Halcyon

I am, somewhat, a cynic at heart.  I woefully believe this current climate of a world we live in is fueled by selfish motives and a sense of self-entitlement.  Too many people I encounter believe they are owed something from someone and everyone has an opinion they are willing to cast like a fishing line out to sea, with no real desire to catch a bite.  Social networking sites have made it so simple and convenient for people to shout their lacking-second-thought opinions out into the universe and, then, hide behind their touch screens to escape any real consequence or guilt from the hurt or aggravation they may cause.  

The Western world, at least, seems to have become so cheap.  Quantity over quality, these days.  Too many people with ideas that have not been thought through and get tossed into a heaping pile along with the others; but, who will sort through and clean them up?  We see a trending bystander-effect, with too many people witnessing the ongoing wretchedness and too few doing anything about it.  The responsibility gets divided and disappears into thin air when we no longer see that the responsibility is still there, we just cannot see it sitting like little red devils on our shoulders.  

The mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut recently has further justified my cynical standpoint on humanity.  The shooting in the Oregon shopping mall, along with the stabbings in China, the Virginia Tech massacre, the Columbine massacre, and the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting, among others, stir up such discord in my heart.  I have heard people blaming inferior gun laws, calling for more stringent gun control, as well as blaming the government for pulling God out of schools.  I heard someone say that God does not go where he is not wanted, and that is why he did not save the children.  But, somehow, I disagree.  It is part of our human condition to place the blame on someone, anyone.  The media rocket launches the person responsible for these crimes to their fifteen minutes of fame, plastering their names and faces across television and the web for all to see and remember.  While we blame, we focus too much of our attention on these sad souls who do not seem to deserve a second of our thoughts.  

Evil exists in all of us, but good resides inside of us, as well.  Often, we place ourselves on a pedestal because we think we could never fall to such depravity; however, we fail to realize that it is not entirely impossible.  Sometimes we do not understand the tragedy or the adversity some of us endure in this unfair world, and we try to throw the unlucky ones into a glass box and label them as something we should avoid.  Awareness is the only solution.  We have to learn to stop judging and to see life clearly, instead of through the rose-tinted glasses most of us wear on a daily basis.  Ignorance is not always bliss, sometimes it is the reason behind the problem. 

Humans are capable of evil, no matter how near to the light they believe they are.  We are not all saints and angels, and we are all capable of losing our wings.  This is something we must not forget, and we must live with the awareness of the capabilities of others, as well as ourselves.  Long gone are the days of peace and happiness.  We live in a technological world where we cannot escape the darkness.