20031112   

I've said it before

Michael considered fate at 12:10   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

And I'll say it again

and again

and once more.

No one likes you when you're 23, ain't that the truth. Or when you're 24, or 25, or 26. Once you're older than, like, 6, there is always someone out there whose gonna be hating on your ass. If you're younger than 6 than all your contemporaries are too young to understand greed and jealousy enough to manifest it as directed hate.. and you don't really have much that people older than 6 want - except maybe a lot of free time and the right to shit your pants without much fanfare.

But once you hit that golden age of 7, once you're "lucky" as they like to say, things start to change. The boy across the street wants your bike and the neighbourhood girls fight about you even though they don't know why. Half of them are fighting cause they think you're an asshole and they can't understand why the other half love you to death. The other half are too confused trying to figure out why they like you that they are left pretty much defensless and always end up getting beaten up by the more savvy haters.

In this life, the first to hate is the first to rate. Hating is the prime perogative and being the first one who can command those feelings of jealousy and contempt is like getting pole position at the races - you're already half way to being the big winner - already way ahead of the rest of the group.

Anyway, no one likes me cause I'm 25, going on 26, and I still don't have much for pictures up on this sloppy thing. I haven't redesigned in ages and as anyone who has been watching the car manufacturers lately, you know you gotta redesign or be left in the dust. I don't have super duper javascript and the only techno-babble acronym I can use when describing the way this site is put together is HTML - and that is soooo 90's.

Boooring. I know.

So go ahead and keep on hating cause that's what keeps the world going 'round. Or at least the U.S. of fucking A. Goddamn right!

I watched Bowling for Columbine (again) last night and (again) I have to ask the same goddamn question that no one seems to get: If it ain't the guns, then what is it?. Michael Moore clearly showed that Europe, Asia, even Canada has far fewer gun deaths a year than the U.S. - by a factors of 10's and 100's - yet Canada still has a huge number of guns at their disposal. What's up with that, eh? And still, Michael Moore comes across as a anti-gun nazi and he is ostracized. Okay, sure.. he's a bit of a whack job with all his outspoken teary-eyed speeches.. He could be doing a better job by not alienating himself but still.. He outlined a very good point that no one seems to get: IT MOST LIKELY IS NOT THE GUNS!

It's been said before and I'll say it again. Guns don't kill people. People kill people.

I don't own a gun and I'm not a pro-gun fanatic. I'm not a member of the NRA and I've never been hunting. I do, however, believe in the Constitution of the United States of America. I do believe in certain unalienable rights - not for the sake of rights but for the sake of freedom.

I have, in my time, played a few rounds of paintball. I have aimed a projectile 'weapon' at a human being and knowingly pulled the trigger. I hit a few of those humans I was aiming at, too.. and you know what? It felt good. It was exhilarating. It was like hiding behind that pillar in DOOM, pulling out the rifle, aiming carefully, and firing a few dozen rounds into the Cacodemon or whatever horrendous monster happened to present itself at that moment. It was very much like a video game, "killing" people with paint. It was also exhilarating like beating my best friend at a video football game. Throwing that last 25 yard desperation pass into the endzone with 3 seconds left on the clock and down by 6. It was exhilarating like inching by my opponent in MotoGP, my finger mashed down on the acceleration button with all my concentration boring into the screen, only to win the race in the final stretch by .2 seconds. It was exhilarating like flipping a foosball rod with decisive authority and hearing the tin-metal bang of the ball hitting the back of the goal to win the final game (10-9) of a five-game series after work on a thursday night, while drinking a beer or two and enjoying the thought of a friday vacation day.

Humans are, by nature, a competitive species. Nature, itself, by nature, is a competitive system. Survival of the fittest and all that jazz. To ignore it or pretend it isn't there - it's ludacris. Such is the world we live in but does that mean we need to blame our woes on the guns in our hands? No. Does it mean that, in our advanced society, we must stamp out or be stamped out? No. Is it hard for people to deal with the instinctual urges of survival of the fittest while at the same time living in a society that purports equality is the answer while, at the same time, the natural system of capitalism becomes more and more entrenched while, at the same time, measures such as affirmative action and gender equality are enacted in order to fight - or at least give the appearance of fighting - agasint the capitalist-survival-of-the-fittest-only-the-strong-survive? Yeah, I think it might be a little hard. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Society kills people. Nature kills people.

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