Inhumane Humanity

     Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.  Therefore no one will be held righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
-Romans 3:19-20

     Before I get into it, I would like to explain to you what my mindset is when I blog.  Though you may not know it, I am a very passionate person and there are many issues that I feel passionately about.  I would like to consider myself a vehement defender of these passions, but I realize that I do little more than write a small blog voicing my concerns.  It does make me feel small at times, but it also keeps me determined to further my passions in a way where I might defend them on a much larger scale.  I also don’t like to get into very heated verbal arguments because I prefer the more methodical arguments of writing to the more spontaneous methods of verbal debate.  While I do believe the passion and spontaneity of a verbal debate make for some compelling arguments, I find that the nature of improvisation and lack of time lends itself to bullying tactics and a general strategy of trying to make your opponent lose focus, as opposed to trying to focus on improving your own argument.  I prefer to expound upon ideas brought forward in verbal debates and come back with a more solid argument, hence one of the reasons for the blog.  This is also the reason for my lack of consistency in publishing schedule.  Blog ideas do not always stay on the forefront of my mind, but are brought there by a discussion or from an idea I got while watching a movie or something similar.  Therefore, this blog is somewhat of a collection of my consciousness in the form of my perspective of different events in my life.  I’m not sure where I originally intended to go with this, but I’m getting the sense that it’s somewhere in the direction of if you hear certain ideas or themes repeated either in this blog multiple times, or from something you heard me say in person, don’t dismiss the entry, because there may be a whole new meaning for you to discover.
     I’ll start out by explaining the context of the above quote.  In the most basic literary sense, it’s Saint Paul’s explanation of Old Testament philosophy and its purpose.  He spends the majority of the book of Romans, a letter written to the Christian Church in Rome, trying to bridge the gap between Gentile and Jew.  But like just about everything else in life there are hidden meanings in these words.  For me the hidden meaning is, like most others, a comparison to a different type of law.  Law is, simply put, universal in purpose.  It is there to restrict a certain group of people in hopes of generating a certain societal morality.  The law, however, rarely solves the problems it wishes to correct, but rather opens its society’s eyes to the dissention from the law.  
     I had originally chosen a verse in close geographical proximity to describe my feelings towards my current subject of interest, but had stumbled upon this one which seemed to better elaborate my feelings on the subject of public opinion of criminals.  The original verse I had chosen, Romans 3:23, reads,
     “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
     This is a verse that came to shape some of my earliest and deeply held beliefs.  Almost all of my harshest realizations were that I was no better than the people whom I looked down upon.  The funny thing is that it would not be my own arrogance that would be the catalyst for my journey of self-discovery, but that of those closest to me.  It never seemed wrong when I put someone down, but watching family build their own self-esteem at the expense of others made me realize the error of my ways.  Once I saw the effects such actions had, it was easy for me to realize where I was going wrong.  But my family continued to be a place I could look to for the antithesis of what I wanted to become.  It may sound like I’m giving my family a rather generous verbal bashing, but as the aforementioned verse states, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  I am just as guilty as not only them, but the rest of humanity.  There is a difference, though.  Saint Paul argues that while the only path to salvation is through Christ, we should not become ignorant of the law, lest we become forgetful of the life of sin from which we were all delivered.  While the law can reveal our own sin, it can also hide it.  The original sin is at least derived from deception, and one could argue that it actually was deception.  We humans have become very proficient in the art of deception, be it of others or of ourselves.  One of the most truly annoying habits of more than one of my family members was to point out others’ flaws.  I have more than a few relatives who make a practical hobby of watching news shows and then talking at great lengths about how horrid and morally despicable these figures in the headlines are.  It always rubbed me the wrong way and I could, for the longest time, not figure out why.  As time went on I observed the same habits in many other people around me and in the media.  I finally figured it out while studying World War II more in-depth than I had before.  I was learning more about the build up to the war and the effects World War I and the Treaty of Versailles had.  I was learning a little more about Adolf Hitler’s psyche and his reputation.  Now I’m not saying that what he did wasn’t atrocious, because it was.  I simply noticed that he seemed to be the pinnacle of evil in the minds of these people who would talk endlessly about the misdeeds of others.  Of all the people they despised and berated, he was the worst.  So it only seemed natural for me to figure out why.  