And Again

It's kind of a big thing this year, the lunar eclipse. Never mind it happened just last year. Never mind that I spent nearly three hours out in near-freezing temperatures photographing the whole thing. I should... I must photograph it again this year. Because. Because it's this year. Oh well. I complained about having camera gear ready but nothing to shoot, and so here's my poetic justice.

In other news, there may also be a federal election coming up soon. I suppose it would be a good thing, but the fact that, like most things on this continent, our democracy is only democracy in name only. I've yet to meet a politician who was anything but a politician, but I suppose that's the game. Since this country's taken it upon itself to sit on its hands while the political landscape quickly became a scene of smoke and mirrors, I've got no one to blame but myself for failing to inspire one of my local representatives to do the right thing. I mean, it's not like I'm ignored when I've got something valuable or critical to say. Or am I?

Lately, all I've wanted to do is sit around, strumming guitar or doodling a bit. Hardly productive. In fact, given the fact that I'm also taken to playing the odd video-game, one of the ultra-conservative bent could call me a failure, and an urchin that isn't contributing anything to society.

Well, lets make one thing clear. Given the means and the resources, the only thing I'd give society is the swift boot up its ass that it so clearly needs. My time in the press taught me that.

So many people go about life with their nose in the air, never once admitting that they need to be told when to stop or to back down. People are a train wreck. But I don't tell them that, because it's rude, and it's hard to make inroads when you point out to someone that their behaviour is destructive.

I guess, in a way, all human behaviour is destructive. Even the efforts to curb that behaviour, in the end, become destructive - perhaps even self-destructive. I once read somewhere that no straight thing has ever come from the works of man. I took it then to believe that despite whatever good intentions humanity has, its works inevitably end up getting abused for whatever power game happens to be in vogue. Whether its war or subversion. Or both.

Using my previous example, one only needs look at democracy. A good idea, sure. But we're using a representative system, which lends power to those who quickly become addicted to it. Democracy will, as the historians dictate, become the new face of tyranny. We elect our tyrants, and they in turn use our right and freedoms as tools, as leverage, to gain our support. Our beloved freedoms, paid for in blood, will be, and have been, used to shed blood.

And even as I write this, I have to stop. Already I'm sounding like a partisan. This isn't what I intend, since quite simply, I'm frustrated. I don't like where things are going, and even with a hazy outlook, anyone can see the future is not a happy place, if events continue down this particular path.

People will become smaller and smaller, until they are just themselves, and then they will be as nothing. All motes of selfishness and apathy.