Misanthorpe
I have decided that I don't like people. In fact, it's safe to say that I hate people. Since I am in the set of people, that certainly means I hate myself. In fact, I am the worst of the lot.
I don't know if I hate all people. Maybe there is a culture or a world or an alternate universe where people are nice, where people act responsibly and are full of love, not greed. Maybe there are people who don't thrive on making themselves and their world miserable. Unfortunately, I don't live in that culture or world or universe, so I don't know any people who aren't despicable. We are all despicable, insignificant creatures who don't realize our place. If there was any justice in this world, maybe we would get snuffed out like a dim flame.
If you do something considerate for a person, that person will turn around and expect more and more from you until you get sick of it all and tell the ingrate not to abuse his or her privilege. If you trust a person, that person will betray you. If you let down your defences and open your heart to a person, then that person will emotionally stab you again and again until you are dead.
People are illogical. People never tire of proclaiming our wonderful achievements that set us "above the animals," but whenever we act irresponsibly we blame it on "human nature" and are content to not improve ourselves. People can understand calculus and how to fly to the moon, but we refuse to believe in sustainability, hoping that our technological prowess will bail us out of an inevitable situation. People don't care about anything unless it affects them directly; then they become the most concerned citizens in the entire stinking world.
People don't appreciate what they have until it is gone. Then they do nothing but lament. When it is sunny outside, people wish for winter. When it is winter, people wish for the sun. They are never satisfied to enjoy the days as they come.
It is futile to tell people anything they don't want to hear. If you try, they will either ignore you (if you don't say anything that interests them) or get angry at you (if you criticize them and they don't agree with you). No matter how flimsy the justification, people can justify anything -- and they do. People justify all sorts of evils like cars and suburbs and racism and xenophobia and NATO bombing raids and sweatshops and the economy and why homeless people on the street don't deserve our charity. People always have an excuse for their actions.
People are irresponsible and careless. They will sell you fast food in wax paper containers that can be used exactly once, because wax fast food containers are cheaper than hiring a dishwasher to do dishes. People will work long, hard hours doing all the things that are not right and don't enjoy so that they can pay for frivolities they don't need in their lives. People will complain about the rising cost of tuition, and spend everything they earn on entertainment and fast food instead of saving it for their educations.
People drive cars. They destroy natural habitat everywhere they go, not caring for any of the other life that has to share this world. They wish to live in sterility, which is how they justify plastic plates and wax paper containers. They freak out over earwigs and birds sharing their houses -- they even screen over their intake vents so that other life cannot live in the shafts. People don't realize that everything is interconnected, and that they are directly related to dirt.
People do not believe in altruism. Their lives are ruled by fear, greed and guilt. They tell their larvae to forget their childhood dreams and think about the "real world" -- an inconsistent, unsustainable system of debt and profit that they made up to keep cash flowing and dissatisfaction high. People would rather make a profit out of misery than allow the world to be content and poor. People define their productivity in terms of dollars and cents.
People are cowards. They watch television instead of participating in the real world. They support hockey teams instead of facing the spectres of reality head on. So long as their lives are not worse than the lives of their neighbours, they refuse to change their ways no matter how easy the change. When faced with difficult decisions people will procrastinate rather than make their choices.
People refuse to believe they are bad people. No matter what they do, they always find a way to convince themselves that they are just doing "what needs to be done." They are quick to demonize others, however. People divide themselves into classes and groups that don't exist. They define their identities by where they live and what they have, not by who they are and what they do with their times in this world.
People believe that might makes right. They believe in systems where there exist forces of infinite power that are on their side. No matter how inconsiderate they are of others, they think that these forces will always be there for them. Whatever atrocities they commit or are committed to them, they think they will win in the end. It never occurs to people that working together is an option, unless they see some immediate benefit to themselves by doing so.
People want good schools and good hospitals and a healthy society, but they do not want to contribute to them. Even when they get the chance to vote, they will not do so out of laziness -- but when they are denied the opportunity to speak their voice, they will whine and complain. People like to be pitied.
People put out personal ads in the papers describing their body types, measurements and hair colours, assert that they are looking for "long term relationships," then proclaim that they want to be "friends first." People get lonely and want company, but when that company comes they take it for granted.
People are fickle and short-minded. Five minutes after I write this piece, I will decide that people are not so bad and that I want to spend time with them again. People are biased -- they will believe whatever benefits them most or whatever version of a story they heard first. People believe the advertisements they see all around them.
If you are a person, go away. I want to have nothing to do with any of us, least of all myself. I wish I could just fall asleep and never wake up so that I wouldn't have to deal with people any more. The higher power that I believe in is that one day we will have to face the consequences of our actions. If one day we have to feel all of the misery we cause every day of our lives, maybe we will truly understand our wretchedness.