I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the world is a crazy place. We live in a world where large swaths of the media would prefer to talk about Charlie Sheen’s drug addiction rather than the insanity that is Colonel Gaddafi and the situation in Libya. If you want an absolutely insane individual on camera spouting some of the most batshit rhetoric you’ve ever heard, Gaddafi is some low hanging fruit ripe for the picking. That way you can get the crazy guy ranting AND world news at the same time.
But no, Charlie Sheen trumps all.
It’s enough to make anyone want to go into hibernation until things start to make a bit more sense, but we all know we’d be asleep forever if that were the case.
It’s hard not to look around at the political landscape and the world in general and not feel dismayed, especially if you’re an American with even half a brain. When people in your country start attacking teachers’ salaries while, in the same breath, defending the outrageous salaries of CEO’s bailed out by the US government, you know there are some priorities that need to be straightened out.
I try not to get too political here, so let me reel it in. Surprisingly enough, politics seem to get people more riled up these days than religion. Go figure.
The point of all this isn’t to discuss personal politics. It’s to point out (as if it needs pointing out, right?) that the world we live in is absolutely insane. It’s best to recognize it and reconcile that fact in your mind. The nice thing is that it’s usually pretty hilarious even when it’s being sort of depressing. Gaddafi is a great example, you’ve got this dictator in charge of an entire country who says some of the most inane things I’ve ever heard uttered. On the one hand, it’s terrible that this guy does what he does and on the other hand he says shit like, “there is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet.” I mean, what is THAT all about? It’s not even propaganda, it’s just totally insane.
Without crucial information like this, it’d be difficult to live a life that also includes an awareness of the things beyond our own little lives. Here, at the micro level, a sense of balance is relatively easy to maintain. There are ups and downs, personal trials and personal triumphs. We can look at these things and create a sense of satisfaction, or at least a sort of resigned mentality about them. When we extend our sights beyond, into the scope of the global stage, it’s more difficult. A great many people suffer every day for the stupidest reasons. People hurt each other constantly over the most petty differences. Humanity can be cruel and those of us with a sense for what’s good and rational are often left standing with mouth agape, confused and mortified. But indignity and anger don’t really have a proper place in our lives or in the process of fixing things. Some people take these things and turn off entirely. They refuse to recognize the problems that exist in their own lives or in the lives of others. Thankfully, a great many other people wish they could do something to make life a little easier for others. That’s a tough order to fill these days and the reality is that serious change starts with us.
Being able to maintain a happy and healthy mental life is the start of helping others do the same. You don’t need to change the entire world by yourself. It’s all about making yourself a rock for other people to lean against when they need you. By recognizing that our world has problems, we can work toward changing ourselves to alleviate our contributions to those problems. By recognizing that the world is, indeed, a hilarious place and that there is some real good out there as well, we give ourselves the fuel we need to continue on.
Without that fuel, it’s tough to stay awake through it all. It’s tough not to go into hibernation just to get a break from it all. But sleeping away the days may save us from all the bad, but it also keeps us from all the good.
I wouldn’t miss out on that for anything.
And I certainly wouldn’t miss out on one of Gaddafi’s brilliant lines, either.
That would be a real shame.
While I’m on the topic, my warmest wishes go out to those people in Egypt and the Middle East in general working to take back their governments from despots. While it’s unlikely that anyone from that part of the world reads this silly comic, I still wish them the best. It’s a very worthwhile endeavor and they all have my respect and sympathies <3
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/quiz/2011/mar/01/muammar-gaddafi-charlie-sheen-quiz
That’s exactly how I felt about charlie sheen! But enough about him, I’ve given him more attention than he deserves, I’d like to say that we must persevere even amidst the confusion! I really do pray for the people struggling to reclaim their rights, and I hope they form the kind of nation they need.
Something not unlike that guardian quiz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsiYvcn8oZw&feature=feedu
Great minds discuss ideas, Average minds discuss events and simple minds discuss people. The type of news coverage we have now is yet another proof that the population of the world is getting less and less clever and more and more obsessed my immediate pleasure and easy mental gratification. It’s kinda sad when we think that this is the time when we actually need to be forward thinking to save the World…
By the way, I am from that part of the world (Morocco) and my Girlfriend is a student teacher in Wisconsin, so I am doubly apalled by the fact that my google news shows Charlie Sheen on top all the time…
I wouldn’t say the world is less clever. People want to escape, and some do so by looking to the media, to see what it can conjure up. The media preys on this for money, so they fit their role.
