Today's rambling: Angry, Opinionated Opinions
Written on June 27, 2001 at 12:39 a.m.
while feeling a bit

You're being warned now. This entry contains rather strong, possibly controversial opinions. Well, aren't all opinions controversial? Anyway, read at your own risk, 'cause I don't want to hear it if you're angry!

I hate people. Well, with the exception of a few individuals, of course....but in general, I just think human beings are...well, despite the fact that this is MY diary, I still can't say exactly WHAT I think of them, because no doubt I'll end up getting a load of email from people trying to make me feel guilty for my opinions. And then they'd only strengthen my convictions, so actually they'd just be 'shooting themselves in the foot', to use a clich�!

Okay, so what's brought on THAT rather unpleasant introduction? I don't usually blatantly broadcast such opinions, obviously, so something had to have irritated me enough to make me do it, right? It was a couple things, actually...first was an email I received. I'm part of a mailing list, and someone wrote about how upset she was because her dog had escaped. That in itself is bad, but here's why: the electric guy, when coming to read the meter, left the gate open...and not for the first time, either. It was the THIRD TIME he'd done that. She had already told the electric company several times that there was another gate to go in, and NOT to go in that particular gate, but thus far the meter men have been unattentive.

And it's not even so much the fact that they went in the wrong gate (though that's a little irritating, too)...WHAT is so bloody HARD with closing a gate?! Okay, so it might sound trivial, but come on; if you have a gate closed, isn't it usually closed for a reason? Not all the time, but it's still just common decency to close a door after you've gone through. And now this poor woman's dog is roaming the streets -- perhaps he's even been hit by a car or something else just as tragic -- and it's all due to the utter IGNORANCE of one guy.

So then later tonight I was watching 'Animal Precinct' on the Animal Planet channel. If you couldn't tell by the title, this show focuses on animal cruelty agents...it's kind of like 'COPS', but with animals. And the stuff they showed! The first case was about a dog who'd been starved to death (they had the corpse out on a blue tarp in the backyard), and the owners had two other dogs (little poodles) who were also emaciated (though you wouldn't know it to look at them because there was so much unkempt fur). THEN there was a guy who left his dog outside in the cold, while snow was falling...the dog had no shelter whatsoever -- he was chained up beside the street, actually -- and he also had an open wound on his paw. Oh, and here's another great one: a guy, when asked by the vet receptionist, explained that his cat had scratched him, so to teach it a lesson (i.e. not to scratch him), he held its face up to the flames on his stovetop. Now, as far as I know the cat only suffered some singed fur and whiskers, but even so, WHY would you ever do that to ANY living creature??? Would he have done that to a human? To a child??

All in all, I'm just tired of the general ignorance and arrogance of humans. With the exception of some individuals ('cause thank god they're not ALL such morons), the whole race is just...gah. It defies words. I just don't understand why people act the way they do!!! They consider animals to be stupid just because the language spoken isn't the same as ours, and because the animals can't add numbers or any of those things that make us 'superior'. Therefore, because of the ignorance of animals, it's okay to torture them, to beat on them and starve them and kill them. Okay, so animals are stupid? Then let's see YOU out there in the wilderness with absolutely nothing: no clothing, no food, no television, no weapons...nothing. Surviving on your own instincts and your supposedly 'superior' intelligence, let's see how long you last. You don't think it takes intelligence to live out in the wild? Well fine. Go ahead and try it.

But besides such appalling disregard for other living things (at least animals can LIVE with each other without starting wars and other such petty things), there's that same arrogance when dealing with OTHER people! I've ranted before about the lack of manners in this generation, and I'll rant about it again. Is it just too hard for people to say things like "Excuse me", "I'm sorry", "Please" and "Thank you"? If you need to cut past somebody in a theater or even in a supermarket, the polite thing to do would be say "excuse me". I do it! Even if I only murmur it because I'm shy, I still at least say it loud enough for the person to hear. And if you accidentally bump into someone...I mean really, what's so hard with saying "I'm sorry"? But despite the way it sounds, I'm not trying to make you learn manners. Not my job!!!

By now, I know you're looking at me and thinking, "Well, you're a human. Aren't you being a little hypocritical?" Not really. Like I said, I like individuals (otherwise, why would I have any friends?), but those are individuals who thankfully aren't as arrogant as the rest of society. I will freely admit that in some ways, I can be arrogant or ignorant. The thing is, I'm willing to learn. If someone points out to me that what I'm doing is wrong, then I'll try my best to fix whatever it was I was doing. I don't just keep doing it without caring who I hurt or offend. I just don't understand why we keep fighting with each other and starting wars over really stupid things.

You may think animals are stupid...but you don't see them killing each other off, do you?

Anyway, you were forewarned, so if you read through this entire thing and are now upset, it's your own fault. This is my diary, I'm free to spout my opinions! Don't like it? Write in your own diary! :oP Any and all flames I receive will be used for my own personal weenie roast...after all, July 4th is coming up. They'll make for a good barbecue.

And also, I'm not normally so 'angry at the world'-ish. It just depresses me when I see how cruel we as a race can be.