Rhetoric

Rhetoric against rhetoric. people exclaiming words they have no true grasp of against others doing the same. What has my country come to? A bunch of loud mouth idiots getting mad at each other over beliefs and systems they grew up in without thought to the true implications or the veracity of what they believe. That’s not even the worst of it, it seems that it’s become almost a badge of honor to believe in and remark about something they have no idea about and you’re almost ostracized for having a well thought out, logical, and nuanced opinion on a subject you may actually know a thing or two about. People don’t understand that what they say and what they write, the words they use, have power. Actual power. Power to bring together or break apart. It seems, sadly, that more people are concerned with the latter than the former. It is truly terrible that an individual with a nuanced and thought out belief system, one which considers and adapts to new information, is a pariah, and outcast, an idiot among violent, mouthy parrots.

There is almost a fear, for the aforementioned reason, of being a nuanced and articulate human being, and a fear of nuanced and articulate humans. We are a tribal being so it makes some sense; no individual wants to be cast out of the necessary comfort of being accepted. One almost has to adhere to some rhetoric or another just to be accepted.

It’s laziness, people don’t want to or don’t have the time to consider a fully fleshed out new idea. They have other shit to do like take care of their families and work. They don’t have time to think for themselves so they latch onto rhetoric that is most similar with the ideals they grew up in. Circumstantially it is understandable, however when it is that persons job to be nuanced and considerate, such as a political pundit or writer then it becomes a problem. Normal people rely on them to tell them what is happening in their world so when a new policy or law is passed and then filtered through whatever rhetoric each particular “news” outlet employs and is then absorbed by the american public through whichever source they have for whatever reason adhered to they believe they know what their talking about and have the best most unbiased information they can. When in reality they are talking about the same exact thing only looked at through their own semi-chosen lens. Anger and distrust and even hatred will then stem from this.

It is particularly sad because it truly doesn’t have to be this way. If we were to get the full story or the true top down perspective of each issue we can look at its implications and consider for ourselves the true outcomes of each decision made for us by our leaders.

This is the most painful thing for me because people will stick to their given rhetoric or beliefs and defend them like their lives depend on it causing truly unnecessary pain and division. It’s almost like we are at war with ourselves being pitted against each other for the pleasure of those so far above this strife, the necessities of daily work and family. They don’t have to adhere to rhetoric, they create it. The saddest part is that like them we can also create our own rhetoric. Most people fear to because they may be wrong. That’s the beauty of it though, we can’t be wrong because there isn’t a wrong or a right, there is only cause and consequence. This means there are only things you do and the things that result from such actions. For example what happens when you punch someone. Depending on your strength you could cause considerable physical damage, this affects how they are now experiencing their life, with pain. Now ask yourself if you would like to experience life in such a way. If you said no then why would you want another to experience that pain? The same goes for our words and legislation. So next time a piece of legislation, such as a prop, comes up for a vote first ask yourself if you’d like living under that rule, even if it doesn’t affect you personally. If you said no, vote it down, if you said yes, vote for it. We live in a democracy where the rules are made by us, not some god or king, us. So be considerate because like it or not we are all in the same boat here.