Forgive me if I will sound downright pissed off throughout this post but after a weekend of reading several articles where schools now are more concerned with the weight of the kids in their schools and trying to play the role of an active parents instead of focusing on education and having classrooms filled with kids that actually want to be there (instead of causing chaos for their teachers day in and day out) and reading about how the Government of Quebec has opted to try and legislate away the fundamental human right of freedom of assembly because they can't get their way with regards to imposing higher tuition fees without (SHOCKER) students opposing the idea and protesting it for almost 14 weeks now, but our society is a mess and getting worse every day for an abundance of reasons, which I will delve into.
Where to begin....hmmmm. Well lets start with something simple like our white hot real estate market. When I say white hot, I mean we are seeing absolute dumps (as in homes that are just horrid, need work, LOADS of work, and have been poorly maintained) having upwards of 10 different offers for them because of where they are situated; Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington and Toronto. These 4 major markets are seeing homes sell for hundreds of thousands above their original asking price simply because of where they are located. Yes, in the real estate business the 3 most important things are location, location, location. I get it. But when some homes are selling for as much as $1 MILLION above asking (!?!?!?!), then there are problems with our real estate market. It is the same problem that we have in many other areas of our society: Greed.
I want to touch on our schools and this ridiculous article I read in the Globe and Mail about how some school are now including a BMI (Body Mass Index) rating and/or the childs' weight along with their report card. I would like to know where they (the schools and school boards I mean) found the right and rationale to start doing this I would love to know because I am not sure how this fall into their job description. Teachers are supposed to educate and I guess you could make the argument that they are trying to instill healthy eating habits and whatnot but by sending home a report card telling parents that their kids are to fat for their own health just seems like such a cop out by the school.
There are a bunch of societal causes for kids being overweight. Lets go over a few. First of all, the parents of many of our kids today are being underpaid by greedy corporations that would rather cut staff and pay their money hungry CEO's millions in bonuses then to actually pay their front line staff a fair salary that actually increases with the cost of living. 30 years ago, although it was difficult to do, you could still have a 1 working parent family (while the other parents stayed home to help raise the child (or children). They could own a home, a car (maybe 2) have a dog and have 2 maybe 3 kids as well. That's simply impossible today with the cost of everything having skyrocketed since the early 1980's.
Because parents today are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet, they are forced to make tough choices about many things. Now, you see both parents forced to work (just to pay the mortgage). In many cases, this means that the parents are around nearly as much as they should be to do things such as take their kids out for a daily walk or out into the yard to play with them. Even if they do have the time, in many cases they don't have the energy.
When it comes to groceries, in many cases, parents are opting to buy in bulk or the cheapest available because of their budgets. Guess what that means? More fatty foods higher in calories and cholesterol and less time consuming to make. Cheap and fast is what they want because the companies that they slave away for are forcing them to work harder, demanding more out of them all for the same pay. Our parents of today are overworked and underpaid while being overstressed and under appreciated.
Which takes me to yet another of the reasons our society is deteriorating as fast as it has been over the last 15 to 30 years: Corporate Greed. The turning point that everyone seems to point to is the 1986 movie "Wall Street" and it's main villain, Gordon Gekko. His now infamous quote, as he gave a speech to a graduating class of Business students was "Greed is Good". That seemed to sink in to not only the fictional students in the movie but to an entire generation of business leaders who have pounced on that concept and embraced it enthusiastically. Just look at some of the gawdy bonuses that have been paid out to CEO's (even to those that were running companies into the ground) and you will see what I am talking about.
Yes, CEO's should be paid more for keeping a company making money (I guess) and even more if they increase the bottom line but when you are paying your front line staff peanuts and they are the ones that directly contribute to your bonus being so large, the least you could do as a good CEO is cut your bonus down to a more manageable and fair number (do you really need $23 million as a bonus? Even half of that would be sufficient to reward your "work") and divide the excess among your top performers as an added bonus. An extra $5000 for a frontline staff member means a hell of a lot more then it would to a CEO.
Here's an example of what I mean. The CEO of RBC (when I used to work there) made a bonus of about $11 million one year. Did he really need it to be so much? Probably not. Let's say he decided instead to accept only a $2 million bonus. Lets take the other $9 million and see what we could do with that. Remember that this is a bank that makes about $1 Billion per fiscal quarter (every 3 months) and has about 52000 employees in total. Frontline staff make up about 65% of that staff so that's about 33800 employees. Not everyone is a top performer obviously but lets give an estimate that maybe 25% of those 33800 are top performers (what used to be 94% of target and above). That would be about 8450 staff members. Dividing that $9 million among those 8450 staff members as a bonus would give each of them an additional $1065. Not too bad for someone who is generally earning around that much every 2 weeks, on top of their yearly bonus as well.
