Revelations
31
August
Spring has sprung in Melbourne. It is the most beautiful day here. It’s late afternoon as sit writing this out the front of the Prince of Wales pub in St Kilda. The sun is streaming through the trees. People are sitting around chatting. Locals and backpackers mix. A positive vibe is all around me. I have a cold beer and I should be in the best of moods. However, I’m not. I’m in a fucking foul mood.
People are the worst. They are rude, inconsiderate, unkind and generally unpleasant people. I know I’ve spoken about this before, as has Jimmy James. We are meant to be living in civilised society. I could quote Hobbes or Locke (John, not some two bit marketer). I’m not going too though. You know how to use Wikipedia? Yes. Good. Then do your own fucking research. (Now, I know some smart arse will say that the above comment is “rude, inconsiderate, unkind and generally unpleasent”, but they can go and self fornicate… and in a bizarre way, it proves my point). Now, those who know me will have endured one of my rants about this topic, will know where this is headed. It’s not negativity though, as I have been accused of being so, it’s reality.
Now, somewhat surprisingly (or then again, perhaps not), I work in the service industry. It is, alas, a students lot. You see and speak with a lot of people. Over a decade of working in this industry has only confirmed my views. There are of course exceptions, there always are. However, people are becoming more and more self centered, more inconsiderate. It’s why our Prime Minister can lie his arse off, but the only thing that upsets people is higher fuel prices and rising interest rates. It’s why pensioners lie dead in their cars for over a week before somebody rings the paramedics (as if it would help). As for Oz and the sharing of his iPod, some sick fuck is more likely to stab you for it. The chromer on the other side of the tram most likely!
Indeed, despite my past posturing and self aggrandizement , I know I’m flawed. It is my humanity that is both my greatest gift, but also my greatest flaw. But I’m trying. I make the effort. Sometimes though, I really wonder. Why do I even bother…
1. Jimmy James | September 2nd, 2006 at 13:48
You are so right.
To put emphasis on it I have two recent examples. The first is when I saw a band recently with a crowd made up of people posturing themselves as alternative and hippy-ish. At the beginning of the night they ignored the support acts, who were both brilliant. This often happens, but it just seemed rude. By the end of the night, these posers were as loutish and rude and as pissed as any AFL crowd. There were even a few moments where the main act was trying to perform quiet etheric ballads, but all you could hear were the children at the bar screaming, yelling and laughing. The band’s real fans “shooshed” for quiet and were told to fuck off.
The other example is about my neighbors. They lobby for the Greens, dress in natural fibres, eat vegetarian food, shower infrequesntly, and all of those other earthy things. They also subscribe to 3RRR. Don’t get me wrong, i think that this stuff is great. What they also do is get pissed and beat each other up. They take out their frustrations with each other on their neighbours. The guy also gets in his car a couple of times a week after threatening to kill his life partner, and does a burnout up our shared driveway. A pizza delivery guy was bogged recently near the front of their house, and when he asked for help, they told him to go and ask me, cos they were sick of helping people. I guess Hippies have changed since the 60s. Did I mention that they also have two young daughters who cry in the back yard when they are trying to kill each other?
2. Jade | September 2nd, 2006 at 15:06
Take a deep breath Day Dreamer and know this….We all love you..faults and all :)
You will never make everyone happy and who really wants to, but hey, your alive, your loved ones are safe. Things could be a whole hell of a lot worse.
x x x
3. MonkeyBoy | September 2nd, 2006 at 20:23
Jade - “the positive bundle of joy!”
I love you for it!!!!
Daydreamer, was having one of those moments in life when the glass is simply half empty, rather than half full!
But I tend to agree with you Daydreamer. We’ve spoken about this topic a thousand times over the years. Whilst I was younger and naiver, I thought you were full of shit and way to negativ, however you are at times right. People can be assholes!
However, often they can’t do anything about it. That’s just the way they are!
Alot of the time I think it’s only because we are all different and we don’t understand each other, especially if we don’t know each other. How often do you think to yourself, “asshole, why did he do that”. But really you have no idea who that person is. Maybe he’s the nicest bloke you’ll ever meet, but because you don’t know him, and you only have a few seconds, you make your mind up that he’s an asshole. However, you can’t really judge him.
I have always had this thought in my head though that the world and everything we know and see is like a pyramid. What this means is that like with a pyramid, there are at the (top) tip around 5% of people that are genuinly great and 95% that aren’t. The further you go down, the more assholes you have. The same is for everything in the world. You will only ever have a few truely great friends, the others won’t last forever, and then there will be those masses of people who will never even care about you. You will have a few favorite cafes, restaurants and whatever else that you think are great, but the vast majority will never interest you, nor will they ever be good. Think of simple things - coffee for example. In Melbourne you can probably try 1000 different coffees from different cafes (probably heaps more). But honestly you will only have a few where you think they are worth your money and time. The majority will be shit. Same goes for anything - the majority of people are probably average and the majority of things you buy, eat, consume and undertake will also be average.
What I always think then is how wonderful the tip of the pyriamid is. Just look at your friends - then you will see how wonderful people can be (now don’t just think of me on this one)! or think of some of the great people living on the planet today and how wonderful they are.
Then you will see that, yes maybe the majority of people are not that hip, but there are some that really are….
4. BillyGoatEric | September 3rd, 2006 at 23:32