Things I Don't Believe In

[mishalak]

Courage- It is used so often as to be meaningless. The courage of cancer survivors, the courage of people with AIDS, the courage of the celebrity of the week overcoming a hangnail. Courage is the word that describes that quality that makes people go stand in the line of fire and blow themselves up for something they believe in. Courageous might as well be another word for fool the way it is used.

Freedom- And what the hell is freedom anyway? Not only is it overused but it isn't even as well defined as courage, though we're often told to have the courage to stand up for it. Freedom's real definition is the like of what we have better than what those strange people over there have and as a catch all meaning the opposite of authorities we don't like, but never authorities we do.

Truth- There is no truth meter. There are just better educated guesses about what happened.

Justice- An excuse for vengeance cloaked in righteousness and armed with the power of the state.

Survivors- There are no survivors. There are just people who have not died yet. Saving a life isn't infinite; it is just delaying death for a indeterminate amount of time.

Comments

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I also believe that the general public isn't as stupid as the way they talk about abstractions might lead you to believe, and that depression isn't a reliable guide to reality.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Oh the general public isn't stupid, they're just intellectually lazy and ignorant. There is a difference between genuine stupidity and just being uninformed, thought the results are often indistinguishable. It is easier to mouth a platitude than to actually think about what they are saying or to examine their beliefs.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Freedom: what countries with US army bases have and countries without them don't. Examples of free countries are UK, Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Iraq (since 2003)

In a really cynical mood tonight, following the killing of hundreds of protesters in Uzbekistan, and White House Spokesman Scott McClellan's advice to the protesters to seek freedom "by peaceful means, not violent".

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it. I was in a deeply cynical mood when I wrote this. Obviously.