Aberro Specus

In today’s time and age, hypocrisy tends to lead sheeple in and out of their daily lives. The American public follows world news with a sorrowful eye, proclaiming “oh the poor Iranians, good for them standing up to their corrupt government” and “damn that Kim Jong-Il and his oppressive regime in Korea.” It’s a pitiful state where people would sacrifice freedom for the sake of national security - Source.  When we can no longer feed our children because entertainment is more important, living in dilapidated trailers while owning 52” plasma TVs and X-Box 360s, and people are  more concerned about the affairs of foreign nations than the bullshit being propagated in their own country.  If a country declares the United States an oppressor we look at that country as a rebel and nuisance, rather than address their legitimate concerns. We meddle, we fight, we disturb, we deform, we force westernization on countries that would be better off left alone, and we manipulate. And the “youth” are no more promising than the current “regime.” “Rebels” complain about the state of affairs in their blogs and YouTube videos (Yes, I realize I’m doing the same thing, bear with me) while scarfing down Taco Bell and McDonald’s and purchasing $150 dollar Nikes and converse sneakers and branding themselves with consumerism.  Environmentalist and politically minded college students spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on educations that brainwash them into a false sense of activism, making them think they are making a difference and changing the world when really they are just promoting the same old ideas in new shiny packaging. Liberals and Conservatives are guilty of the same “crimes” as the system keeps degrading. The economy is sinking lower and lower while food and gas prices go up and up. Jobs become more and more scarce as the dollars value sinks and we do nothing to attempt to halt the crash. The revolutionaries of old are our CEOs of today, and todays revolutionaries think sitting at their computer will change the world.

Films like Zeitgeist (The Zeitgeist Movement) are noteworthy and valiant attempts to spread knowledge and fight the disease known as apathy, but it’s not enough. The movie Network is an amazing film, which while dated (1976) is still extremely relevant today. Watch this clip to get an idea of what I mean - “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” If we sit back and watch the world go by, hoping it will change, we might as well be attempting to self-fellate. It’s useless and in the end we’re just screwing ourselves. Constant, vigilant action is necessary to make change. The film V for Vendetta, while a fictional story is a good example. But why do people always have to wait to be led? Why can’t they begin on their own. Must there always be an instigator, a scapegoat. If things go wrong do we need someone to blame? Why? Be accountable for your own actions, or be held accountable for your inaction.

“Living greener” and “promoting social awareness” isn’t going to change the world we live in. You can recycle all the cans you want and bike instead of drive, and donate to charities and be active in the socio-political world, but that’s not going to change things. The system has been in place for so long that working within the system is just going to corrupt the attempts to improve it. As the newest President of the USA has said, we need change. But much more change that I think he had in mind. It’s only matter of time before the system is defeated, or the system defeats us. Change must come… will the people watch it happen, or be the force behind it?

~Ian

Jaco and Brandon have both posted on things that each of them have slacked on lately in their life.  Jaco wrote about how he hasn’t been drawing lately and Brandon wrote a list of things that he wants to pick back up, as well as why they have “fallen by the wayside” so to speak. In the spirit of things, I too am going to post a list, similar to Brandons. So without further ado… and in no particular order…

• Piano. Following suit with Brandon, I need to pick up the piano again. Differently from Brandon however… I haven’t really played in over 7 years. This is a problem, because I am basically going to need to reteach myself how to play. I can still play the intro to Fur Elise… I think… eesh. We’ll see. I really need to get back into this though, for a variety of reasons. It seemed to drop off in High School, when I was trying to involve myself in far too many hobbies at once… and this trend continued in college. So I’m going to see if I can fix this…
• Photoshop. I used to be really good with Photoshop. I mean really good. And now I get confused when trying to edit color balance in a photo I took…  I need to brush up on the new versions, relearn some of the basics, and maybe look for some filters to play around with. Mostly I want to get good at basic photo manipulation again so I can brush up some I took.
• Exercise. Hey this one’s on my list too! Due to circumstances most everyone who reads this already knows about, I gained around 35 pounds in my last couple years of college. 165 - 200lbs. Ouch. I want to try to drop down to at least 175, maybe even 170, and have that weight be almost entirely muscle. This, however, is looking to be very likely to happen in the near future, because of certain things going on (pardon my vagueness, there are reasons for it that will be disclosed at a later date).
• Write! I need to write more. Not a little more here and there, not a bit more during the day. A lot. Fucking. More. I have two novels started, a graphic novel started, a movie script, a song, and philosophical work; all of which needs to be picked up again. My goal is to have the movie script and graphic novel finished by this summer, as well as the song. The rest I will then work on at a resumed steady pace, hopefully completing all of it by the end of the year. This is my lofty goal… prepare to watch me fail. Also, I plan on completing NaNoWriMo this time around (Yay November…), so add another novel in there.
• Grad School. This might seem like an odd one for this list, but I really need to study for and take my GRE and start applying to Grad Schools soon. I’d like to enroll for either Fall 2009 or Spring 2010… but we’ll see what happens.
• Work. I need a job. I got discouraged after looking for on all summer and fall, and having only slight luck, gave up. I need to start looking for one again, or get my ass in gear with writing and sell something…
• Philosophy. I need to start reading more philosophy, regularly, and writing about it. I kind of took a break after this summer, and would like to continue my studies on my own until Grad School… it just seems like a good idea to me.
• Leave the house. I need to get out of the house more, I spend all my time on the computer… yeah I know it’s sad… I’m working on it…

And that’s about it. If I think of anything else I’ll add it to my mental list. If you can think of something else, feel free to leave a comment on this post :). Now at this point, I need to eat some food before I starve… till next time.

~Ian