Monday, June 6, 2011

Arguing with myself

I just spent ten minutes writing two sentances replying to a post. The blog entry was about how they were depressed by the popularity of mindblowingly stupid shit on YouTube. I wrote this "There are a disturbing amount of stupid people in the world. What makes me feel better is the fact that we'll all be dead someday." I thought about putting a smiley face at the end, but figured why use such a stupid crutch as an emoticon to communicate tone. I meant what I said, but it could be taken many ways. Someone could think I was joking or that I'm some deppressed goth that wants to commit suicide. Or I could be like someone who believes in "thinning the herd", believes that evolution was meant to keep the strong and smart alive, and we shouldnt coddle the stupid like we do in America today. I dont know what a person like that would prefess the solution to be. Killing them?..
A stupid comment on a blog turned into a debate with myself as to the worth of human beings- ex: would the world be better off without us? Will learn from our mistakes and evolve? I almost wrote "Why worry about what supid people do if it doesnt effect you?" But don't they effect us? Germany is going to close its nuclear power plants because of what happened in Japan, but no major changes have been made here to reduce our need for oil since the Gulf oil spill. Shouldn't we have learned something from that?! Human stupidity can be dangerous.
Stupid shit on Youtube is less dangerous, but still concerning. The fact that stupid crap is popular probably doesnt do harm other than annoy, and maybe perpetuate stupidity. Would someone who spends hours watching TV that does nothing to expand their world view be receptive to anything that might change their minds? Is TV stupid because the people watching like stupid shit or are people made stupid by watching it? Probably both. Any time there's a question like that, the answer is usually both. An example of this is a debate that archeologists had for a long time about whether dinosaurs were related to lizards or birds. I remember thinking as a kid- why can't it be both? Lizards and birds could have a common origin. Educated fucking adults were arguing as if the answer were gospel and to deny it made you an idiot. Why is it so hard for people to look at all sides of an arguement and be willing to change their minds? .. Actually, it is hard, because I just spent half an hour debating with myself and havent come up with a conclusive answer. But I'm OK with that.