Wasteland America

America=Freedom=Happiness=Want=Suffering

Maybe it’s that philosophy class that’s growing on me. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve had to read Brave New World in another class. Maybe it’s because of a thoughtful post at a fellow blogger put up. And maybe it’s my own frustrations of living with A.D.D. that are starting to pile on high enough for me to notice that led me to post this today. But I don’t think I can believe in the whole “self-interested pleasure” idea anymore. You know which one I’m talking about. It’s the idea that happiness means doing whatever you want, and anything else that gets in the way like a conscience is just killing the fun. It’s the idea we’re talking about when we say we had a bad day because nothing we wanted happened. And isn’t that what freedom means in America? To do whatever you want, ever so dragged around and bound to your desires you can’t even stop yourself? And if you’ve thought you were exempt from most of the bad habits on this blog because your parents taught you better, don’t worry. You don’t need to buy $80 pairs of jeans on a regular basis to live a life that’s measured by the appeasement of your desires.

It gets worse. If you look a little deeper you see that the ways we look at freedom, morality, family, religion and law have been molded to accompany this view of happiness. Morality and religion, once standards for how people should live their lives, are slowly bending the knee to this definition of happiness. Morality is now a concept you look into if you feel like being good to people every once in a while, not a guiding standard of life, and the same goes for religion. The role of the family has diminished to make room for things like gameboys and facebook. The distinction that family is somehow different from any other distraction is gone. And finally the law is just something you get in trouble with every once in a while when you were just trying to have your fun, not a common set of coded behavior that we willingly abide by. You can see how, like a flood, our views on happiness are simply so strong that anything that stands in the way is swept away, and all that is left standing does not interfere with the river’s course. Happiness is getting what you want, and nothing pales in comparison.
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Action: What ELSE could I be angry about on a day like today?

You probably have heard it from other people. Maybe. If they’ve got a single brain cell working or not. If not, let me spell it out for you: American elections have officially been round up, taken out back, shot and then sold to the highest bidder. The Supreme Court ruled today that corporations and unions can give as much money as they want to candidates, with no limitations. None. And yes, the Supreme Court did this. The Supreme Court? Are you sure? The most powerful and respected judges in America? With decades of experience under their belts and degrees from prestigious universities? Those legendary arbiters of truth and reason? Yes, they did this. They did this to us. The most powerful court in America has failed its citizens.

You don’t need to be a Political Science degree to know this is bad. You don’t need a seal of approval to have an opinion about where you think your country is going. You don’t need a goddamn permit to be outraged at this. You don’t need to be afraid of being called a conspiracy theorist if you’re worried about your country. The battle lines have been drawn. Our government has been so thoroughly infiltrated by Wall Street business executives that even appointed Supreme Court judges have been bought, and the politicans have been routinely dismantling everything this country stands for.
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Determination and the American Dream

There’s a great ol’ American tradition of ours, most actively performed by people who most identify as “patriots”, of putting the winner on a pedestal and blaming the loser for not being more like the winner. This type of opinion frequently comes up in discussions about the American Dream. You know the opinion…The rich got that way because they had the drive and the diligence that you don’t, bum. Maybe if you worked harder, you’d be one of them. You also see this idea promoted by health and beauty magazines about weight loss. Just replace “rich” with “skinny”, and “bum” with “fatty”. You also see this when in sports training. The best athletes train hardest. You snooze, you lose. And maybe you’ve heard the childhood variation of the philosophy. You can do anything you set your mind to. When you grow up, well…it gets meaner and starts to blame you for not getting what you want.

When stuff like this gets said over and over, people start to believe it. They also start to hate themselves for not being like how everyone wants them to be. It makes you feel bad and then gives you a way out. Like you’re some twisted wretch of a person unfit to live, but even you can work your way out of this hole you dug yourself in. It gives you a problem and then sells you a solution.
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Three Syrups

This morning, I sat down to breakfast which today was waffles. My hands found themselves around a bottle of a brown semi-translucent…syrup. Waffle syrup. I unscrewed the lid and poured myself a small pool of it right next to my waffles.

Now, what exactly is waffle syrup? It’s…um…what is waffle syrup exactly? Well let’s see what maple syrup is. Maple syrup comes from trees…does waffle syrup come from waffles? And along the same lines, does cough syrup really come from coughs?

Well, no. The logic behind the name waffle syrup isn’t the same as the logic behind maple syrup. Waffle syrup’s name is based on what waffle syrup does, rather than what waffle syrup is and cough syrup’s like that too. Waffle syrup is intended for waffles like cough syrup is intended for coughs.

What if we applied this style of thought to all food? What if we called bananas “potassium sticks”, carrots “eye maintenance root” and apples “flavored bodily fuel”? That would suck. So what’s the deal with waffle syrup and cough syrup? Why are we cool with the logic of their names but we’re not cool with it applying it to all foods?

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Quick! Run to Bed! You Won’t Get Enough Sleep! Relax Now!

It is 3:59 in the morning on Sunday June 14th.

The words that everyone would use to describe my situation would be the expression “I can’t sleep”. And it’s true, I can’t sleep. But I never viewed sleep as an act of will. Look at that phrase. “I can’t sleep.” Like sleep is a just another verb. “I can’t jump.” “I can’t run”. Sleeping’s not an act of mental might. You can crawl into bed, but you can’t force yourself into sleep. That’s ridiculous. Sleep comes to you. Sleep is anything but in our control. Of course, I’m not talking about sleeping drugs or chemicals or warm milk. Whatever. I’m talking about using your mind alone.

What if sleep were a normal force of nature, and when you couldn’t sleep you were out of line with nature? What if sleep showed itself only to people who had the right mindset, and all the people who couldn’t sleep are either using sleep for some unhealthy application or have the wrong mindset? Here I am, twisting and reshaping myself in bed trying to get the most optimal body shape that would best result in bringing sleep to me. The most optimal sleep set up that would most enhance the likelihood of getting to sleep. Flipped the pillow over to get to the cold side? Check. Window open? Check. Sleeping on my right side with my right hand behind the head pillow? Check. I was trying to bring sleep to me and I was trying too hard. And here’s my thoughts as I’m twisting, turning and forcing my way into sleep.
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Hello World!

’sup world? Welcome to WastelandAmerica. I’ll be updating this blog every once and a while, figure once every two weeks. Don’t hold me to it though because I’m just a college kid and my free time’s available sporadically. But yeah, enjoy! Post comments, let me know what you think.

So, what’s this blog about? This blog’s about my simultaneous fascination and discontent with America’s culture. It started at the end of my senior year of high school back in 2007. I was just graduating. As much praise as I got for getting accepted to a good college and getting out with good grades, I didn’t feel like I accomplished anything. When I looked back on my high school days it was clear that I hadn’t earned any credit to my name. I zoned out through all my classes and all my work, I spent the weekends in a hedonistic stupor, drowned in sloth behind a computer screen…if anything, the best way to measure my worth was to count the numbers of weeks I did doing nothing at all! I didn’t graduate from high school; I slept my way through it. I was asleep at the wheel of my own life. I was letting it happen without me.

I got angry. I got angry at myself for letting four years of fantastic opportunities go to waste. This was the legendary high school experience everyone talks about! This was where the Breakfast Club was supposed to happen! I used to dream about this place when I was in 8th grade! I used to think that it was where my real life would begin! Instead, I fell asleep. But I woke up, and I got angry.
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