Sunday, May 16, 2010

Rant. (A break from poetry)


I haven't written a rant in quite some time, and now after reading the news, I feel a couple of things stirring up inside of me that can only be relieved through writing.

Numero uno is that of Grades
What is everyone's obsession with grades? I say this in the context of when I'm reading a story about a child who was molested by someone they met on the internet, or someone who committed suicide the first thing the journalist will mention is, "_______ had straight A's and came from an upper-class family. Why on earth did this happen?"
Last time I check grades didn't exactly buy you circumstances or made sure you weren't subjected to life's tragedies. So why is this even mentioned? What significance is it that so and so had straight A's and their parents could afford this and that?
As we can clearly see it didn't buy them street smarts or happiness!
Do we as a society focus too much on grades, and their true meaning?
What should be mentioned when something of such horrific nature occurs is maybe that the person was a great painter, or musician, and how awful it is that another human being was harmed when they had so much to offer or didn't realize it in the first place.

It cheapens their 15 minutes of fame into a statistic. Numbing us as individuals, and reducing their death to that of a Halo 3 point system.
________ was struck down by __________.

Death is a cheap thrill in America.

Numero Dos: Bi-polar disorder, and ANY psychological disorder for Children.

Time, and time again our news is just plastered with numbers of the rising percentages of people being diagnosed and parents spending on things related to psychological disorders amongst children.
Am I the only one who realizes that the urbanization of our country just might have to do with the fact that little Jimmy in Kindergarten can't sit still?
That may be the fact Dear Mother provides endless amounts of processed foods, and television to said child might have an impact on their being as a whole...

What do I know right?

All I know is when I eat to much crap and lay around I notice I get a little wound tight...

I'm 19 years old for Pete's sake, are my high fluctuations of mood when I've consumed high amounts of sugar and caffeine put me in line for the bi-polar/add/ADHD train?

Maybe, if I get off my happy butt and run around for two hours I'll chill out?
MAYBE your child who has 10 times the amount of energy I can no longer dream of possessing needs that too?

Or, a quick attitude adjustment.
I'm not here to cheapen the psychological field, and I'm quite sure there are a few cases in which a child isn't in a normal state of consciousness. But, seriously people?
I find most of this to be the 'Blame Game.'

"Oh, my child has ADD so it isn't my fault when he is screaming and throwing a tantrum in the aisles of Target."

The responsibility of the parent has been shifted to that of the child, not even the child! But! the poor innocent creatures disorder.
Let's pop a pill to that!

Numero Tres: Facebook/Twitter/The internet/ Technology

I will be the first to state that I am a nerd, and LOVE technology.
Not many people know exactly what a GUI interface is, and why Mac is superior to Microsoft because of its formatting.
Anywho.

The real problem is the isolation of our communities.

Technology is slowing causing people to regress to an isolationist state.
Yes, you are now texting 20 people, and messaging 30 more on Facebook
But is this really communication?

Communication is body language and speaking.

The two can't exactly be separated...
So we have to try and provide an alternative to the batting of the eyelashes (so to speak) and create emoticons to provide some sort of clarification to what exactly we said.

At least on the telephone you hear voice inflection...
Now, I have to capitalize my words to make a strong statement.

This has reduced our conversations to be short, and sweet.

I think this is what has killed poetry honestly.

Poetry doesn't provide short cuts in its communication.

No 'LOL's' or 'BTW's' there...

I didn't sign up for a job with cubicles, but it seems the world is already assigning them anyway...



Rant over.

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