Lets go a little further and instead of rewarding people with 94% and above, lets only reward those who were at 125% and above. Of those 8450 people, you are looking at probably about 33% of them who would be above that percentile, or 2789 employees. The Top of the Top, the Cream of the Crop as it were. People who really busted their asses all year long in order to ensure that someone like Gord Nixon got his bonus (as well as their own). If you were to then narrow that field even further like this then you would have 2789 families each getting one member being paid an additional bonus of $3227.
Now you tell me, after breaking it don like that, who needs that $9 million more, 2789 staff members of his own company that are barely making $30000 a year as front line staff, working overnight hours, extended hours, being shat upon by managers to do more with less, being told now that their eating habits and the groceries they buy for their families are making their kids fat, having more and more stress placed upon them from all possible corners or someone like CEO Gord Nixon of RBC who does nothing more then go globe trotting on RBC travel expenses, gives speeches about how great RBC is and about banking in general while all these lower staff have to do more with less. He gets huge bonuses he hardly earns while his frontline call center and branch staff have to fight to earn every penny they do on a daily basis. That is corporate greed at it's finest. Remember that he has been earning those bonuses for about a decade now. Should really tell you something.
Having been in the financial field for over a decade now, I totally understand how some people feel about bankers and banking. Just remember that its not the teller or the call center staff member that is making the big bucks. The person you speak to is not someone that has any power whatsoever to change things at a bank. The best way to create change is to do something I used to think was think was a waste of time: Protest, demonstrate, use the power of the people to enact changes.
Forcing the Government to use their power for more then just forcing people back to work with anti-striking legislation is the best way to get things done. Just look at the 14 weeks of student demonstrations going on in Quebec. They have gone a bit too violent mind you but the fact that those pansies in the Quebec Legislature opted instead of negotiating to attempt to make public assemblies illegal tells you all you need to know about how stupid some government officials can be. They are so hard headed with their ideology that after enacting this law, they have drawn wide ranging criticism from lawyers, other politicians and even the UN and Amnesty International. Kind of scary how the power of the people has single handedly embarrassed the hell out of the Government of the Province of Quebec, yet they refuse to back down. I don't see them surviving the next election with the way they have handled themselves with this situation.
But again, this is a fight about money and greed and how corporations, in this case the Quebec Government, is trying to making education more expensive at a time when the only thing that gives the poor an opportunity to climb out of their economic situation is higher education. In the last 15 years, tuition hikes have been the norm in Ontario. I remember when it was about $3500 for a full course load at U of T, Mississauga campus in 1997. Fast forward to this September and I saw some students coming in to pay tuition amounts of twice that amount. The students of Quebec are fighting to keep their tuition the lowest in the country because, having seen what they saw in Ontario and in London, England (which had massive tuition hikes just 2 years ago and massive protests to go along with it).
We shouldn't be chastising the students for protesting what many today would view as modest tuition hikes.What we should be doing is applauding them for trying to stop Quebec from following down the slippery slope that this Province has already traveled along and sees itself at now where higher learning is slowly becoming only available to the rich or those of us who are willing to go into severe debt just at the possibility of a better job down the road. Just ask all those currently out of work, recently graduated teachers how they feel about being severely in debt without a job in their field of choice.
It is time we started to make our voices matter in our society. It is time we began to make a difference in our society and stop allowing big corporations to do and say and get away with whatever the hell they want.The problem is that we are disjointed. We are selfish and can't seem to see anything that matters to anyone other then ourselves. Even this student protest in Quebec, which should be seen by many in that province as a wake up call to fight against government fee hikes, is being seen by many (mind you the "people" are being represented in random polls conducted on the corporate buck) as having dragged on too long and people want them to just shut up already and go away.
We are not united enough as a people to do anything about what is going on around us and that is why the Western world is struggling. We have splintered into special interest groups based on race, religion, sex and sexual orientation to the point where we can't even agree long enough to vote in a strong Majority government (that fact Prime Minister Harper was able to achieve one last year was more about the failure of the Liberals and their pathetic leadership then it was about a powerful message resonating with the bulk of voters as can be seen by the sheer number of people that still don't trust Harper and his politics).
