This world would be a far better place if people would listen more. I mean truly listen. I encounter far too many people who are always just waiting for their chance to speak. An extremely large percentage of our society is made up of people who would way rather listen to the sound of their own voice than that of others. The majority of my “public interaction” is spent making small talk with people who have little to no interest in anything that I, or anyone else for that matter, has to say. They nod their head, arms crossed, maybe a hand stroking their chin, saying “ah yes,” “that’s interesting,” “well good for you” and you smile back as if you did not just observe the most pitiful attempt at communal politeness.
I watch people intermingle and have great fun pointing out the exact moment when the other person has lost complete interest and is just waiting to start talking about themselves in their petty conversation. When you don’t talk much, like I do, you tend to become more aware of peoples awkward social faux pas and their feeble attempt to conceal it from people like me. :PSee, our civilization seems to be made up of two things: consumption and fear. These two particular qualities would be utterly useless if it weren’t for our civilization being full of people wanting to take up your time with their words and opinions right?
Television is telling you that the meat you are eating could be contaminated, that a tsunami is going to hit your town tomorrow, that carrying purple handbags has been linked to cancer! Such fears are followed by ads saying buy this deodorant it will help you get the girl, Take these pills it will make you have your dream body, buy this tooth whitener and then you’ll fit it! It becomes this disgusting cycle of freaking out; buy something, change happens; buy something, panic attacks; buy something, depression; buy something. So it’s in fact not our fault that we have problems listening to one another, we are so bombarded with massive spews of shit that it becomes utterly impossible to fit any more information in our heads, especially if it is not that of the television. It’s actually difficult to talk of anything but ourselves, it is what we are fed on a daily basis, it’s all we are really sure of! What’s wrong with YOU, how to make YOU better, what could happen to YOU tomorrow, how do YOU affect it all. Selfish unselfish employment under “The Man” comes to mind.
I guess there is just not enough room anymore, not enough time to care. It’s almost as if we each have been pushed to live on our own little planet and anyone from anywhere else is generally discarded as extra baggage. Planet Jenna, I do this, I don’t do this, I like this stuff, I hate that, I talk to these people and not those people and eat this but not that and that’s it. It’s like they want everyone to be isolated and become extremely selfish because this sudden remoteness forces us to take advice on how to better our lives from the one who is most accessible; television.
Where am I going with this? I don’t know exactly, probably just another added ingredient to my cynical recipe on how the world works and why it is such a horrid place to inhabit. The moral of this story? I don’t know, I guess just listen to one another, not just hear them, really listen to them. You’ll be shocked about how much more you’ll learn from people rather than the empty tube that calls you its bitch.
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