January 28, 2005
-
Topic: time for patriotism!!!
I am mine, you are yours, you are what you are, you make it haaaaard…………
I don’t want to compare myself to others…but, society has taught me to do so. Last night, I celbrated some guys 27th b-day from ESPN Zone, a really cool guy, but I use the fact the he’s 4 years older than me to justify the fact that I’m on pace to be “farther ahead in life,” when I’m 27. This is what I told my roommate anyways, he quickly called me out, especially since I’ve been arguing to him that we can’t simply compare the standard of living in America to that of the 3rd world, we need to hold America to its own standards. Therefore, I shouldn’t be comparing my life to others.
I realize I’ve been turned into a competitive machine. Deep down, I believe we can look around us to see how we’re doing, but, at the end, the only race is with ourselves. My crass comparison of “how I’m doing” compared to other people, is a comparison that has been instilled in me by society. Actually…it’s more a comparison that’s been instilled in me by family, and probably instilled in them by family as well, but it all comes from society.
For example, the fact that I am trying to find my own way in life, to not follow the crowd, and to do something “good,” with my life, hasn’t been received well by many close to me. What would have been received well is simple. “Hey…i’m going to law school to be a lawyer,” or, “Hey…I’m going to work on Wall Street.” So, in order to appease those who have been more interested in the job title that labels who I am, than who I actually am and what I actually do, I have been forced to compare myself. “Hey…remember so and so, he’s in law school and miserable,” or “Hey…remember so and so, they still haven’t found a job.” In other words, while I am not pursuing a life of competition with anyone other than myself and by my own standards of what I should be pushing myself to accomplish, I am forced to use comparative methods to justify myself to others. (however, I have my own standard on how people of similar background to me should live life, mainly, that they should live life to its fullest, to push themselves, to follow their passions, and when I see people following money or security at the expense of them developing more of themselves, then I hold those people to the same standard I hold to myself, and try to push those people. While I cannot help but think about what others are doing w/ their lives, I am extremely hard on myself, and I compare myself to people like Lance Armstrong, who live every day as if it were their last, or Kurt Hahn who founded Outward Bound w/ the belief that we should find the moral equivalant of war, turn our disabilities into opportunities, and constantly improve ourselves.)
As far as politics is concerned, I believe we can look around, and see ways in which America is ahead of other countries, and ways in which we are behind. At the end of the day, we have a very simple scale to measure how well America is doing. How well are we living up to the “American dream,” for everyone to be able to enjoy a little life, a little liberty, and a little pursuit of happiness. By that standard, America is doing poorly. Whatever politics you believe in, that’s the standard we go by. Things are improving though. And, I believe, things are improving because we are a democracy and because we have capitalism. But, if Lance Armstrong and Kurt Hahn were countries, pushing their physical limits after facing near death and making compassion as noble as war has become, than America would have a long way to go to matching those countries.
Still…I feel the need to be pro-American, because it is easy to become extreme and come off as anti-American in an attempt to promote American values. So…I’ll state it here. I’m happy for baseball, apple pie, the internet, Seinfeld. I’m happy that there is a growing independent media to give the news not shown in corporate media. I’m happy that we have some of the most amazing geography in the world, from beaches to mountains to desert. I’m happy that there are so many organizations where people work to help those less fortunate. I’m happy that there are people monitoring and debating what our government does, and I’m happy that when people organize, they can create positive change in society.
And I love how bad we are too. Not that I want the bad to stay, I just love these things in a way that I love how I took a bunch of chocolate home from work and I think it melted in my pocket. You just throw your hands up sometimes, and say, “what the fuck” So…I love that our president choked on a pretzle, I love that Jon Stewart got Tucker what’s his face from CNN fired, I love that 4 years and $120,000 at an elite university means I have a worthless piece of paper in my room, I love that I’m supposed to marry a Jewish girl, but my real destiny is simply to marry a girl with an accent and if they eat bacon…well, I won’t eat it, but it won’t stop me from shaggin’ her if she’s shaggable, and I love that ABC showed Austin Powers tonight and they actually edited the audio and visual when they’re talking about the Sweditsh penis pump, and I love that Time magazine has a cover article about young adults who “just won’t grow up,” and I love that I’ve finally been recognized on the cover of Time magazine, and I love that I had this dream where I was a teacher but everyone knew everything and it just made me realize how little I know about the world and how what you know really doesn’t matter all that much sometimes, and I love how there’s a Family Guy episode when Peter, the father, says, “that’s not the first time my stomach has gotten me into trouble,” and then it shows him hiding w/ Anne Frank and slowly crunching on a potato chip as the Nazis enter the house, and I love sharing my life w/ total strangers (and the Craiger!!!)
Comments (1)
It is nice to see someone that can look past all of the bad, and enjoy something for what it is. It is so easy, especially today more than ever, to see all that is wrong with society, America, the world, etc. There are so many things that I am thankful for, and even though I despise many things about capitalism, I can’t help but be reminded that there are good things that come out of it as well. Things that I do take for granted.
Competition and compartiveness is something that is uniquely human. While it does exist in other species, studies have found that humans take it to another level and use it as a driving factor in their lives. Congratulations on being human! I find myself doing the same kinds of things, looking around to see where I fit in to the grand scheme of things. But I don’t think that because you are aware of the lives around you, and you are knowledgable as to what you want in your life, you should condemn yourlself for it. No one ever got to where they are in life without the factor of the millions of orbiting lives around you, constantly effecting the decisions you yourself make in life. There is no rule saying that you can’t learn from not only your own mistakes, but those around you, and nothing stating that you can’t look at the lives of others, and without judging them, know that that is not what you want with YOUR life. After all, that is what it’s all about isn’t it? In so many respects we are all observers, as well as activists.
God, I do love reading your posts though. They always seem to put things in perspective.