The best way to describe our current situation is to think about the best way to defeat an enemy in war. The best way to do is to first divide then conquer. Well, we are about as divided as we could possibly be right now, all that's lacking is a conqueror. We won't have a single conqueror come upon us and take us over. Instead we are slowly being forced into indentured servitude by the greed of corporations and their leaders. They have been following the mantra of "Gekko" to a tee and are now upon the precipice of destroying the middle class completely just to meet their unmentionable goal: Of attaining more. More of everything. Just as long as its more. Selfishness dominates the day now and there isn't a whole heck of a lot we can do about it.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Why Men & Masculinity Are a Dying Species...
Sometimes things happen in your day that make you just wonder what the F*^K is going on. I've had a few of those moments lately but the thing is they seem to be happening more and more lately and, after what happened today, I am convinced that the role of men in the world is pretty much being obliterated right before our eyes. Or at least it has been slowly destroyed over the last 40 years.
It's been a long time coming, mind you, as some people would have you believe that its better to have no real defined roles for men and women because then you are classifying what one sex can and can't do. I can see that as well as I can see how having rigid roles for men and women is also wrong and has led to sexist attitudes among many different cultures over the years. The problem is that over the last 30-40 years, while women have been rightfully gaining a larger role in many areas of the North American workforce, men are being subjugated and pushed aside, trivialized and marginalized while they lose their livelihoods, their careers, their "manhood" and their self-esteem, all so that women can feel better about themselves and gain more in more in the workforce.
I may well be generalizing but take a minute and see if this makes sense.
How many commercials do we watch on a nightly basis on TV. Lets say at least 5 every commercial break and maybe 4 or 5 breaks per hour. So during a 1 hour network program show like NCIS or CSI, each of us watches somewhere in the range of 20 commercials per hour. Now think about how many of those commercials are either Rogers or Leon's. Now think about the new Leon's ads where the women mocks her husband. What about the Rogers commercials where the young guys are morons, mocked by their female friends. Or the new Rogers commercials where the husband is made to look like a fool while the wife is made to look much smarter.
How about in general how men are made to look like fools in just about every commercial, not just the specific ones I just mentioned. Think about how often men are made to look like idiots in commercials and how often women are made to look like fools. I honestly can't even remember the last time I saw a commercial where a man had the upper hand on a woman (in any sense).
Maybe ad execs are just trying to tap into the new found wealth young working women have in our time or maybe its more then that. Women now are in many more areas of power when it comes to TV, advertising, banking, you name it, that maybe these ads are being made by women, for women specifically, like an inside joke that only women get. Can you imagine if there were ads that did the reverse? There would be an outcry about how Company ABC that paid for the ad and approved it is sexist and should be boycotted for such prejudiced ads. Just look at how the Augusta National Golf Course has been vilified over the years because they, a private members-only golf club, refuses to have a female club member.
Its a PRIVATE CLUB, not a public one, but because it hosts one of the 4 Major Golf Tournaments and generates a crap load of money, Women's groups have been up and arms demanding the club change their policy. My response if I was running that club would be that when the Girl Guides start accepting boys and when ALL clubs are (gyms, public golf courses and any other private member club across the country) starts to accept members of both sexes, so will Augusta. A Private club still has the right to choose their members, regardless of whether the National Organization of Women likes it or now.
Back to my main point however. Sure, stats will still tell you that women are not making as many gains as they once were in certain, specific fields but there are some areas where women are not only making significant strides but have already done so to the point where they far outnumber men in both the classroom and the workplace. In schools, girls are doing far better then boys when it comes to math and science, fields that used to be dominated by boys. In the workplace, there have always been certain fields where women will far outnumber men and they continue to do so. Fields such as nursing, social workers, and elementary school teaching positions will always be filled more by women then men. That's just a given, for whatever reason.
Just from my own banking experience, I would say that nearly 80-85% of my co-workers in nearly 10 years of working for banks have been women (if not more). While the majority (if not all) bank CEO's may all be men in the big banks, the majority of their managers (both at the branch level and call centers as well) are now women. The majority of personal bankers now are women. The majority of call center staff are women. The majority of Tellers are women. Our banking system is now almost entirely made up of women. Which is probably why many of the decisions I see on a daily basis drive me bat shit.
