I was watching the credits roll for Futurama and a thought hit me. Seeing all these names of people who came together to make an animated show for my entertainment. It took the combined efforts of all these different people, with their own beliefs and personalities, working together and in unison to produce a half-hour animated show that brings delight and joy to many (including me).
It's my naivetee and ponderousness showing, but I just don't understand how some groups of people can hate each other so much. I understand how people don't get along with each other and I'm not saying everyone has to get along with everyone else. That would be boring.. but for one group to want to totally annihilate another because some ancient text says (or is believed to say) so just totally boggles my mind. I was raised in northern Indiana by two strict, but loving parents who made me attend church pretty much every sunday. I was taught to treat others in the way I also wished to be treated. In school, I was always the shy quiet nerdy kid (News Flash: I pretty much still am.) who'd always lend you his pencil if you lost yours, as long as you brought it back. I learned you have to give to get, and give even if you didn't get anything back in return. Sometimes that's the best giving you can do. People have exploited this trait of mine in the past, present, and I except also in the future. I've always known that, and I pretty much accept that. Of course, I wouldn't give anything I had no right to give or would be illegal to give.
I've always harbored this "what's best for the greater good" mentality. I would put my own life down to save the lives of my friends. I guess it's apart of me being raised as an upper middle class American who's never had to seriously fight to get anything. I guess that's why there's such a huge disconnect between my way of thinking about things and how some groups in the middle east think about things. I don't get it, and I don't think I ever want to get it. I don't think I could ever treat a woman as anything less than an equal. Not some tool used for male gratification to be hidden away.
Even though I know it will never happen in my lifetime, I think about what the world would be like if the large majority of people got along well enough with each other to stop dropping bombs on each other. Cross-national collaboration on huge projects like space travel or curing terminal illnesses or just really awesome TV shows... It's naieve and totally foolish to be that optimistic, but when I think about it I just smile.
It just hurts a little more when I snap back to reality and realize that others are wasting their lives figuring out ways to kill others on a mass scale. It's such a shame.
And obviously, I don't have any answers to the huge social and global issues we'd have to solve to get us there. Shit, if I knew all the answers and how to achieve them I would not be here sitting on my fat ass playing videogames, looking at porno and writing an lj entry.
I think all this pondering started when I started thinking about the ending toThe Watchmen .
I need to buy that.
It's my naivetee and ponderousness showing, but I just don't understand how some groups of people can hate each other so much. I understand how people don't get along with each other and I'm not saying everyone has to get along with everyone else. That would be boring.. but for one group to want to totally annihilate another because some ancient text says (or is believed to say) so just totally boggles my mind. I was raised in northern Indiana by two strict, but loving parents who made me attend church pretty much every sunday. I was taught to treat others in the way I also wished to be treated. In school, I was always the shy quiet nerdy kid (News Flash: I pretty much still am.) who'd always lend you his pencil if you lost yours, as long as you brought it back. I learned you have to give to get, and give even if you didn't get anything back in return. Sometimes that's the best giving you can do. People have exploited this trait of mine in the past, present, and I except also in the future. I've always known that, and I pretty much accept that. Of course, I wouldn't give anything I had no right to give or would be illegal to give.
I've always harbored this "what's best for the greater good" mentality. I would put my own life down to save the lives of my friends. I guess it's apart of me being raised as an upper middle class American who's never had to seriously fight to get anything. I guess that's why there's such a huge disconnect between my way of thinking about things and how some groups in the middle east think about things. I don't get it, and I don't think I ever want to get it. I don't think I could ever treat a woman as anything less than an equal. Not some tool used for male gratification to be hidden away.
Even though I know it will never happen in my lifetime, I think about what the world would be like if the large majority of people got along well enough with each other to stop dropping bombs on each other. Cross-national collaboration on huge projects like space travel or curing terminal illnesses or just really awesome TV shows... It's naieve and totally foolish to be that optimistic, but when I think about it I just smile.
It just hurts a little more when I snap back to reality and realize that others are wasting their lives figuring out ways to kill others on a mass scale. It's such a shame.
And obviously, I don't have any answers to the huge social and global issues we'd have to solve to get us there. Shit, if I knew all the answers and how to achieve them I would not be here sitting on my fat ass playing videogames, looking at porno and writing an lj entry.
I think all this pondering started when I started thinking about the ending toThe Watchmen .
I need to buy that.
~cheers