FINISH

FINISH

FinishFlagI’m at that point where I’ve got 28 posts sitting as drafts.  I can’t seem to finish like I could when I was younger.  Doesn’t even matter if it’s not Sunday – I can’t get it done any longer.

For years I’ve been working on meandering observations, topical essays, I’ve even started at least a half dozen books.  Finished very little – and often times have found the completed project to be so very disappointing, a far cry from the grandiose visions of grandeur I imagined at the outset.

I briefly outlined it once before in a moderately amusing essay – Great Opening Lines.  (hint – if you click it, you can read it).

I’m all start and then…meh.

Throughout these meandering 28 posts I’ve often questioned others belief systems. Recently I’ve learned to question my own.

There’s so much I’d like to say.  I’m quite opinionated.  But I hold back, boasting out loud how opposed I am to political correctness, yet succumbing to the very reality I pretend to rail against.  A mild form of mind-fuckary.

The division of our society grows more frightening by the day, and it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.  Suddenly the silent among us have discovered their voice and they’re shouting it loudly as if to make up for the lost time the past fifty or so years has suppressed from them.  I’m both appalled and often distraught at the realization that those people I once thought I knew, could exhibit such hateful beliefs. And they seem proud to show it.

This pains me deeply.

Buried amongst those many unfinished stories, tales and quips is a thought or two about our belief systems.  I always thought I was in control of mine.  Not so.  Looking introspectively and coming to a realization that I generally followed those ideals that my perspective deemed to be “right” made me a bit more empathetic to those whose beliefs I could not understand, let alone ever agree with. We each have a different instance in time that helped to mold our belief system, and the notion of anything changing it is a virtual impossibility.

This is why I’m now more fearful for the future.

Imbedded beliefs, no matter how disabling or offensive have become common place.  Civility and concern for others has become obsolete. Hate rules and is a popular trend. You vs. Me is all that seems to matter.

“If you disagree you fully deserve to die…”  People I have known and worked beside. People I perhaps once admired. People I have slept with, now utter this sort of sentiment loudly and often.  When did we turn this dangerous corner? Why do we hate so frequently and vocally?

It’s because we can.

Modern technology and social media have emboldened all of us to be more vocal…virtually. As our social interaction relies more and more on technological connection, we’ve become unaccustomed to actual physical connection.  You see, if we were only conversing face to face, if we were to be so bold as to vehemently share our political and societal ideologies, chances are probably pretty good that at some point in time, someone would have slugged us in the face.  You lose the fear of that on the internet.

So the opportunity to spew one’s vitriol openly is far more appealing, with significantly less danger of being smashed in the face.

It’s with the wall of confrontation being removed that all hell breaks loose.  No longer do the weak need to fear the strong.  No longer do the awkward need lay down in the presence of the confident.  Instant reaction via multiple platforms of access has given rise and power to an entire demographic…until recently ignored moreso due to it’s own inabilities to earn notice.

It’s the reason why it’s not so much who wins the election in November that frightens me…it’s the realization that so many people I have come to know are actually vile and horrific individuals suddenly empowered to share their warped view of the world.  My lone benefit being that I’m now old enough to cast them aside without care.  I’m not looking for any more friends, those who are truly mine are all I need.  For the rest of them…

I’m finished.