Going a step further, lets look at a profession where women are the majority of the staff and see what is going on there: Teaching. Many of the children that are coming through our schools nowadays are confused about the roles of men and women because of all the mixed messages they are seeing all over their world whether its at home with the no longer nuclear family dynamics, blended families, divorced parents, gay parents. Television, the new generations' babysitters, and its mixed messages aren't any better. So when a child comes to school, confused and unsure of what their role is, they are hoping to find some kind of direction to help them. Instead they are being told that it's OK to be confused.
Instead they are being told that aggression, for all intents and purposes the exact definition of masculinity for centuries, is wrong. They are getting suspended for fighting each other (I was a kid and I had my fair share of fights in grade school and it didn't negatively effect me) when in the old days all that would happen if there was a school yard fight was a stern talking to and maybe a discussion with the Principal of the school. Any kind of teasing (which happens in school) is now being classified as bullying and therefore is a huge no-no (bullying and teasing are not the same thing but are being lumped together in some cases). Kids are no longer being taught to stand up for themselves, instead being asked to go running to a teacher and become tattle tales any time something goes wrong. We are teaching our kids that they don't have to actually solve their own problems, that they need to turn to someone else to do it.
All of this harkens back to my old theory that we are adopting a soccer-mom mentality throughout our society that is eliminating masculinity as a whole. Feminism and many of its most ardent followers, unilaterally rendered chivalry passe (much to the dismay of many a woman now that would love to be "swept off their feet" romantically by a "real" man and are now reading the "Shades of Grey" series almost as fast as tweens were reading the "Twilight" series) for how men were "doing things" for women. While I can understand not being rendered useless by your partner (hence the use of the word partner) there is nothing wrong with chivalry as long as there is equality between the man and woman involved. The problem is that soccer mom mentality is turning our kids into shells of people, one dimensional dullards who can't cope with anything, only know what they want and don't care about anyone else other then themselves. As much as Feminism helped woman gain their equal rights, it has also changed the lives of men and the way our children are raised and not all for the better.
Now, there certainly were things that needed to change about men over the years but at this point, the pendulum has swung well past half and now men are taking the brunt of every joke. We are being ridiculed for being "old fashioned" if we try to put any kind of restraint on our teenage daughters. Hell, we aren't even really needed to have kids or even sex for that matter anymore, not with artificial insemination and strap-ons/vibrators so common place. With the role of men dissipating so vastly over the last 20 years, its a small wonder we are having more and more boys in our schools having social problems. They are being over-analyzed by doctors (who are more concerned with the number of pills they prescribe then actually helping the kids they see, but that's a different blog) and are carrying over the confusion they feel at home into the classroom, their lack of true direction in their own lives.
I read a statistic on cnn.com that within 50 years, given all the environmental pollutants around, the male human species could get to the point where baby boys being born (on a world wide basis) could drop to 1 in every 20 births. With the way things are heading right now with all the gender confusion that exists in our society, it wouldn't matter if it was 1 male birth in every 5, the role of men in society is no longer a major concern. Men have been pushed aside as the role of women has grown over the last 30 years (which was expected to a certain extent but, as I mentioned earlier, has gone too far in some cases).
Some of the things that happen on a daily basis around me are infuriating but can change. Sadly, this seems to be one area where changing to a more equitable situation would require changing so many areas (even if it is only in small ways) that it will never happen because someone will pop up and say its sexist to even mention things like the ones I have.
The truth hurts sometimes but all I am telling you is the way I see it....
It's been a long time coming, mind you, as some people would have you believe that its better to have no real defined roles for men and women because then you are classifying what one sex can and can't do. I can see that as well as I can see how having rigid roles for men and women is also wrong and has led to sexist attitudes among many different cultures over the years. The problem is that over the last 30-40 years, while women have been rightfully gaining a larger role in many areas of the North American workforce, men are being subjugated and pushed aside, trivialized and marginalized while they lose their livelihoods, their careers, their "manhood" and their self-esteem, all so that women can feel better about themselves and gain more in more in the workforce.
I may well be generalizing but take a minute and see if this makes sense.
How many commercials do we watch on a nightly basis on TV. Lets say at least 5 every commercial break and maybe 4 or 5 breaks per hour. So during a 1 hour network program show like NCIS or CSI, each of us watches somewhere in the range of 20 commercials per hour. Now think about how many of those commercials are either Rogers or Leon's. Now think about the new Leon's ads where the women mocks her husband. What about the Rogers commercials where the young guys are morons, mocked by their female friends. Or the new Rogers commercials where the husband is made to look like a fool while the wife is made to look much smarter.