While some people never make their intellectual potential, most people are still intelligent and could fix their problems via their clever minds.
(I’m so sorry you have to hear about Charlie Sheen. You’d think that the spotlight shining on him would have burned him up by now.)
@Drake:
I don’t necessarily think that it is an issue of great and weak minds. I think that when people have leisure they are more likely to want to engage their minds. If you have a long, exhausting day at work, which is preceded and followed by never ending traffic, as well as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of your children then you may have difficulty becoming aroused by the weighty issues of the world when they do not affect you. I think that is the problem of most Americans. Of course, the issue also doubles back on itself and habits are reinforced on the generational level.
I wish I could post more, but off I must go.
this charlie guy is really not as funny as mel gibson. I think even pop news is getting lammer by the minute.
I majorly agree on what you are saying. Lately it seems that a lot of interesting things are going on in the field of science, and people are way more concerned with celebrities. =\
Ha ha, elegantly drawn and stated.
i’m reminded of the coffee scene in Earthbound, where it says not to forget your sense of humor.
i agree you need to dig deep to get some decent news, besides there is still some reluctance to show bad things happening near the states. Take mexico just south the border. Drug consumption and arms traffic from the usa fuels violence on par with irak here, yet we dont really get much support.
“Like!”
Despite what appears in the news, and all the horrible events which occur around us, good things do happen. For example, Happle Tea comics.
I’m glad reference to the Vlogbrother’s video was already made in the comment. The similarity between what Gaddafi and Sheen say frightens me more than Sheens domination on the news does.
Oh, World, how do you manage to make less sense every day?
Have you heard of The Venus Project?
I agree with a lot of the things you are saying, but personally, I would rather change things on a more larger scale.
Never heard of it, but I totally understand. I think both ways have merits, but the one in the strip is something everyone can do
hmm… I i don’t read papers and don’t watch news (on the basis that really important stuff tends to make its way into my life anyway), so yeah, i agreed with the basic idea, with what you are saying about what happens and so on (except that my thought has always been more on the lines of ‘lets cut our thoats and save the planet everybody) but was somewhat… ignorant on the currents state of events… today i came to school. The (I counted!) 18th word i heard (ok, 18th and 19th) was ‘Charlie Sheen’. Ai ar disssapiont.
P.S. Quoting a song by ‘The Tangent’: “What happened to the future, its not as good as the book”. Jules Verne predicted submarines. Nobody (and i dont mean they should have) predicted iPhones (but i do mean they are a waste of human ingenuity). I mean… can’t we just rollback? To the 80s at the very least?
Hope the author doesn’t mind me wasting his comment space for random thoughts aroused by the subject…
Charlie Sheen pissed me off, I didn’t hear about what was happening in Egypt until the teacher in World History mentioned it. All I had heard was the Today show bashing how some riots threatened ancient Egyptian artifacts. They didn’t even explain why there were riots.
My grandma recently got a nice new big pretty tv, and therefore stepped up her cable.
She now watches Russian news, which is in English, but it’s actual world news. Just like watching BBC news. It is so absolutely glorious to watch,
Well, a middle-east person is here too! *Waves hand frantically* It’s really overwhelming to witness history in the making, not sure about the protests here on the Arabic peninsula (Bahrain, Oman, Saudi, UAE..), The media is keeping the protests in the latter all hush hush. But I agree that Libya has one of the biggest struggles to overcome. Now is it wise and beneficial to Libya in particular to have foreign military intervention on the long run?
Truth.
Even in Australia we are being bombarded with Charlie Sheen. But if it wasn’t for him we’d just be being bombarded with extremely important breaking news about our cricket captain retiring (or some other crap about footballers). Our priorities are just as messed up.
Sometimes I think the Charlie Sheen stuff is there to distract us from the horror that has been this year which, to be honest, I can appreciate at times.
Wisconsin politicians make too much money.
Do bigfoots hibernate?