America (11-14)

 XI - Preface II

    Division is a severe issue in the modern day. And it's funny if you think about it, we've been trying to be more accepting, more inclusive, and our societies are more globalized and interconnected than ever before, yet we find the U. S. of A. in turmoil. Of course, I live in America, so the drama I hear about is bound to reflect the negative thought of mind within our country's borders, but alas, we are a laughing stock for the entire world as the bell cow of insatiable greed. Do we deserve the moniker? Probably, but every country has done heinous things and no one is an angel in the eyes of the beholder. It's just easy to follow who is the loudest, who speaks the most, and who has the most buzzwords, and because it's easy, it's what most people choose to do.

XII - Thinking isn't free

    Rational thinking has its flaws. It has a significant amount of flaws, just as intelligence and any other trait does. There is no good without bad, after all. But rationality has the perks of being a great thing too. To think on your own, able to make your own decisions, that is what is key in making a proper society. That is what the basis of a prosperous society, the ability of free thinking. Yet, it is hard to find free thought now days. For starters, what is free thinking? It can be described as the thinking that comes from your own observations, your own explanations, and your mind's machinations in sticking what you know together to make your own view of the world. And if the world is a sandbox as seen in In Layman's Terms VI, then it should be reasonable that we should be divisive in thought, and we should come to different viewpoints across the millions and billions of people - though, a lot of concepts can be easily overlapped, such as points of contention with yes-no answers (i.e., do we approve of Civil Rights?).  But let's analyze the current state of America. We have numerous parties of thought, and a clear division with severe hostilities from both sides. We cannot seem to accept points of contention, and we do not act in an intelligent way: i.e. murder, pointless arguing, etc. As a society, we have never felt so shattered and fragmented in the way a neutral party sees America. From an onlooker's view, it's a constant battlefield; who is right? Who is wrong? The issue is therefore fairly obvious; in comparison to the ideal society, America is hellbent on righteousness and ignorance - arguments of logic and few and far between, and are confuddled and blocked out by extremists who refuse to concede anything. Compare this to the ideal society, where every single point is reasonably debated until a point of consensus can be found, and the division of our country is much more clear and obvious. The ideal society is absolutely unfeasible in any way shape or form; people, especially the average person who has no choice but to work and has too many responsibilities to care deeply about politics, are not going to invest time and thought into where they cast their ballot. Simply put, thinking isn't free; to contend every single point is too much effort, which is why the majority of people are not politicians, but mere followers. And thus, we see the consequence of this, and whilst this issue may have been hidden due to the lack of internet and anonymity, we now see this issue in full flesh over modern day topics. As discussed in In Layman's Terms VII, under the mask of anonymity, extremist beliefs are allowed to coexist without any close to any filter, and as a result, views are stretched beyond belief, causing more contention from other parties, leading to a national crash out. American politics, simply put, is not about rationality, but all about who believes they're more right than the other, and who can be more convincing rather than being morally good. 

XIII - World Cup

    Hosting a World Cup is no small feat indeed. We have the honor and the privilege to do greatness for the game of football, the football known around the world. Yet, guess who won't be taking a part in the World Cup, and will probably be group staged? America. See, the difference between us and the rest of the world is astounding; we have the capital but we do not get the results. Our focus on life is totally different onto a different football: American football. We are at the forefront of all the jokes because of this; we consistently falter to third world countries while super houses in Europe and South America consistently dominate the rest of the competition. Let me ask you this, did you see how bad Adam Johnson played at Centre back for the USMNT? If you said something other than "he doesn't exist," then you've been played like a fiddle. Us Americans, we do not like soccer like we do the other sports. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this; I love American football more than anything else on the planet. But it is fair to note the difference in American culture compared to the rest of the world, cause while they kick perfect spheres, we kick oblong pigskins. 

XIV - Patience is key

    The ideal society mentioned in XII is not possible. It makes sense why when you dumb down the English language; for there to be the existence of one positive, the conjugate negative must exist. For example, the word good wouldn't exist without the existence of bad, truth doesn't exist without deceit, ugly and beauty, poverty and prosperity, and so on. So in an ideal society, not only must there exist the contrapositive, but the idea of everyone having superb intellect would mean that, in the ideal world, no one could be unintelligent. This will never happen. There is no explanation needed for this. So if the concept of the ideal society is completely impossible, then what can be the solution to the problems in America's fracturing? The answer is hardly an answer, but something that has to be woven into our current culture. Because we are too brash, too hesitant to listen to others, too condemning, these problems in the list must be addressed as we come of age to the next generation. For it is our responsibility to take care of the next generation and the generation beyond until we intertwine with the soil, we need to weave the proper mentality into the children and grandchildren beyond. It is our duty as caretakers, as citizens of the land, as people of a society, to build the foundation of society from the ground up, and it starts with changing the mentality of the people. This is a challenging feat, but it is not impossible. We have seen the effects of social phenomena before, but we need to find a way to make patience and compassion a virtue that stays with us for all eternity, regardless of any mask of anonymity or pressure. In the eyes of a neutral beholder, we have never truly been the people who practice compassion and patience, and historically, blood has been spilt for the most mundane and asinine things like skin color. Yet, to break the cycle, at least as far as my words may go, we must be able to see the fractious nature of parties, and we don't have to abolish them, but we must, and I urge and beckon us, to look at everything from a bird's eye view: practice rationality. It is only through rationality that we can understand where compassion and empathy comes from, the empathy between one another. If we do not ask why, and we only speak the practices out of foreign concepts like peer pressure and self desire, are we living the minds of ourselves? Are you really one with yourself if you refuse to at least try to think from the eyes of the greater picture? For as condemning as we are as a society, as a group, we share one commonality; we are all graced with the land we call North America and the same skin and bone that coats our conscious.