How about in general how men are made to look like fools in just about every commercial, not just the specific ones I just mentioned. Think about how often men are made to look like idiots in commercials and how often women are made to look like fools. I honestly can't even remember the last time I saw a commercial where a man had the upper hand on a woman (in any sense).
Maybe ad execs are just trying to tap into the new found wealth young working women have in our time or maybe its more then that. Women now are in many more areas of power when it comes to TV, advertising, banking, you name it, that maybe these ads are being made by women, for women specifically, like an inside joke that only women get. Can you imagine if there were ads that did the reverse? There would be an outcry about how Company ABC that paid for the ad and approved it is sexist and should be boycotted for such prejudiced ads. Just look at how the Augusta National Golf Course has been vilified over the years because they, a private members-only golf club, refuses to have a female club member.
Its a PRIVATE CLUB, not a public one, but because it hosts one of the 4 Major Golf Tournaments and generates a crap load of money, Women's groups have been up and arms demanding the club change their policy. My response if I was running that club would be that when the Girl Guides start accepting boys and when ALL clubs are (gyms, public golf courses and any other private member club across the country) starts to accept members of both sexes, so will Augusta. A Private club still has the right to choose their members, regardless of whether the National Organization of Women likes it or now.
Back to my main point however. Sure, stats will still tell you that women are not making as many gains as they once were in certain, specific fields but there are some areas where women are not only making significant strides but have already done so to the point where they far outnumber men in both the classroom and the workplace. In schools, girls are doing far better then boys when it comes to math and science, fields that used to be dominated by boys. In the workplace, there have always been certain fields where women will far outnumber men and they continue to do so. Fields such as nursing, social workers, and elementary school teaching positions will always be filled more by women then men. That's just a given, for whatever reason.
Just from my own banking experience, I would say that nearly 80-85% of my co-workers in nearly 10 years of working for banks have been women (if not more). While the majority (if not all) bank CEO's may all be men in the big banks, the majority of their managers (both at the branch level and call centers as well) are now women. The majority of personal bankers now are women. The majority of call center staff are women. The majority of Tellers are women. Our banking system is now almost entirely made up of women. Which is probably why many of the decisions I see on a daily basis drive me bat shit.
Going a step further, lets look at a profession where women are the majority of the staff and see what is going on there: Teaching. Many of the children that are coming through our schools nowadays are confused about the roles of men and women because of all the mixed messages they are seeing all over their world whether its at home with the no longer nuclear family dynamics, blended families, divorced parents, gay parents. Television, the new generations' babysitters, and its mixed messages aren't any better. So when a child comes to school, confused and unsure of what their role is, they are hoping to find some kind of direction to help them. Instead they are being told that it's OK to be confused.
Instead they are being told that aggression, for all intents and purposes the exact definition of masculinity for centuries, is wrong. They are getting suspended for fighting each other (I was a kid and I had my fair share of fights in grade school and it didn't negatively effect me) when in the old days all that would happen if there was a school yard fight was a stern talking to and maybe a discussion with the Principal of the school. Any kind of teasing (which happens in school) is now being classified as bullying and therefore is a huge no-no (bullying and teasing are not the same thing but are being lumped together in some cases). Kids are no longer being taught to stand up for themselves, instead being asked to go running to a teacher and become tattle tales any time something goes wrong. We are teaching our kids that they don't have to actually solve their own problems, that they need to turn to someone else to do it.
All of this harkens back to my old theory that we are adopting a soccer-mom mentality throughout our society that is eliminating masculinity as a whole. Feminism and many of its most ardent followers, unilaterally rendered chivalry passe (much to the dismay of many a woman now that would love to be "swept off their feet" romantically by a "real" man and are now reading the "Shades of Grey" series almost as fast as tweens were reading the "Twilight" series) for how men were "doing things" for women. While I can understand not being rendered useless by your partner (hence the use of the word partner) there is nothing wrong with chivalry as long as there is equality between the man and woman involved. The problem is that soccer mom mentality is turning our kids into shells of people, one dimensional dullards who can't cope with anything, only know what they want and don't care about anyone else other then themselves. As much as Feminism helped woman gain their equal rights, it has also changed the lives of men and the way our children are raised and not all for the better.
