I Think About This Quote A Lot Some Days

There’s something so human about taking something great and ruining it a little so that you can have more of it.

– Michael, The Good Place

“Yeah? Well You’re . . . GREEN! What Do YOU Know?”

When you think about it, humanity’s ability to turn the most trivial of differences into the direst of insults is actually kind of impressive.

So It’s Going To Take More Than Just Pointing Out The Common Ground

While I appreciate all those who call for unity and point out that our similarities far outweigh our differences, I feel the need to point out just how bitter the arguments can get between people who can all agree that football is a great game . . .

Except In THIS Drama Somebody Got In Trouble With Her Mother

Yesterday while at a play center, a little girl walked across the room and wrenched out of my son’s hands the toy that he had just picked up.  I wish to stress that she hadn’t been playing with this toy when this happened, there’s a very real possibility that she had never even touched said toy at all before, and her only claim of possession that we know of was that she had been in the general area of the toy some time before my son wandered over and picked it up.

My son took this in stride, showing only polite confusion even as she screamed in his face “You need to SHARE!”, but I suddenly felt like I had watched the entire recurring human political drama play out in miniature.

A Stellar Observation

I wouldn’t be proud, but I would be relieved if I learned that out of all the intelligent life in the Universe, humanity is the worst.

– L’s Mother (Like me, her snark levels are starting to return to normal.)

Perspective

Despite this being a stream of consciousness blog, there are days when I’m reluctant to record here what I’m actually thinking at the time when I sit down to write.  Oftentimes when this happens I simply delay doing the entry until I find thoughts I’m more comfortable sharing or, barring that, I find the certainty that, reluctant or not, those thoughts are what I need to write about today.  Today, however, my schedule doesn’t allow for either of those options.

Sometimes I consider the future of humanity and I despair; it would be a lie to pretend otherwise.

This is still an improvement over my youth when I was certain humanity didn’t have a future.

This Sounds More Like Something I Would Say

I believe in the inherent goodness of the human spirit, but I also acknowledge the human ability to overcome that goodness if the desire is strong enough.

– L’s Mother

Do I Really Need To Say That I Don’t Consider Myself “Polite Company”?

Be it the “Kill the evil overlord and magically their entire empire will fall apart!” trope of fiction, or “Do this one simple trick to reduce belly fat!” tripe of banner ads, humanity has always had a taste for simple solutions to complex problems.  And if we’re being honest here, if the “solution” is simple enough, the fact that it doesn’t actually work can simply become a non-issue never discussed by polite company.

Someday I Hope To Get A Better Answer

Some days I stop and ask myself if humanity has always been this bad at getting along.

The answer, sadly enough, always seems to be “yes,” but I keep asking anyway.

But That’s Irony For You

Despite my admittedly dim view of certain individual examples of the human species, humanity as a whole has always impressed me with its ingenuity and its audacity. Time and time again humanity has used these two traits to surmount challenges that other species would have found flatly insurmountable.

Which is why it is so ironic how likely it is that the ultimate doom of humanity will someday be brought about by that very same ingenuity and audacity.