random thoughts

[robinsnest]

A few random things that have been on my mind.

Reading over everyone's live journals (and i realise they are people's own journals) i'm struck by how much they are about what people want and a lot of grumbling about not getting what they want. Now i'm just as guilty if not more of this than everyone else. But i think it's a strong argument for why america is known as being an increadibly self-centered country. WE ARE incraedibly self absorbed. My problems, my relationships, my my my. While i'd love to pretend that I was focusing my energy on doing things that would be really useful I tend to fall into the usual pattern...have a relatoionship...have it not work...whine and analyze...repeat...mix in a few tramatizing events for spice :-) I was talking to jen this morning about how close congress is to declaring war on Iraq and I think it's closer than most of us realize. No one had done SHIT on this campus to even make people aware of it. Hell I was expecting a fucking peace rally or something! If we go to war with Iraq we're setting ourselves up for our generation's Vietam war...and who really wants that? now there's something to be concerned about. if you step back and look at it from that angle who cares who's sleeping with who or not talking to who or upset with who. In the end it really doesn't matter does it. I suppose part of this thought train of mine stems from Laramie and how every night I sit and listen to real interviews and listen to how people hate, and don't even realize they do. they think just becasue they say "i don't think it's okay but i wouldn't kill him" they don't hate or have prejudice or bias. It hurts me to realize that even some people I would consider near and dear have prejudices that I don't think they're will to face at all.

When I left high school for college I thought I'd enter a whole new world where people were here to Learn becasue the WANT to. I think i must be weird because i want to understand everything know how it works. caluculous to biology I want to know how it works. More and more I find people here are high schoolers with more access to alochol and no parental supervision. This depresses me because I thought we came here to learn how to make our world better, not have a great big party for four years.

Comments

Two responses

[circlesinwater.livejournal.com]

(1) All right, many journals are self-centered. This could be solely because self-centered people tend to write journals, and the non-journallers are un-self-centered; a sample by definition biased toward people who want to write about themselves can say very little about America as a whole, which contains a great many people who don't write journals (and they may be self-centered, but that can't be shown by meditating on journal-writing). Furthermore, even if it were to be assumed that American journal-writers are self-centered, it could be that journallers from the rest of the world are just as self-centered, so condemning Americans still seems unjustified.

(2) Iraq = Vietnam? Oppose the war if you want, but if fought -- and it's hardly an "if" anymore, I agree there -- it will be fought in response to the death and destruction Saddam Hussein has wrought, not on less-defensible ideological grounds. The terrain in Iraq is also more favorable than the Vietnamese jungle, Iraqi troops motivated only by fear and money are likely to be less staunch opponents of the U.S. Army than the Viet Cong were, and Iraq suffers from a greater gap in technology than the Viet Cong did, with no chance of continual resupply from a patron such as the U.S.S.R.

Well...hm...now here's a thought...

[myownsatellite.livejournal.com]

Robbie I gotta say that the reason people write in journals is to get out their emotions. I know I like to write in mine when I'm stressed because it helps me to relax. It's not that I'm self-centered, I just use it as an outlet. I mean, why do you write poems? Is it an outlet? It is for me anyway. That's how I get out my frustrations. This is another way for me to do that. If you don't want to read me whine about something bad that happens then don't. It's not a big deal, no one is forcing you to look at these things.
Another thing is that, yeah we may be self-centered, but who really has the patience to sit around all day and think about war and government and politics, other than politicians themselves? I know I don't have the time or the energy to worry about the situation with Iraq. Yeah, I don't think we should go, but who the hell am I to stop it? One person alone can't do a goddamn thing.
I don't write about current events in my journal simply because I choose not to pay attention to them. They are too depressing for me to bother with. If something terrible happens, I figure I'll hear about it from someone else. Otherwise, leave it to everyone else. I know this is not a great attitude, but it is what works for me right now. I am an admitted sheep. Heh.
Now this comment is not to blast you. I just wanted you to know why I personally write, and I'm sure why others write as well. *hugs* I love you hunnie, and I hope I get to see you soon. :-)
Love
Meg

[demonchild01.livejournal.com]

this has nothing to do with your post but it needs mentioning.....So what I'm not good enough to be listed as one of your friends? Fine then, I see how it is! ;)
Colleen

[(Anonymous)]

you are so naive - get over yourself

[dragoneyes19.livejournal.com]

Perhaps yes I am naive, growing is something everyone has room for, and I don't think anyone is ever really not naive. As for maturity it's pretty immature to write a nasty comment, give absolutly no backing for your statement and sign it annoymous. I'm happy to debate my opinions with you, and notice in my entry i did not exclude myself from any of what I said, and if you're right I will bow to yours as the more supported view point. but hiding behind annonymous is something children do. we're adults maybe you should get over yourself because you have no more right to judge me than I do to judge others, which I can see on second reading I did do unfairly in my entry. If you have a problem with me or what I write talk to me, don't hide behind an empty name.

[(Anonymous)]

Has anyone ever told you you're over dramatic and you whine far too much, and that you have this tone of righteousness that you REALLY don't deserve? Well now I have so... yeah

[(Anonymous)]

what a great way to respond: lash back with just as little backing! good for you! props to the other anon. writer for telling the truth. you really do need to pull yourself off of cloud nine and stop thinking you're better than everyone else. live in the real world sometime, you know nothing of vietnam or warfare or even where most college students are coming from or what they're thinking. most don't think it's a big party, but you seem to be too closed off from reality to see that. or maybe you're just too scared to get to know people. maybe if you did you'd learn something about them and about yourself.

[(Anonymous)]

nice to know someone sooo intelligent can spell calculus.