Now, there certainly were things that needed to change about men over the years but at this point, the pendulum has swung well past half and now men are taking the brunt of every joke. We are being ridiculed for being "old fashioned" if we try to put any kind of restraint on our teenage daughters. Hell, we aren't even really needed to have kids or even sex for that matter anymore, not with artificial insemination and strap-ons/vibrators so common place. With the role of men dissipating so vastly over the last 20 years, its a small wonder we are having more and more boys in our schools having social problems. They are being over-analyzed by doctors (who are more concerned with the number of pills they prescribe then actually helping the kids they see, but that's a different blog) and are carrying over the confusion they feel at home into the classroom, their lack of true direction in their own lives.
I read a statistic on cnn.com that within 50 years, given all the environmental pollutants around, the male human species could get to the point where baby boys being born (on a world wide basis) could drop to 1 in every 20 births. With the way things are heading right now with all the gender confusion that exists in our society, it wouldn't matter if it was 1 male birth in every 5, the role of men in society is no longer a major concern. Men have been pushed aside as the role of women has grown over the last 30 years (which was expected to a certain extent but, as I mentioned earlier, has gone too far in some cases).
Some of the things that happen on a daily basis around me are infuriating but can change. Sadly, this seems to be one area where changing to a more equitable situation would require changing so many areas (even if it is only in small ways) that it will never happen because someone will pop up and say its sexist to even mention things like the ones I have.
The truth hurts sometimes but all I am telling you is the way I see it....
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The Truth About Human Nature On Display
It pains me when I hear about some of the stupid things that we as people do to one another, or at least it used to. After a certain amount of time passes and more of the ridiculous and idiotic things we do to each other comes to light, the more it starts to dawn on me that maybe these aren't one of situations but rather the true representation of our human nature. Maybe, just maybe, we are all inherently bad with touches of good instead of the other way around like people try to persuade us we are.
I never used to think that this was even a remote possibility but it becomes more and more of a distinct possibility with each news broadcast I see, with each documentary I watch on HBO about Hurricane Katrina and how slow the US Government was to help out its own people (preferring instead to spend Billions waging war on people thousands of miles away), or about 3 innocent boys convicted of murders they did not commit in Arkansas and incarcerated for nearly 20 years because of it (only released because of the judge that convicted them leaving his position and their signing off on a type of plea deal that basically makes it seem as if they did commit the crimes in order to be released with time served instead of having to die for something they didn't do).
Then there was the documentary about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, a man who was going to change the world in even more profound ways than the ways that we all believed his brother was going to do before his own untimely assassination in November of 1963. It seems as if we are living in a time when every so often a shining beacon of light comes into the world that could bring about fundamental change, and just as quickly as it appears, that same beacon is either dimmed by scandal or political gridlock or it is extinguished completely. Look at US President Barrack Obama, who came blasting into power on a platform of changing the system, only to be completely stymied by the older white republican base that would prefer to wage war on everyone and make billions off of their deaths while keeping most Americans scared to death, then to actually allow the winds of change to blow through their country and make the world a better place.
I have kind of started developing this thought process because of that dumb radio commercial I have been hearing from Lisa Loeb, that former singer from the early 1990's who has done nothing with her life ever since (or at least nothing of note other then live it). Not sure if you have heard it but its basically just her talking about her doing something to prove that human nature is actually good by holding the door for someone. How that show that people are "inherently good" (as she puts it), I have no idea. That, to me is more about being polite. Being polite does not necessarily make you good. The commercial makes no sense.
The only thing it does is make me think of the exact opposite. Just read the news one day a week and you will read about all kinds of disgusting things we do to each other. From the Tori Stafford murder trial to the way we treat the environment to the way RIM is being destroyed by greedy investors who have been purposely short trading their stock (basically betting that RIM stock would go lower and lower and making shitloads of cash in the process) destroying a Canadian Company that was the innovator of so many cell phone innovations we now take for granted.
There are the human rights violations in China, Tibet and Taipei. The Syrian and Middle East conflicts which are still raging, the austerity measure in Europe where the average worker is bearing the brunt of government cuts yet not a single Government minister has seen even the slightest cut in his or her pension/salary/perks in countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece. We are seeing massive student protests continuing now for over 12 weeks in Quebec over proposed massive tuition increases which are being forced upon them by an unforgiving provincial government. This is just the basic news too. Is it any wonder why I try not to watch "Reality" TV and focus on Sports instead?
It has gotten to the point where something good actually happening is such a rarity you hardly see on the news that you can go weeks between top headline stories that are actually good news stories. Almost every single major headline is either a scandal or a death, robbery, murder or rape. The news has gotten so graphic that I find it appalling that they don't have that viewer discretion is advised thing pop up before each and every story, instead it pops up after every commercial break for family guy. What the F&%K?!?!?!