Sure, he killed millions, but people seem to identify with issues that affect them directly, and there are a lot more current and living evildoers for people to look down their noses at.  The reason, in fact, was the sheer massiveness of Hitler’s crimes.  I realized that there were varying degrees of chiding when it came to sinners, none of which was ever directed back at any of the chidees themselves.  I guess their devotion to pointing out others’ inequities somehow absolved them of their sins.  Rockers and actors usually got a small scolding for sins such as not being very good to other people or being involved in shady dealings.  I guess ridiculing a foreign accent almost right in front of the ridiculee doesn’t count as not being good to that person; and swearing like a rock star is fine, as long as it’s at your own discretion and not on national TV.  Criminals involved with children usually came next, though the Catholic Clergy seemed to escape criticism.  Up next were murderers, which were my favorite for a while.  Despite following a religion that practices a belief that all sinners have a chance for salvation, my family seems uncannily devoted to the principle of capital punishment.  They have a real propensity for doubting the sincerity of a murderer’s conversion and repentance.  Politicians were always pretty high up too, an area I could elaborate upon but won’t for time’s sake, and their crimes earned them a spot on the family sinner scale, with campaign fraud and global warfare being a one and murder and voicing liberal viewpoints being a ten.  The game breaker?  You guessed it, a conservative (come on, conservative?  That should count for something.) politician who committed mass genocide.  It was only when I studied the epitome of their distaste that I realized why they talked so much about him.  This world, your environment, the people around you, all of it acts like a mirror.  In interacting with it you learn new things about yourself.  These people who commit crimes, whether it be smoking some pot after school or leading a campaign to exterminate the Jewish people, gave others a small view of what humans are capable of.  We can argue the legality of weed later; the point is its illegality is part of the law that governs us all.  When seeing the atrocities that others committed we also see the possibility of any of us doing the same thing.  Some of the comparisons that can be drawn between modern day America and the Third Reich are amazingly close.  Just today I saw Bill O’Reilly hold up Gary Sinise for helping to raise money for the American troops, all the while taking self-righteous potshots at unnamed protestors to the war, indirectly referencing Cindy Sheehan.  What would prompt this man to say such things?  Is it guilt for supporting the war in the first place?  Or an undying loyalty to the government as a result of not being able to think for himself?  Or is it he just doesn’t want to acknowledge the fact that all humans, even Americans, can have just as great a disrespect for life as the terrorists that they’re fighting?  The answer lies within each and every one of us.
     Nothing is out of the realm of possibilities, and trying to convince ourselves otherwise is to hinder our own progress.  Upon arriving at a Nazi death camp, General Eisenhower ordered all American troops to march trough the camp and American camera crews to film it.  He was like the master of a disobedient dog, shoving the proverbial nose in shit.  But unlike dogs, we should have the sense to not become complacent in our environment.  For the dog it is instinct that keeps him from repeating mistakes, we should be above that.  We should be ever aware of our past and why it happened as such.  We should Hold Hitler up, not as a way to deflect attention from our own sins or insecurities, but as a monument to the inhumanity of the human race, in hopes that we never experience such loss of life again.
     I often consider the phrase, “inhumane.”  It is generally accepted as a lack of compassion.  But if the word is analyzed, its literal meaning would be uncharacteristic of the human race.  If that is the case, does its literal meaning really coincide with its accepted meaning?  Is it really against our nature to steal, rape, murder, and everything in between, or is a lack of morality one of our defining characteristics?  I do believe the latter, but I don’t believe that this is a dark tale.  Newton’s third law of physics states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Again, principles governing one aspect of our world can be applied to other aspects of existence.  I do believe that this world balances itself out, and that, in the words of glam metal mainstays Poison, every rose has its thorn, only in this case I guess it’d be every thorn has its rose…Whatever.  No one said music had to make sense.  The point is that evil is our birthright, but not necessarily our legacy.  We are born to sin, but it is up to us whether or not we are consumed by it.  We can break free of the chains that hold us down, but not through blind pride.  We can not hope to lead a life of purity simply through the study of others, but by true introspection.  Only by facing the demons of our psychic can we hope to defeat them.  Though it may come at the cost of our peace of mind, we gain something just as valuable.  Remember Newton’s Third Law, nothing of value can be gained without first giving up something of equal value in return.
     I will leave you with a quote from the eccentric philosopher/golf enthusiast, Ty Webb.
     “In one physical model of the universe, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line . . . in the opposite direction.”

