The World We Live In...

I really should have titled this blog "Bitchfest" because that's exactly how I intend on using it. 

Yes, I know, I really ought not, but I look around the world, and as a twenty-something, I can't help but feel that this world is circling the drain faster than we can attempt to save it. 

Last friday, (February 25th, for those that don't know what day of the week it is today...) was a sad day for my generation. No, no one important died (that I know of, though, I'm sure many important people died), but at my school, a California State school--a friggen University for christ sake, one girl had no idea who Charles Manson was, and boy had to be taught what respect was...oye....

So, for those who care, Charles Manson's lawyer has petitioned President Obama for release...to me, and hopefully to millions of other Californians, this is a big deal. Charles Manson, the famed cult leader, who initiated the death of many people in horrendous ways, wants out. And there are some who have no idea why he is important or why his release would be huge. Hell, they don't even care to know who he is.  Don't worry, I'm sure they don't know much else about the world they live in, I'd be surprised if they could tell you who the president is, or where we're at war, or why North Korea is a hot area right now. Sad.

Now, the boy...oh, this kid...okay, at first appearance this kid seems to be about 17 years old (he's actually 22!), he's mostly oblivious, and extremely awkward. But, last friday, it was cold here (I know, California! It actually gets a bit chilly here on occasion), but due to the chill, most of us had withdrawn into the hallways to wait for our classes as being outside seemed a non-option. So, we're waiting, and there's another class in session and a person in the class gets up to leave and the professor calls him out on being rude and interrupting his class etc. I was cheering the professor on! There were, maybe, twenty minutes left in class, and most classes are only fifty minutes to start with, and this kid, who was sitting in front, gets up to leave, gets called out, and still leaves.  Now, out in the hallway, myself and this boy who is waiting with me, and we hear the entire exchange between professor and student going on inside the classroom. The boy, aghast at the professors display, comments on how unnecessary it was of the professor to do that to the student.

My jaw drops. I am in shock. I look up at the imbecile standing in front of me, wondering quietly how he got into the same university I did, and I defend the professor. My logic says, the professor comes in to teach students, and when one jerk student wants to leave half way through class he's interrupting the rest of the students who might actually want their money's worth. The kid retorts with, "But this is college!". I'm still lost. I continue to explain to him, that yes, it is college, and it's an expensive college, should the student not want to attend his classes he has a few options, he can simply not attend his classes and just show up for tests (which is fairly common), he can suck it up and go to his classes like the rest of us, or he can drop out and save himself (more likely, his parents) a shit ton of money and his fellow students some grief from having to be interrupted by his rudeness. At this point I've lost my classmate who doesn't understand why it's rude to walk out on a professor or why the student should just either not show up or suck it up for the whole fifty minutes. I try to relate it to him with if he's talking to someone and the person just walks away mid-sentence how that would be rude to him, and professors should get more respect that some friend or acquaintance. Here, they have to have a doctorate to teach. That means these professors lived in poverty for YEARS just to be able to teach here, just to be called Doctor (which, by the way, this kid calls our professor who has a doctorate in geology, mister...nails on a friggen chalk board!). Eventually the kid just walks away from me, still lost, still disagreeing with me. And for me, my inner Marine just wants to curb stomp his self-righteous, disrespectful little ass. Just me?

I wish I could stop there, but I could go on and on. Girl on the radio station I listen to in the mornings didn't know what The Donner Party was, and, to make matters worse, thought it was the old school game Oregon Trail...this is the world we live in. The world we're continuing. I see all of this, I read the news, and suddenly my biological clock stops ticking. How can I, in good conscious, bring a child into this world? This world has ceased to value intelligence, exploration, morals, dignity, education, insight...anything and everything I was taught was good and right. Instead, society as a whole, values reality TV, abhorrent behavior, disrespect, binge drinking, plastic surgery, mockery, self-indulgence...everything that I've always thought was wrong, been told to avoid. How can one bring a new child into a culture that values disrespect and self-indulgence, that has lost it's mind, that disrespects teachers, police officers, firemen and the military, that shuns all research that could save us? I don't want my child to be a part of that. I don't know if I can bring a new soul into that world. But, this is sadly, the world we live in. 

So, where should I move? Antarctica? Sweden? Some small hole in the side of a mountain where I can start some from of communal living that is away from all of this tainted energy, perhaps? I don't know. But, I dread the day that my generation, (the ones who love Jersey Shore and help the idiots on it become millionaires), come into power and take the presidency. That will be the definitive end of the world.