Warning: The following rant includes my opinions of what is wrong with the world, society and stupid criminals in general. It may contain swearing and other unattractive things so be warned that if you go beyond this point you may exposed to my current attitude problem.
What happened to the good old days? Every time I make the mistake of turning on the news someone has been shot, stabbed, bombed. There is a nuclear weapon pointed at one place or another or at least suspicion that there is. The word roadside no longer brings about the image of the side of a highway. It brings instead the image of a car bomb exploding near soldiers or a busy cafe or synagogue where people of all ages are then subsequently killed.
I have read a lot of great blog posts showing support for recent events, and I even did one myself. I do not discount this at all. For every careless idiot there is a crowd of honest, supportive people that would never dream of hurting anyone. My problem is with the media obsessed criminals. We all rely on media for various things–and I do realise that I am blogging right now, as I write this and without media that would not be possible.
I guess what it really boils down to is that I have a problem with the assholes who use the media to become famous. I wish things were still like they used to be. In the 1800′s when a wanted poster was put up for an outlaw, they would tear down their own picture if they saw it. Sure, they might smirk and pocket it or talk about it with their “posse” but they were what I think of as honest criminals (there’s some intelligence.) This was not just because of lack of media. Maybe Jesse James and Frank Dalton would have claimed responsibility for a successful bank heist and tweeted it if the service had been available to them? I think not.
What it comes down to for me, is values. The outlaws did kill and there were some bad people in the world then too. Most of the time though, they were the type of criminals that didn’t set out to simply become famous by destroying the lives of others. IMO this was not simply for lack of knowledge. Yes, we live in the information age where people can go online and find out how to build anything, no matter how destructive, but I think even of internet had been available back then, this still would not have changed the way things were handled–much.
It seems as if years ago, death and destruction were more of a result of poorly planned injustices, rather than the ultimate goal. At least if someone was shot in a bar brawl or a bank robbery gone wrong, the criminal was attempting to get something out of it other than fame. There have always been those outside the law. There always will be. One death is no better than another, but I could respect the Robin Hood mentality of the days gone by. I need it more than you do, so I take it and if stuff happens in the process well, oops. I didn’t set out to shoot you in the arse with my arrow.
It seems as though now, people do things like this not to support their family or for their own survival, but to be famous. If you shoot up a school and then put the gun to your head, the next day you are famous all over the world. You can go out in style knowing that your pitiful worthless life will be forever immortalized by television, newspapers, and the internet. You might even evoke *gulp* sympathy from some folks. Well here is what I have to say to you. Fuck you. I have the power to turn off my TV and not look at you. I have the power to not look at your ugly face when they post it all over the internet and in the papers and on the front of every magazine. For every fame whore out there who wants to hurt others instead of working hard to become someone worthy of being famous know that there are a million more of us that are good people that want to do good things for this world and the people around us. We will always outnumber you dickheads. We are grains of sand and stars in the heavens –too many to quantify with a number. Good will always prevail as long as there is unity in this world.
We can’t blame the media for this. They give us what we ask for. But what we can do is forget the idiots that do these things. Don’t give them the satisfaction of being famous for their stupidity and violence. I will look at the victims faces. I will feel sympathy for the families and I will light a candle and say a prayer for them to get through the rough road ahead of them. I will make the most of my social media outlets, praying for those who lost a family member and those who were injured. I will not waste a second of my time praying, feeling sympathy or giving attention to the fucktards that cause the loss and devastation. I would like to say, that I can look back ten years from now–assuming they find the culprit–and remember at least the face if not the name of at least one victim of yesterday’s tragedy. Not the jerk(s) that caused it. I don’t want to remember you. I have placed you on ignore. You don’t exist.
To all of those who have been affected by the ignorance, hate and vile decisions of others, it is you who should be in the hearts, minds and prayers of the world. It is you who should have your moment in the sun and your life story that should be featured on the cover of everything.
We will now resume my regular programming of book reviews and other not so angry stuff. I do apologise if I have offended anyone.
