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Things Are Good
by Aaron
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Americans complain constantly. Everyone complains constantly. Whenever I watch the news it seems like nobody's just sat back and realized how much worse things could be. We have so many forms of entertainment, yet we're bored as hell. We have so many amenities everywhere we go, yet we complain about what we don't have. Health treatment is at unprecedented levels of sophistication, yet no one's satisfied because people are still dying of stuff. Complaining is an American pasttime. Not to say that's entirely a bad thing. If no one had complained we'd still be British colonists with slaves. The problem is we've gotten too adept at it. People feel they are entitled to millions of dollars because they have something to bitch about. Some fuckoff spills hot coffee on himself and sues because the coffee was hot. What would you do if it weren't hot? That's like shooting yourself in the foot then suing the bullet manufacturer for making the bullets go fast and of lead. And to anyone who has a romanticized concept of some period centuries ago when things were "better", I have but three words: dentistry, plumbing, and deodorant. We silly teenagers put in way more than our nickels' worth of complaints. We bitch about everything. We're gonna feel pretty stupid when we realize how easy we had it. I have no dependants, few bills, good friends, a pretty slick car, a nice house, etc. Could things be better? Of course. Could things be worse? God yes. My parents aren't divorced, no immediate family members have died or have a terminal illness, my parents aren't assholes, and the vast majority of my problems are really pretty small. Despite this posh lifestyle, I still complain. I don't complain more than any other 19-yr old middle-upper class white suburbanite brotha, but I complain enough. Now, naturally, some things are bothersome and require a good diatribe. Waiting in line for 20 minutes is not diatribe material though. Neither is a speeding ticket or a boring professor or a ding in a car door. These are all American problems. Do you think anybody in Somalia would complain if someone dinged their car? Of course not. Most of them don't even have a fucking car! Before you try to tell me how bad you have it, first think about how bad you don't have it. Things could be worse for teenagers, for children, for adults, for Americans, and for everybody else with the exception of a few billion less fortunates. This rock has a lot of cool shit on it. Women for example. Anytime you feel like complaining about how wicked women are, just imagine what life would be without them. Think how much you'd complain without them around. They smell great, they're soft, they have all these fantastic anatomical accessories, and they're women! They're actually quite wonderful if you're an optimist. There are quite a few things to check out while on Earth. You could spend years just checking out old Roman shit. You could spend a lifetime in Italy alone. You could go to the Great Wall, but who really wants to go to Asia? The point is this planet is pretty fucking entertaining if you make the effort to be entertained. It doesn't take an expedition to a 3rd world country to put your lifestyle in perspective. All you need is CNN. I'm not saying that blessed people don't have any problems. I'm just saying that they need to realize which problems are noteworthy. If the world were perfect and your life had no complications everything would be pretty boring, and you'd still gripe. Next time something "bad" happens to you, just picture yourself dying of AIDS in Uganda or starving in an alley in New Delhi and the problem will seem pretty bloody insignificant. "We live in a beautiful world...." -Coldplay The final thing to think about is how many times things have come so close to being so dramatically worse. What if the Confederacy had won at Gettysburg? What if the Cold War had become World War 3? What if England had surrendered to Germany? What if your parents had had you aborted? What if James, Kirk, and Lars had all died along with Cliff? What if Radiohead had given up after Pop is Dead? We've got it pretty good. And things are getting better all the time. |
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