Only a Fool Would Say That

Let me start this entry with a question. Why am I such a freak? I've spent years following a mantra of "avoid the normal life at all cost." But I don't think I have ever sculpted this philosophy into any meaningful definition. It was always based on a line from the Police song, Invisible Sun. The lyric goes: "I don't wanna spend the rest of my life, looking at the barrel of a normal life." I heard this years ago, nay DECADES ago, and have used it -in near religious fashion- as a reference point for making most of my biggest decisions. If you are the type of person who adheres to a more "free spirited" way of life, you may stand up beside me and say, "Hell yes, man! Live your life the way you want to!" If, however, you are one of those people who, free spirited or not, love the Police, you would be more likely to stand up and say, "Hey, wait a minute, those are totally the wrong lyrics you idiot. It's, "looking at the barrel of an Armalite," which is a gun manufacturer, not a general thought on life...how completely ironic. What I thought was a path to happiness is nothing short of a reference to the maker of some of the world's most infamous automatic weapons. To be fair, the song does disparage the use of such things, but the mistake has already been made. I am officially a complete dork.
That's right folks, I have just realized that my central philosophy is based on the misinterpretation of some old Police lyrics. No shit. Really. Perfect. This is truly a great way to start off the week. It makes me wonder...
Let's say you've based your life on a truth that was garnered erroneously from an old song-lyric. Under the light of day, this would appear to be a fairly silly concept, no? I would have to agree. Except, perhaps, what I was really doing is PROJECTING my intense sense of personal freedom onto the song. I was hearing what I WANTED to hear, not what was present. And I guess, in this instance, it hurt relatively few people. What is truly tragic, what really hurts more than it helps, is when large groups of people engage in this behavior. When they accept what they hear as the truth, because that is what they want to hear. When they don't bother to do a bit of fact checking and they blindly follow whatever they THINK is the truth only because it serves to reinforce whatever it is they already believe.
To be fair, my epiphany in regards to the true meaning of the lyrics hasn't resulted in me rethinking my position, but it has got me wondering a bit more about why I believe what I do. The difference in my predicament and the larger issue I've tried to raise is this: a personal philosophy does little damage outside of one's own reality, no matter how misdirected it may be. It is only when people take those misguided notions and force them on others as "truth" do we see the negative consequences snowball. To the misinformed on all sides, do your fucking homework before you start spouting your "truth." The only problem is, you don't even know who you are. Let me give you a hint, read my last blog entry...

God I Hate the Far-Right Wing Idiots of this World

Here is a viral-post from Facebook in the weeks following the earthquake:

"Shame on you America: the only country where we have homeless without shelter, childern going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds and the mentaly ill without treatment, yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 tv stations that ended up raising over 57 MILLION dollars in donations. I'll bet 99% of you wont have the guts to copy and repost this."

This tragically conservative comment, cloaked in seemingly compassionate language, really chaffed my ass. What follows is the response I posted...


To Whom it May Concern,

I don't think "shame on you" is the response I would make. I don't think belittling a massive humanitary effort does much to make a case for caring about people. As a matter of fact, you can google "Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast" and see that on Sept 9th, 2005, all major networks carried (commercial free) a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The one hour show (that aired in over 100 countries) raised an estimated 30 million dollars. Now, that may not be the 57 mill that the Haitian relief effort raised, but when you consider the 100,000 plus people killed in Haiti, the dollars plainly show the enormous amount of support people (including many Americans) gave to Gulf Coast relief. The point you raise, the fact that so many Americans need help, is an important one; in fact, giving of ourselves to help americans in need is something EVERYONE should care about and participate in. What I hate to see is a dare like this. One that challanges the good and giving nature of people by making them feel that what they did, by giving their time and money to help people, serves only to imply that their actions were not important and in fact, contrary to supposed American values. All life is precious and important, Hatian and Americans alike. I wanted everyone to know that Americans DID step up. The failure in Katrina was in government response, not good intentions and effort.


After some reflection I wanted to add this:

What really gets me is that so many people just blindly reposted this comment without taking the time to consider where the "shame" really lies. The shame I have for my country, which I love, is in the willfull ingnorance of the masses. We spend so little time paying attention to our country and our world that we, without thought, tend to accept what is given to us at face value. This happens every day with our media consumption. A comment such as this can be passed around among friends with cries of "hell ya" and "damn right" without considering what is actually being said. This comment is about the authors true feelings toward the poor, black nation of Haiti. It was nothing more than a thinly veiled racist rant. If the person who wrote this truly cared about the poor, the sick, and the dying, he/she would be as concerned about the people of Haiti as they are about the people of our own country. Compassion, as I understand it, doesn't pick and choose. It doesn't allow us to say that one person is more "worthy" of our care than another. Granted, each of us cannot help everyone, we only do what we can. But to place "shame" on people for helping others is not only cruel and insensitive, but it WREAKS of hypocracy and racism, given the context. The author only shines the lights brighter on his/her ignorance by implying that nothing was done in the wake of Katrina. A simple google search disproves his point. But then again, since I suspect that whoever came up with this ridiculous rant comes from the far right, ignorance and hypocracy are their modus operandi.

Peace.