Despondent American

Over the past couple of days every time I've taken a breath and attempted a clear thought I have been accosted with varying and visceral opinions on the state of our country and our people. Our broken land, in dystopian times, disconsolate citizens, are shopping like ravenous swine.

A little story here...

On my way to a Thanksgiving dinner among friends unable or unwilling to be with family, sitting at a stop light a single act of knuckle-headery sent me down a weird path. Honestly something that would have been annoying but easily forgotten before 3 days ago. 

Sitting at a stop light in my turn lane taking inventory of the deviled eggs and spam musubi that was to be our contribution to the dinner, I see in my rear view a couple of neighborhood stereotypes swerving childishly throughout all 4 lanes of the roads. Chrysler 300's decorated with the spoke rims that stick way out to the side, and trunks rattling, they come barreling down the road without regard to other drivers or how they looked like assholes. They bypass normal red light protocol and swerve themselves into the intersection demanding that others stop, watch, and tolerate their little show of gansta bravado. After a few seconds, the cocksuckers moved on into the parking lot of the Shell station on the southwest side. These kinds of displays must work up a thirst that can only be quenched by 40oz's of apathy and fueled by fruit flavored cheap cigarillos. They are social animals, lets make no mistake here. They are a nuisance that may only be missed by their mothers and various drug consumers they cater to. Maybe I am wrapping them in a broad blanket, but I am not convinced they are youth ministers out on a drive to raise awareness about community hunger. 

My first thought was how awesome it would be to see a giant trunk plow into both cars causing action movie carnage and how I would hang around until the last bit of brains was swept from the road. This would at least make their show worth something to me. I had all the snacks I would've needed for the number. 

My next thought was that there are black people in almost every major city in this nation fighting a righteous war against discrimination and unfair treatment by the authorities and the indifference of the awful voting public, and these guys were doing their part to sabotage any bit of understanding that the common news viewer may have mustard up over the past couple of days. This brought me back to center.

I drove on to dinner it was a lively evening with games and food and laughing. 

I remember though sitting and reflecting and trying my hardest to think of a generic social media statement about how I was thankful for things like family, friends, and so on. You know the ones. If not, go look at the one you posted yesterday. Don't get me wrong, this year has been a banner year for me and I have so much to be grateful for including friends, family, and the so on's, but I try to keep it genuine and tell them personally,,,over a text...true modern American gratitude. I also thought back on all the sentiment you see every year, as we are a nation in a perpetual state of war, about our troops defending our freedom and way of life. That wormhole led me to think about our way of life and should I be grateful for it?

I think that is most what I would love to talk about. Our way of life. The way we live. The American way. 

First before the self righteous start with their recommendations that I relocate to another country, let me be clear, that argument is a cop-out, reserved for those that do not have the mental facility to not only understand where someone is coming from but also the inability to think once the right brain emotion centers take over. So before you show up to my house wrapped in a flag demanding my voluntary deportation to France, hear me out. If by the end of this you still do not agree or understand, well, you can eat a dick.

This is my country as much as it is yours and my discontentment is protected under the same rights that we will all probably lose right about the same time. We are all headed for impending doom and our societal and national pride will not matter when the walls come crumbling.

Now that we have that settled...lets continue.

I guess the biggest dark cloud looming right now is the cloud of racism that we pretend doesn't exist. It's so ingrained in our DNA that we assume holding the door for someone of a different race means we aren't racist in anyway. We have a black president now right? How could that happen if racism was still alive? What I keep laughing at is when people try to denounce the idea that racism lives, they say it the most racist ways. We still say US and THEM instead of WE. Don't make the mistake of burying your head or closing your eyes to make the boogie man go away because, that doesn't work. Never has. Let's also not pretend that only white people are racist and everyone else is enlightened to the point of infallibility. In this country almost everyone hates almost everyone and when we don't know how to express it, we start of someone most obvious trait. Is there a solution? I don't pretend to think I know. We would have to rewire everyone at the same time and hope all our stations came in clearly and I don't see the people of this nation ever undertaking that kind of project. We can't be pried away from reality shows and fast food long enough to make any needed improvements. Some people try but the majority of drones right them off as liberal hippies or insane, and disregard what they almost before it comes out of their mouths. Maybe if they didn't smell of patuli oil and stopped reciting tidbits of Bob Marley songs, maybe then. I doubt it though. Also the extremes on all sides smother credibility and closed mindedness dictates that we cannot compartmentalize actions within a predetermined group of people. This is probably why most of America has baled Ferguson protesters and looters all into the same bunch. Anyone with half a mind and without Fox News would agree. So when the my neighborhood gansta posse rolls around like a troop of assholes, negative opinions are easily, though wrongly, confirmed. When the group of cousin fuckers that call themselves the KKK dawn their white hoods and march through cities like a bunch of mutant of tampons, that confirms easily, though wrongly, opinions from the other side. This is just a tiny example as it's just the extremes of the blacks and the whites. I haven't even touched on the Hispanic community, because that is a whole other issue. So before you put on your best face and tell people that you aren't racist, except that even on some small level, you probably are. Then open a dialogue and take the true steps to over coming that malfunction in your software. Racism is part of that American way of life we proudly send troops to defend by killing people that do not live here.

