Venting on the state of things

Every time I participate in, or even spectate, a conversation about the "state" of "things", it drops me into an imediate downward spiral of instant depression. We are such ridiculous RIDICULOUS people in this country. And sure enough, when I say that, people whole-heartedly agree, thinking only of how stupid the part of the population is that has opposing world views to their own. It is so very very very VERY FRUSTRATING.

You browse around on people's personal opinions wherever they may pop up in various forms of media, and you may see blatant ignorance in one form and say "oh they are so bad" and immediately turn around and see blatant ignorance on the other side. Vehement, hate-filled mirth about opposing culture on one side and childish vandalism and misinformation on the other. And quite likely both of these things can be criss-crossed across the board.

The only use of reading these very hurtful things in one field or another is to keep me from drifting too far into an extreme mindset myself.

I used to think trying to be moderate was a cop-out, but someone I consider to be an extremely wise and a fine example of a human being changed my mind when he spoke about how difficult it is to do just that. It's HARD to walk the middle line, in any situation, not just politics. It makes sense, it's much less work to be an extremist on one side or the other, because you have a whole half of a spectrum to dismiss as wrong, and don't really need to research farther than gaining enough to back your particular stand. Being in the middle is a ton of work, having to take in both sides to make any sort of opinion, with your only reward being called a leftist by the rightists and a rightist by the leftists, or perhaps being accused by both of "changing sides" when the need arises. I really don't know if there are any true moderates, but if there are they deserve cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. Endless supply.

At any rate, realizing things about the state of the world and the horrors of what is going on and how divided people are is very depressing to me. It makes me feel very helpless, and if I do anything to try and cheer myself up, I immediately feel guilty for ignoring such a pressing world-problem. The worst of it is, there are not many to talk to who are not easily worked up in emotion over one issue or another, in spite of being very good listeners.



EDIT: On the other hand, brighter news shows that at least everyone appears to be happy about Spaceship 1