P.S. Please don’t take this blog as a slight to my family.  As the group of people you spend most of your life around, family can simultaneously be the source of both your greatest hopes and fears.  They are not perfect, but as this article states, no one is.  They are, after all, my family; and I love them.  Sincerely,

Eric M.

Getting Schooled

     Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.
-Colossians 3:23
     I’m back, and I’m better than ever!  I’m sorry, I can’t avoid the inside wrestling plug, it’s in my veins.  I just had to blog today, but I couldn’t find direction.  I’ve got wrestling on the brain, but I get that out of my system on facebook.  Sidenote: go to the group facebook pro wrestling fans for a good discussion on pro wrestling.  I managed to dig a topic out of the depths of my brains which I had previously committed myself to blogging about but had gotten sidetracked before doing so (surprise, surprise.)  So without further ado, I give you my unholy fury!
     The first job I ever had was in the summer of 2001 as a caddy.  You worked your ass off and if you didn’t, you left on your own.  The next job I had was working in a car shop.  This is another job that taught me the value of good, hard work.  My boss never fired anyone from there because they all pulled at least some weight (He actually did fire a couple of people once, only because his top guy quit and he needed more budget space.)  I held that job from the fall of 2003 to the summer of 2006.  In all those years I have never heard one of my bosses complain extensively about employees’ work ethic.  Near the end of my high school career I started to pay a little more attention to current events.  I have since, especially in the immigration debate, heard many complaints about work ethic and the quality of work.  I heard one small business owner talk about the work ethic of students and of immigrants.  He called students lazy and unmotivated, while praising the immigrants’ work ethic.  I have since heard this argument many times and heard many, deserved and undeserved, attacks on the caliber of students’ work ethic.  This summer I started a job at Subway that gave me a few new insights on the subject.
     First off, I’ll talk about the immigrants.  Keep in mind that we are generalizing.  Generalizations, while not always correct, are not completely unfounded.  Generalizing, making vague assumptions based on experience or popular opinion is not a heinous crime while stereotyping, making long lasting impressions, opinions, or habits based on generalizations, can be extremely derogatory.  Thinking a student might be a bad worker, generalization.  Not hiring that worker because you think all students are lazy, stereotype.  Now I have grown up around immigrants.  My Uncle owned a landscaping company for years and, true to the stereotype, employed a lot of Mexicans.  Most of them were damn hard workers.  My Uncle appreciated the work they did for them and to this day wouldn’t hesitate to help them out.  In my first job as caddy I worked with a lot of Mexicans and they were some of the toughest workers I’ve ever met.  My fellow mechanic and top worker at the shop was Hispanic and he put more work into that shop than my boss ever deserved to get out of him.  I work with a Mexican currently, and she is a hard worker.  Not much with customers, and not the best on punctuality, but a damn good worker.  That being said, there is a valid point that I feel has not been made, these people do this for a living.  I don’t want to come off as arrogant, but it’s going to happen anyways.  A lot of these people either came over or had parents who did.  They don’t have the best start in life, they can only hope to give their children a better chance than they had.  They have a choice between low income jobs with no imaginable success for themselves and a small chance of success for their children in the U.S., or widespread poverty and social injustice in Mexico.  Natural born citizens, frankly, don’t have to face that choice.  Most of us are born into relative privilege and can get by without extensive effort.
     Now I’m not saying we should disregard the immigrant population.  I have felt that the native population has grown ignorant of their plight and afraid to lose their safety buffer, but that’s a topic for a different time.  I’ve worked with a wide variety of students, from high school to college, and seen a varying spectrum of work ethic.  I’ve seen students who bust ass and get no recognition, ones who kiss ass and get a ton of recognition, ones who take a casual approach, and ones who are dedicated to a career.  Ironically, I haven’t seen a student get rewarded for busting ass, but have seen one rewarded for kissing ass.  I’ve heard a million complaints about students not working hard, and to a certain extent it’s true.  Most students have been at least partially removed from their job.  They don’t treat it with a huge deal of concern, but I think there’s a perfectly good reason for this: THEY’RE IN FUCKING SCHOOL!  They have better things to do than focus on some minimum wage job, they’re trying to train for bigger and better things.  If there is one complaint I have about my current job, and believe me there are many more than just one, it’s that they expect their employees to treat it like a career.  They expect employees to be on call 24/7.  They expect them to work every free hour that they have.  They expect them to be working without a real break for eight or more hours at a time.  I wouldn’t have had a problem with this while at my job at the car shop, but there was one difference: THAT WAS A CAREER!  I want to make a suicide/death pact with my fellow employees in the event that any one of us is still employed at Subway five years down the line.  This is not a career; this is a way to get by.  The thing that kills me is how tight these people are.  They will overwork an employee as much as possible, but as soon as that employee hits the 39 hour mark, that’s it.  God forbid you’d pay a hard working employee time and a half.  They will even have employees work at two separate stores.  Because it’s different payrolls, an employee could work well over 40 hours in reality and still be getting paid minimum wage.  They do this and expect employees to give the proverbial 110%.  On top of all that, in the event that you do tolerate this and contribute greatly to the business, you will always still be second to some ass kisser who the boss likes more.  I have heard the, “students can’t work,” argument from my boss and it kills me.  Her students work ten times harder than those not under instruction and they get no recognition.  Not to mention the fact that students have to juggle their schedule with classes and homework, and the fact that little to no regard is given to personal time at my place of work.  If this is any indication of how the rest of the nation treats its students, then it’s no wonder why this country seems to be on a direct route to shit creek with paddles heaved over 10 miles back to cut down on weight.