Introduction
It's intangible. The world is unjust and messed up and heading for disaster. It is obvious to me that the madness of this society cannot continue. I mistakenly assume that this madness should be obvious to everybody else as well -- The evidence is right in front of us, for crying out loud! How can we be so blind? but it feels like I am the only person in this whole wide world who can tell that the way we humans run our society is completely messed up and is not willing to accept that knowledge.
Unfortunately, I cannot give voice to my arguments. Today I entered a discussion with two of my co-workers that grew very heated. I could hear every tired economic cliche in the book being offered as arguments as to why I can't and shouldn't care about the injustices of the world. Every time I tried to explain a point, I was shouted down. I was accused of putting words in these people's mouths. They were correct. I was putting words in their mouths -- the words they demonstrate through their misguided arguments, the words that they would not admit to believing in. Bad words, they were. And yet, they would not accept my arguments, because I couldn't formulate my arguments, because I can understand that people working in sweatshops are suffering, that we should care for their plights and try to change this messed up omnipotent economic system, that even though these people are earning money so their children can have better lives than they do the conditions in which these people work and the reasons they are forced to work in these conditions are not tolerable. And then I stormed off feeling so angry and so helpless, because my co-workers are no different from anybody else around me. All I managed to accomplish was an enhancement to my reputation as a flake, and an addition to the smugness of my co-workers, because they could use their false logic to demonstrate their case, and I could not.
It seems that there are only a few things I can say:
SOMETHING IS WRONG.
I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TO FIX IT.
I BELIEVE THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES TO PAY IF WE DO NOT FIX WHAT IS WRONG.
Is that clear enough? No. Does that convince you of anything? No. Will I be able to turn back an unjust economic tide -- that same tide that keeps me alive and in luxury -- through these statements? No. So what the hell do I think I am doing? How can I get angry at people's arrogant ignorance when I can't even convince people that they are being arrogant, that they are are being ignorant, that perhaps the way in which we live is unsustainable? I cannot, so I have to try and explain myself. There is an excellent chance that I will make a complete fool of myself in doing so, just as there is an excellent chance that there is an excellent chance that I am completely wrong and the rest of the world is completely right and everything will work out all right in the end because everything always works out all right in the end. Supposedly. Even if you are a victim of war, or you live in a drug-infested slum or you are an ant burned to death beneath a magnifying glass or if you are killing yourself in a sweatshop making cheap clothing or even if you are an ignorant, arrogant First World citizen living an empty lifestyle as I am.
Yep. Everything always works out all right. I guess I'm just not grown up enough to know that yet.