Now while the country is in turmoil over injustice and our militant police force, nothing can stop the next abhorrent tradition shared by all races. Shopping. Like disgusting animals people start circling big box stores hours after what is supposed to be sentimental quality time with family so that we can feed our fiendish addiction to purchasing things at bottom dollar. You cannot beg someone to eat a fucking vegetable because its gross but without a thought our glorious citizens will line up in the extremest weather conditions to buy a printer at half prices. They will lose all humanity over appliances and turn a retail store into a war zone. While they pummel each other, CEO's stay home and enjoy the holiday as their bank accounts quietly but supremely grow from your asinine choice to shop at 2am. I used to think meth addicts were the worst kind of human, but that is changing, every year. You are low lives. You are disgusting and bad people with no moral compass. Not because you are shopping and some guy is working on a holiday, but because you are shopping for no reason, all the while feeding the big business demon that wants to control all of us. They have succeeded, because of you. Anyone that has gotten trampled at a Black Friday fire sale deserves it.

Lets talk more about our way of life that we need to defend. This is fun isn't it. 

We covered racism and consumerism. How about religion?

While built on a conflicting idea, and a constitution that clearly says so, our way of life, when not buying things, dictates that we viciously defend our religious beliefs. We do this through hating other religions and killing people of that faith if need be. Killing is allowed when we feel our strong morality is being corrupted or if that religion has oil. We also use religion to alienate lifestyles that we can't understand. Yeah, I am talking about homosexuals. We refuse to admit that they are guided by a biological imperative. Our most logical and scientific reason is that they would wake up one day, and because of the devil, decide they want to live a life a discrimination and hateful backlash, all for the chance to enjoy dicks or vaginas. Not only do they become condemned to rough life on this planet but you have already determined that they go to hell automatically. Well, gay friends, after I get evicted from America for my lack of government and troop worship, I will probably have to go to hell with you. Christians are obviously the majority in America and ingeniously position themselves as the persecuted any chance they get. Everyone loves a good underdog story right? Like the Marine dad that doesn't want his daughter to be taught about the Muslim religion in school. Yeah, that guy. Now we can't look at this objectively. First we must dress in our best outrage. Most people of the Christian faith would rather pretend like things don't exist or kill it, if it conflicts with their view. Even in a World History that is teaching kids about the Middle East. Learning about that society includes learning about their economics, traditions, and religion. I am certain that it wasn't an ISIS recruitment attempt. The idea of religion is great in my mind. But like most things, when people get a hold of it, it becomes a shit sandwich. A hateful, violent, and annoying shit sandwich.

I am pretty sure we could drill down and unlock the loveliness of other aspects of our precious way of life but I think these 3 things give us a good 30,000 foot view of where we are. 

So you will have to forgive me if I don't have feel sentimental toward America when met with the idea that that our troops are defending our way of life. And you will have to forgive me if I have become a little disenchanted with said way of life. When you look at the facts, the numbers on paper, we are a pretty giant group of assholes with some good guys sprinkled throughout. The only race that should matter is the Asshole Race that we have all become. We are a society that takes no personal responsibility. We kill kids. We abandon our elderly. We cause poverty. Then we starve the poor. When a responsible social program is implemented, we take advantage of it. We kill our brains with booze, drugs, and Top 40 music. We kill our bodies with deep fried everything. And we kill our souls with hate and ipads. Then the best part is that we deny we are personally responsible for any of it. No one is at fault. No one has to accept responsibility if we can blame our neighbors or someone that is different than we are. It's not your fault you're fat. It's not your fault you're a loser. It's not you're fault you're an addict.

Yes, I am despondent and apathetic. I am for once hateful but not excluding anyone While I am grateful and proud of my personal growth and accomplishments, I am sad at the state of the world I live in. So please don't preach to me about how I should be proud of my geographic location. Pride, respect and trust are earned.

Our system, our country, our society, our "Way of Life" are broken. The sooner you stop denying that, the sooner we can start to overcome it.