Suffice it to say that my opinion of human nature has taken a major hit over the years. It is very rare to find some good news in the world today and when you do, it's usually a "miraculous" occurrence or something along the lines of being of a divine nature. Unfortunately, some of that "evil" human nature creeps into the sporting world as can be seen right after the Washington Capitals upset the Boston Bruins in overtime of Game #7. Joel Ward, a black Canadian, scored the winner setting of a torrent of hate being spewed against him on both Twitter and other websites online. The only thing those disgusting posts proved to me was just that the amount of respect I have for some people may be a little too high. There is no need in the sporting world (or really ever) to spew that kind of hate at someone over something that happened in a sporting event. It's so useless.
It's gotten so bad that we are now at a point where our everyday heroes are being so grossly over looked and forgotten, in some cases even being shown to be corrupt on so many levels like the way movies portray our heroic police officers. Our firefighters are marginalized and made to work part-time hours, our teachers are being forced to deal with politicians that would sooner cut the salaries of people who help shape our future then take a hard look in the mirror and realize how vastly over paid they themselves are.
We are now forced to turn to our more modern literature to see versions of ourselves that we wish would be on display in our everyday lives. Our comic book heroes are coming to life in film to show us what "humanity can become". Just in the last few years we have seen a TV series based on Superman come to a conclusion after 10 years on the air, movies based on Spiderman, the X-Men, Green Lantern, Wolverine, Batman, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and Captain America and their merger film, the Avengers (out this Friday in theatres everywhere).
We look upon these "Super Heroes" as what we hope to be, as examples of the best aspects of humanity; courage, valour, honour and loyalty. All of the most noble nature that on so many occasions are sorely lacking in the reality we call life. All traits that are so hardly ever found around us that we have to glorify the literary versions of them and make them come to life to give future generations examples of what we can be, but sadly, have very little chance of ever becoming.
We have the ability to be good and bad, to be able to commit to being great or being and acting in an evil manner and yet the majority of people choose the lesser of the two. Why? Because it is easier to do. Because being good is too difficult or boring for some to want to be. One of the lines from one of the Super Hero movies I mentioned earlier mentions how with great power comes great responsibility. It is within each of us to have the ability to achieve great things. The fact that for the great multitude of people we don't is yet another example of how people choose the easier path, the one with less resistance. The one that puts on display all the bad aspects of our human nature that we see all around us on each and every day.
Some times I wish I was living in a comic book-type of fictional world. At least in those stories, the good guy and the good aspects of our human nature (eventually) win out over the evil ones. It doesn't appear that that will be the case in this world any time soon....
It should have never taken so long to help the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
I never used to think that this was even a remote possibility but it becomes more and more of a distinct possibility with each news broadcast I see, with each documentary I watch on HBO about Hurricane Katrina and how slow the US Government was to help out its own people (preferring instead to spend Billions waging war on people thousands of miles away), or about 3 innocent boys convicted of murders they did not commit in Arkansas and incarcerated for nearly 20 years because of it (only released because of the judge that convicted them leaving his position and their signing off on a type of plea deal that basically makes it seem as if they did commit the crimes in order to be released with time served instead of having to die for something they didn't do).
If not for the evil of hatred, these 2 men would have changed the world decades ago....
Then there was the documentary about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, a man who was going to change the world in even more profound ways than the ways that we all believed his brother was going to do before his own untimely assassination in November of 1963. It seems as if we are living in a time when every so often a shining beacon of light comes into the world that could bring about fundamental change, and just as quickly as it appears, that same beacon is either dimmed by scandal or political gridlock or it is extinguished completely. Look at US President Barrack Obama, who came blasting into power on a platform of changing the system, only to be completely stymied by the older white republican base that would prefer to wage war on everyone and make billions off of their deaths while keeping most Americans scared to death, then to actually allow the winds of change to blow through their country and make the world a better place.
I have kind of started developing this thought process because of that dumb radio commercial I have been hearing from Lisa Loeb, that former singer from the early 1990's who has done nothing with her life ever since (or at least nothing of note other then live it). Not sure if you have heard it but its basically just her talking about her doing something to prove that human nature is actually good by holding the door for someone. How that show that people are "inherently good" (as she puts it), I have no idea. That, to me is more about being polite. Being polite does not necessarily make you good. The commercial makes no sense.
