You know what really gets me?
People who take the good in their lives for granted and then bitch like an oppressed slave when their over-priced coffee frap gets a bit more expensive. People who tweet about how worth it ice cream on a fricking stick is, and then whine like colic babies about paying taxes.
On a slightly lower level of annoying are the people who live inside comfortable bubbles and look out at the world with a self-satisfied smirks that say, “that don’t touch me.”
Take this fellow, for instance.
He tweets about how he doubts that it’s worth his time and effort to vote. He claims that he shapes his own future and that politics and the economy [!] have little or no effect on his life at all. Of course, this kind of posturing isn’t new. It is, in fact, typical of a lot of young people nowadays. So, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to point out even some of the ways that he is just plain wrong.
On his blog, he rhapsodizes about himself.
Hello y’all! Just a little something about me. My home is the Pearl of the Orient, my bloodline is deeply pronged in Asia’s Latin City and currently living a life in the Metro’s Tiger City.
He claims not to be affected by politics, and yet he uses labels created by politicians for very political purposes. This kind of clueless-ness betrays his lack of understanding about how completely and effectively politics shapes the way we see things and defines the way we address those things, even without our knowing it.
As an aside, I have to admit I wasn’t aware that ‘prong’ was a verb.
I’m a person with a wacky and slightly twisted personality. Sorta eclectic when it comes to things in life. I adjust easily to anything, anyone or anywhere. A quasicamelion.
A quasicamelion? What is that? A sorta flower? Oh. Right. He means chameleon – y’know? the lizard that changes color to camouflage himself? In any case, his whole paean to himself is littered with malaprops and lousy spelling like that. Now, I try not to be a grammar-nazi but really, people who don’t even make the effort to make sure that they spell right just come off as posturing juveniles striving desperately to brand themselves something cool. And lazy too. Ever heard of F7? or google?
I drink casually(a toast to Nestea Fit), I don’t smoke or take drugs. I stay clear of these vises. I love sipping ice cold lemonade or iced tea in a warm, humid day. I love to see people smile. I love to make people laugh.
At home when all the shows on TV are boring and there’s not much to do I play with my dogs. I love animals. My usual hang outs would be strollin’ in Eastwood or strutting along Greenbelt, Megamall, Boni High, Serendra, Trinoma, Shangri-la, the Podium or in cinemas watching quality movies every weekend.
This recitation of his cool hangouts is what really makes me wonder why he claims that the economy has no effect on him. I mean, none of these places are cheap, and the way things are, it is at these enclaves that you really feel the effects of a weak economy. I mean, two hundred bucks for cheesesticks? A person may not mind shelling that sort of money out for so little value in return, but that’s a question of priorities, not a reliable indicator of economic health. Ok, so maybe because he styles himself as a philanthropist, maybe he does have money to burn. But still, even the very rich will eventually feel the pinch of a bad economy. Unless maybe he has an income flow like Warren Buffet or the Niagra Falls. And how likely is that?
I’m a home buddy, but I do love the outdoors when I’m out there doin’ stuff. I love trekking, mountain climbing, river rafting, swimming and nature tripping.
Okay, let’s leave the economy question aside for the moment, and focus on something else that this genius claims. He says that politics don’t affect his life. The point he’s missing tho, is that politics do have an effect on these things that he says he loves doing. If exploitive politicians are voted into office, then the outdoors get screwed up. Trees get cut down with impunity; mountain ecologies get ruined by butt-ugly resort condominiums and what-not; and rivers dry up because of mismanagement. And that’s just the tip of the melting polar ice caps.
Oh, and it’s homebody, btw. Too many people make this mistake, not just this guy.
I’m a movie addict! A Starbucks tripper and a coffee lover(Frappes Galore). I don’t like false expectations, broken promises, haters, posers and users. For people who never keep their word ‘If you say it then do it; if you don’t mean it don’t say it.’
Cooking and arts are my passion. Chocolates are my addiction. Music is my life. Life is a drama, with God as its producer and you as the director. Live it,love it. Your life is the greatest show and the greatest story ever told. Survival of the fittest.
I live life in accordance to the law of attraction -‘Like attracts like.’ Think positive and be positive to attract positive. God is always and has been my saviour.
My greatest happiness is to love and be loved.
Well, he would certainly win an award for cramming the most number of cliches on a single webpage. But the snark aside, does he even remember the time when movies were one of the cheapest forms of entertainment available? Now, you cant even go into a decent theatre without spending at least a hundred and fifty bucks. Again, a function of how well the economy is managed by elected officials and their appointees.
Chocolates get expensive too, don’t they? Over the years, we’ve all seen simple pleasures slowly transform into unattainable luxuries. And, guess what? that’s a function of politics too. And please, don’t even get me started about Starbucks.
The bottom line is this: this guy totally ignores the fact that the good life he claims to be enjoying didn’t just come into being one day. Someone, at some point in the past amassed this wealth of opportunity for him. Or maybe he did it himself, I don’t know. But that only happened because the political environment was such that it was possible. No one can so idly claim to be addicted to chocolates, or movies, or trekking in a political environment characterized by repression, in a country where political freedom – especially the right to vote – is non-existent.
In his delight over his life, he forgets that these things can disappear in a flash when enough people start to think like he does. Still, non-participation is as much a right as the right to participate. You can convince yourself that it means nothing – in which case, I heartily recommend a season spent living as a North Korean everyman – and so refuse to vote. But that won’t change the fact that outside your bubble, things like freedom and the right to have those things that allow you to enjoy your life have to be constantly fought for. And like all bubbles, it’s only a matter of time before yours pops.