, only not to call anyone-but to take pictures. Like it was some special porn theater putting on a live show for everyone's viewing pleasure. Some even joined in the fun; I imagine it must have been difficult to restrain themselves, after being so stimulated by the previous acts taking place.

8 men, one after another. More than a dozen people watching-and not one person felt compelled to immediately put a stop to it.

I'm not terribly surprised by this. I know there are people who are shocked speechless, outraged as much as surprised, that people could stand by and let evil happen and do nothing. But this singular act of savagery is just one of many that happens everyday; what people find horrifying is that people stood by and did nothing. Hence the outcry in the media coverage

It is no wonder to me that people stood by and watched it like it was free-for-all, interactive porn. Right now, there are millions more incidents like that happening: 10 year old girls being bought and sold for sex, for easy profit in an industry making billions. A 7 year old boy snatched from his yard while playing, his body found weeks later, violated and decaying. A woman is raped every 2 minuets. But how does one cope with this sort of knowledge? We simply think things like, it happens all the time, and how can one stop all these things from happening?  It doesn't really hurt me. And it doesn't affect me.

There is where the desensitization begins, when we accept that evil happens everywhere.Why not just accept it?
Its is a terribly cynical world view, yes. But after reading this story....how can you tell me that there is little truth to it?





*Note to self: reading certain books of philosophy is destructive to one's sense of optimism and faith in the goodness of mankind. (Though not nearly as destructive as the doings of humans in general.)Must cease....soon.

So there's this story I'm writing at the moment (my creative muse jumps around from one universe of stories to the next at the speed of light. It really is terrible for story completion and meeting deadlines, but anyway!), and a concept for the current story I'm writing is the idea of what is 'right' or 'wrong'. In our current civilization, there are many who consider those concepts to be unique to each individual's opinion. Which brings me to this question:

Do humans need to be told what is 'right' or 'wrong', or are we born with an innate knowledge of good and evil" Do humans posses an instinctual, visceral reaction to those acts which are evil, and comfort and happiness to those acts which are good? Or do we need religion, governments, or philosophies to tell us these things?

"There is neither good nor evil, but thinking makes it so." ~Hamlet


I think too damn much.....

I have my own beliefs on what is the answer to this question, but I'd like to hear other people's answers as well.

And of all the blogs topics to write, I pick some philosophical question on human nature. I could write about the  racial  obsession and how its destroying xanga, the health care debate, the abortion debate and its existence in the health care bill, tax increases because of said health care bill, the rising unemployment numbers, the race-rape connection that is oh soooooo popular on xanga right now....and I ask this ridiculous question. Storywriting is an excellent way to keep out of touch from reality.

Douche. Also see: Kanye West.

Never has that word been uttered so many times in so few seconds, across facebook twitter, and every other manner of communications device. Even some political writers on my twitter feed commentated on this-which was how I found it out, because my attic has squirrels that chewed thru the Dish wires, so I'm left to monitor the VMA's via twitter and VMA website. Not that I care for MTV-just this once a year.

But back to Douche. Please, please don't let anyone turn this into some kind of raciest-political statement.

Poor Taylor Swift. I hope she wins another award, so as to wave a giant middle finger in Kanye's face. bahahahaha.

I gotta feeling this is going to spark a new bandwagon here. Those ok with Kanye's actions, and those disgusted by him. Oh la la.

Now back to caring about things that matter.

 

So today the President set out to establish his own youth league. Think Jugendbund, only minus the German language. And the hatred for non-Aryans (though that lack of hatred probably won't be extended to the fans of Rush Limbaugh) And certainly minus those old-fashioned outfits-those were so pre-sociliast takeover vintage. I fully expect those Obajund uniforms to have the same classic taste and deisgn that Michelle Obama's clothing has. How tres chic would it be for those uniforms to be designed by her own personal designers! It would be quite a battle considering the many dozens she has on her staff. Worse than Project Runway, because children are America's future, and we want America's future to be fabulously dressed. Right? Right.