This is the way some people think we can "save the world"
The only thing it does is make me think of the exact opposite. Just read the news one day a week and you will read about all kinds of disgusting things we do to each other. From the Tori Stafford murder trial to the way we treat the environment to the way RIM is being destroyed by greedy investors who have been purposely short trading their stock (basically betting that RIM stock would go lower and lower and making shitloads of cash in the process) destroying a Canadian Company that was the innovator of so many cell phone innovations we now take for granted.
A good man and his company shall be destroyed by the pettiness and greed of others.....
There are the human rights violations in China, Tibet and Taipei. The Syrian and Middle East conflicts which are still raging, the austerity measure in Europe where the average worker is bearing the brunt of government cuts yet not a single Government minister has seen even the slightest cut in his or her pension/salary/perks in countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece. We are seeing massive student protests continuing now for over 12 weeks in Quebec over proposed massive tuition increases which are being forced upon them by an unforgiving provincial government. This is just the basic news too. Is it any wonder why I try not to watch "Reality" TV and focus on Sports instead?
When will Eurozone politicians stop picking on the pensions and wages of the everyday worker
and focus on their own salaries and pensions? Never, that's when...
It has gotten to the point where something good actually happening is such a rarity you hardly see on the news that you can go weeks between top headline stories that are actually good news stories. Almost every single major headline is either a scandal or a death, robbery, murder or rape. The news has gotten so graphic that I find it appalling that they don't have that viewer discretion is advised thing pop up before each and every story, instead it pops up after every commercial break for family guy. What the F&%K?!?!?!
Suffice it to say that my opinion of human nature has taken a major hit over the years. It is very rare to find some good news in the world today and when you do, it's usually a "miraculous" occurrence or something along the lines of being of a divine nature. Unfortunately, some of that "evil" human nature creeps into the sporting world as can be seen right after the Washington Capitals upset the Boston Bruins in overtime of Game #7. Joel Ward, a black Canadian, scored the winner setting of a torrent of hate being spewed against him on both Twitter and other websites online. The only thing those disgusting posts proved to me was just that the amount of respect I have for some people may be a little too high. There is no need in the sporting world (or really ever) to spew that kind of hate at someone over something that happened in a sporting event. It's so useless.
What should have been the best night of his life, quickly turned into a vile, heinous
night when the true nature of Twitter and the internet reared its ugly head
It's gotten so bad that we are now at a point where our everyday heroes are being so grossly over looked and forgotten, in some cases even being shown to be corrupt on so many levels like the way movies portray our heroic police officers. Our firefighters are marginalized and made to work part-time hours, our teachers are being forced to deal with politicians that would sooner cut the salaries of people who help shape our future then take a hard look in the mirror and realize how vastly over paid they themselves are.
We are now forced to turn to our more modern literature to see versions of ourselves that we wish would be on display in our everyday lives. Our comic book heroes are coming to life in film to show us what "humanity can become". Just in the last few years we have seen a TV series based on Superman come to a conclusion after 10 years on the air, movies based on Spiderman, the X-Men, Green Lantern, Wolverine, Batman, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and Captain America and their merger film, the Avengers (out this Friday in theatres everywhere).
We have to look to fictional heroes because of how we marginalize the everyday heroes all around us
We look upon these "Super Heroes" as what we hope to be, as examples of the best aspects of humanity; courage, valour, honour and loyalty. All of the most noble nature that on so many occasions are sorely lacking in the reality we call life. All traits that are so hardly ever found around us that we have to glorify the literary versions of them and make them come to life to give future generations examples of what we can be, but sadly, have very little chance of ever becoming.
We have the ability to be good and bad, to be able to commit to being great or being and acting in an evil manner and yet the majority of people choose the lesser of the two. Why? Because it is easier to do. Because being good is too difficult or boring for some to want to be. One of the lines from one of the Super Hero movies I mentioned earlier mentions how with great power comes great responsibility. It is within each of us to have the ability to achieve great things. The fact that for the great multitude of people we don't is yet another example of how people choose the easier path, the one with less resistance. The one that puts on display all the bad aspects of our human nature that we see all around us on each and every day.
The whole world needs an "Uncle Ben" moment right about now....
Some times I wish I was living in a comic book-type of fictional world. At least in those stories, the good guy and the good aspects of our human nature (eventually) win out over the evil ones. It doesn't appear that that will be the case in this world any time soon....
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