I don't know; I can't figure it out. Is it me alone or do others feel the same? Are we all nuts, off our game? I just spent 45 minutes watching one after the other videos of people doing some of the most ridiculous and/or dangerous things and they celebrate themselves for doing so, even as others celebrate their stupidity of useless misplaced misused creativity and energy.
And I wonder why? Why? What is the purpose? What do we gain from this? Some ideas are worth developing, such as flight, but what is the purpose of so many others? Why was one raised high in public opinion for jumping over cliffs? What is the purpose of an overeating contest especially when there are people who could make much better use of that food other than the one who consumed it in order to win some kind of prize for doing so?
At the very least some of these ridiculous videos and contests should have some kind of product that's usable, even though it might be a tad odd and perhaps not even worth all the time and the money invested into making that product. All that which was invested could perhaps have been better and more profitably used in the recognition and development of better pathways and solutions for the woes which plague us here on Earth. However, that is not to demean the creative arts for art of all sorts are of extreme value, be it music or painting or sewing, or any the myriad art forms. For they can and should be used to unite people, rather than separate them.
At least some of these videos have a positive purpose and end with a product usable, possibly decorative or soul satisfying, thus worthwhile. However, what about the videos which show people engaging in life threatening actions and behavior that you definitely tell people to not do this at one's home? Do not do this on your own, and do not try this anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Yet, on this ridiculous parade goes at times with tragic outcomes. Hours of times that can be better spent elsewhere, but redeemable when the end result of discarded bra cups and other materials result in a kind of wall or floor mat. But what about the person who drives his van down a steep mud bank into a fast-flowing river, fast and powerful enough to wash out a road? Turning that truck all the way over on its side repetitively in dangerous maneuvering to reach the other side. For what purpose? If anyone other than some stunt driver did this, the outcome would not be positive at all. So why do it? Why do we watch it and marvel at the stupidity of it. Does it transform us somehow? Why the hell did I just spend all this time watching this nonsense?
The answer is because many people are fascinated by the behavior of others, and that includes me. What makes people tick? There are several shows which I have watched for exactly that reason. A bunch of unattached men and women go to an island to rather cheesy accommodations where they are encouraged to behave in manner more suitable to middle school children than adults. Or where people are placed in dangerous situations, untrained people climbing high mountains with perils of ice and snow, steep falls, or being left alone to fend for themselves with some aid from family members who try to overcome any and all misgivings because at the end of the day, the winner will get $250,000 or some such sum. When money doesn't even go very far, even large sums, what the hell are people doing? What makes them tick?
And on we go into the real world where people risk their own lives, yes, and they risk the lives of others, in double, triple, quadruple, endless numbers of casualties. As people fight for something they believe worth fighting for, in many cases correct, too often the basic basis underlying it, the justification for these wars has been perverted and twisted almost beyond recognition. At times, that recognition of perversion takes too long and so many die, so much infrastructure necessary to survival of humanity is destroyed. Lives and futures are crashed and crushed and at the end of the day one could look around and shrug shoulders in confusion, questioning, asking what the hell was that all about?
Apparently, a march of north Gazans wanting Hamas gone, took place, a positive sign for a conclusion to the horror generated by the massacre of Oct7, 2023 and all that ensued worldwide. That is incorrect and misleading, as this war has been ongoing over a century as Arabs and Jews returning to their ancient ancestral homeland clashed, with Arab peasants goaded by the Effendis who owned their land and labor to fight these 'interlopers' even as these new inhabitants bought the land and worked to transform a land of swamps and desert and rampant poverty into a vital modern land, what is now the state of Israel, and open to all. So, who is responsible for this latest aggravation of warfare? Simply put - Hamas, the very organization Gazans are now protesting, pretty damn late, perhaps too little, too late, for where were they before? Were they cheering the hostages taken, abusing them - where were they? Will there be any positive consequences to this march? Will our remaining hostages, alive and dead, come home? All that planning of massacre, all the deaths resulting, all the Anti Semitism spilling its toxicity round the globe, why could we not have engaged our abilities otherwise, to solve the issues, rather than exacerbating them? For sure, I have no answer.
What does humanity do? It engages in waste of time and creative ability. Yes, sometimes even ending up with something worthwhile, an idea put into reality. But for the most part we are wasting our brain power rather than using all of its mighty potential, all of that energy, all of that creativity in coming up with thoughts out of that damn box with ways and means and manners of draining the negativity out of humanity and replacing it with proper thinking.
When will the universe understand, in worldwide recognition, that we are all in this same leaking boat known as Earth, challenged to the nth degree, and we will all go down together. Why is there not enough motivational power in that recognition or do we defy that recognition, to our own peril?
Can there be a chance when the head of government of the United States of America is clearly demented, dangerously so, as he governs as a dictator, his efforts augmented, inspired and upgraded by the machinations of a dangerous man known as Musk? They trample upon the foundation of America with heavy boots, spiked soles and arms holding weapons that shred all that was America, that is America and put it back together again in unrecognizable form.
Executive degree after executive degree, the spewing of a hate filled man pour forth from the Oval Office, each and every one of them further limits the legal rights of Americans. Each and every one of them increases and heightens the level of tension worldwide and we edge ever closer to full catastrophic global warfare, and this time no nation will get out alive. The remnants of humanity will fight the next war with sticks and stones and break the bones and learn again new words of hate and violence and prejudice for apparently, we never learn. We simply never learn. Too busy watching videos of nonsense, all the better to mute reality.
A man said that a politician is the one who looks to the next election while a statesman looks to the next generation, to make it better, to make it peaceful and productive, to enhance the rights of all to live life as it should be, as it can be if only, if only we would pay attention and do what is right. If we do not waste our creativity on stupidity but instead apply it and find new solutions other than those which have failed before, repetitively so.
How do we fix this mess? How do we find that which is good, which is shared with all people and highlight that, elevate it to the level of highly necessary and critical to the survival of life on this planet in full potentiality of the good and the positive rather than to the negative of these days? I feel the more I return to the idealism of my younger days the more hope I have of the possibility that there are others like me out there. If I give up on that idea, if I negate that hope, crush it beneath all the horror of today's world, then I wonder what the actual reality for our future generations could be. In fact, will there be a reality? Will there even be a world? Will there be an apocalyptic world? Will the world shrink until the last man, the last woman, is alone?
We certainly have the ability to eliminate that situation. The reality which we choose, which we will emphasize, and which we will create, is all up to us. Be it in the use of our brains, be it in our chosen leaders, be it in our understanding of what is true and necessary and what is not, what is beneficial and what is not, and apply all that knowledge, all that energy in the right places in the right way - all in our hands and hearts and brains and souls.
Yesterday, though we erred much, we found our way back most of the time.
Our todays are not looking so good. Time is short. We had better get our act together lest
all the morrows come barreling down the chute and we are standing there with dumbfounded looks and a crippled beyond repair reality.
We must do better for all the
on the morrows.
We must.