But onwards. It seems to be the general consensus among, um, the people who oppose Obama that he, in his speech to innocent, wide-eyed school children, would be setting out drafts to his own little youth groups that would grow up to be adult groups, that would all vote for him, therefor making his agenda everlasting and his reign neverending. And he would make it look uber-fun, too by setting up activities that would conveniently take children away from the offensive influence of their parents, so as to inoculate, ahem, educate them on the importance of supporting a political candidate who will do what is best for a socialist country. At least, thats what I'm assuming he did, considering all the fuss raised. I fully expect to see hordes of school children dressed in ties and knee-high socks, waving the Obama insignia in droves of thousands whilst chanting his name. If not, then why, pray tell, is the nation obsessing over this? And perhaps not all who oppose him have that opinion- Newt Gingrich has kept his head in one piece by not blowing his top over this. Really, though, its just target campaigning, never mind that this particular demographic isn't old enough to vote. But they will be. And whilst their minds are young and impressionable, its important to impress upon them the importance of looking up the the first black President in the history of the United States, because that alone makes him a god-like figure to be worshiped. Or in his words, exemplified. Or was it zombified? I can't quite decide for myself, after getting that brainwashing from watching the speech-GO OBAMA!

What was I saying? Oh yes, that he's being accused of laying the foundations for a socialist-nazi-thingernaut. Because he, the leader of a nation, is talking directly to children. Shocking! Because its never been done before, right? Right? But whatever, you know the Republican party is seething in jealously that they didn't think of it first. If they want to beat what Mr. Obama did, they should put headphones on the wombs of expectant mothers, with the repetitive message about the awesomeness of free market, constitutional freedoms, tax cuts, Bobby Jindal and Aaron Schock, a la Huxely style. Not like Mr. Obama would ever think of doing that, as he is of the opinion that fetuses are non-persons that can be torn to bits at the whim of choice-but thats not what this is about, boys and girls lucky enough to have been born. This is about the children of our nation, being addressed by the president that their parents elected. And his address was about staying in school, the importance of setting goals for themselves, and the importance of always exceeding expectations, and the importance of voting for him and liberals/Democrats, the importance of voting for the people that will make the best decisions in leadership and democracy for this great nation of our's.

Which of course generates massive controversy, a.k.a diversion. I love how the mass media has set aside other problems (save health care....that won't be dying anytime soon) in favor of this issue; never mind that the consumer market is turning into a black hole; or that unemployment rates are skyrocketing again-because Mr. Obama is speaking to the children, and some find that outrageous. Somehow the word Nazi keeps coming back to mind. And being generally, liberally used by both sides, because ''nazi'' is evidently the en vogue insult of the week to use, especially in the political culture. Funny how that word keeps popping up these days.

But was I was saying: distraction. Unemployment is up at a 26 year high, teens in Texas have the highest teen pregnancy rates to girls under 15, its been the deadliest in Afghanistan for soldiers these last few months, and lets not mention health care reform. Lets just not. Also, human trafficking estimates are at $32 billion in profits annually, which is somewhat of an improvement, because in 2007, it was $34 billion. Oh, and we're in a trillion dollar deficit. Just in case its been forgotten, in the flurry over health care reform and Michell Obama's shorts.

But never mind about those things. Obama is talking to the children of the nation; lets raise hell over it. Lets analyze every word and phrase, every blink and hand gesture like we're jury consultants on a litigation trial. Because when its Barack Obama, the world has to stop and pay attention. Because then, it makes it so much easier to ignore the real problems and extenuate driveling dialogue over (somewhat)pointless, insignificant things that aren't really going to affect us in the long term....

Anyways. I was going to make a point with this, but I forgot it cause I went to read the Telegraph.UK, and got distracted by Michelle Obama's arms, which is a front page topic of today's news, and now feel the need to do many, many push-ups.

This was brought you by: Stephanie getting damn sick of the continued media obsession of our current President. Or maybe it was the outrage over  this article-which is back to the original problem. Or the distraction from that other problem.....