consumerist landslide

As we know, no trend can continue forever. We are constantly changing, our trends rising and falling at constant and inconstant rates. Our lives are measured by these perfect and imperfect numbers.

This is no new thought, though it is as frequently ignored nowadays as it was in the distant past. What is the philosophy behind immediate gain? What can our disregard for the far-off future tell us about ourselves?

I am in the middle of a consumerist catastrophe, a blatant ignorance towards that shared future. Perhaps this is an overstatement, but it's something that I think is true.

This landslide, this perplexing strategy that warps the most basic of priorities, has come upon us, and we have let it. We have let it because those of us that benefit from it would benefit less from supporting the future-friendly alternative, and those of us that do not benefit as much do not have the means or the say to change anything.

So some people suffer. OK, they'll suffer, but it is for the greater good. But what greater good is that? The good of who, and what? Certainly not the good of our mother, our one and only, our almighty home. Definitely not the good of the majority, the sweating and cursing masses, the unfaithful.

What can we do? The keyword is not what, but we. We are power in numbers. A common goal can bring us to a power greater than that of any we have ever seen. Numbers is all it is, a less than predictable trend. A wonderful and unlikely odd.

They would like us to think of them as supreme. The best, the richest, the most powerful. The uncommon, the super, the unchanged. The immaculate.

Who are we to argue? They bring us what we need- no, what we think we want. What we need is simple. We want more than we need, always. Such has kept us alive for countless generations.

I've negated the moral complexity of the human race before, and I will elaborate. What supreme race are we who cannot, will not think? Who wastes what we make on the most frivolous and destructive of goals? Who cannot prioritize, who knows no bounds, who believes himself to be separate from a common identity? Who uses his imagination to force injustice?

No, this is not a natural world we live in. We cannot allow ourselves to believe that we are above the past, if we ignore our future and thus create for that future an inferior destiny. Destiny does not exist, however, it is fickle. As fickle as our minds and the decisions we make to shape them.


On another note, the other day I talked to someone in Oakland. They told me they hated East Oakland and though the whole of Oakland was terrible and crime-ridden. Though I don't live there, I can't bring myself to agree. I've seen people shoot at each other in East Oakland, and I still think that Oakland is a beautiful place. Even the slums can be beautiful. I love the architecture and the diversity. Oakland is a great place, full of art and trees. I would like to live there. I think it is more beautiful than here, though it is beautiful here if you look.

Speaking of moving, I made progress on the exhange student program. I plan to go to France, Senegal, Italy, Tibet, or Japan. I have to decide mainly if I want to do language learning or community service, because I would very much like to help people as well as study languages. I think I will probably go for language learning first, though. I am very excited. All of the countries are so beautiful and full of culture, and it will be hard to choose.

I am very scatterbrained today. On the plus side, I think I've done well on the CAHSEE tests. I think they were very easy, but we'll see. I'm going to go and apply for the PSAT soon.