What has happened to the world today?

I'm in one of those moods that just happen when I'm alone, one of those "Let's Think About Life" moods, and usually, nothing but bad comes from this, but right now, I'm feeling... philosophical. Is "Sadly Thoughtful" a mood or emotion? As in, I feel quite sad, but not in a "boo hoo cry cry" way, in a ... "How did the world get this way?" way? Is that possible? Am I making sense?

Two things have happened/are happening right now that have put me in this mood.

1. I am listening to His Majesty The Desert by Down. Despite the fact that I hate Phil Anselmo and everything he says, thinks and does, Down are perhaps one of the most calming... groups in the world. I hesitate to call them a band because when you think of a band, you think of a couple of people who live to make music and make music to earn money. I don't get that vibe from Down. You can very much tell that, despite having one of metal's most infamous names in the legion, all they really are are a bunch of Southern musicians singing and playing their thoughts away. Now, that's something coming from me, considering a) I'm not a huge Down fan, I wouldn't even call myself a fan, more of an "occasional listener" and b) as previously mentioned, I can't stand Phil Anselmo. So yeah. In case you're not familiar with the song, I'm asking you to give it a quick listen, it's only two minutes long. Disregard the last 5 seconds or so, it's meant to carry on into the next song, just listen to the first two minutes or so, and tell me it doesn't make you wonder how the hell the world got into such a state --> Down - His Majesty The Desert

2. For the past 3 hours, I've been reading all the things people have posted on a site called MMT, or Makes Me Think. Here, people post things that have, well, made them think. Inspirational things. Things that don't usually happen, or things that we wouldn't expect to happen to us. Things like people giving 5 bucks to a homeless guy then realising that homeless guy used most of that 5 bucks to fund the parking meter which is about to run out on the car of the person who originally gave him the 5 bucks. It's a general feel-good site with things that genuinely do make you think. I think you should go and check it out, it's truly inspiring, some of the things you read on there will blow your mind.

All of this smooshed together into one big thought process leads to Jess getting all philosophical and thus posting a blog about it, in usual Jess fashion. So now you know the background, here goes.

What has actually happened to the world today?

 - Why do people still feel the need to outcast black people based on the colour of their skin despite the fact that the big wigs in politics and influential areas have been telling us, for years, that actually, it's okay to be black? That black people are exactly the same as white people and deserve the same rights and equalities?
Is it something that's just built in? Is it that racism gets passed up through generation to generation? Rightly so, we can't exactly start asking out grandparents or great grandparents to stop being racist because that is, literally, just the world they were born and raised in, when being black WASN'T okay. We can't ask them to just stop that, and undoubtedly they've passed that inbuilt hatred down to their offspring. What the world then needs is for that offspring to go, "Well, my parents are actually wrong". I doubt we can put the entire blame on older generations though, and I do reckon that, for the most part, the majority of racism exists solely because of sheer ignorance and stupidity.

What I'm about to write also applies to other things such as homosexuality, religion and physical looks, so I'm going to bundle them all into the one area and bring them into the recipe here as well.

Ignorance and stupidity is the major downfall of today's society. The simple fact is is that we still live in a society where we see someone who is different to us and we don't like it, so we lash out at them for it. I'm by no means an angel and I can put my hands up and say that yes, I have judged people before, as have you, and anyone else reading this, and everyone in the world walking this planet, we've all judged people, weather inwardly or outwardly, so nobody can sit there claiming 100% innocence. The simple fact is is that the less fortunate within our society choose to express their judgements in ways that are or could be deemed violent, abusive or humiliating.

I will give you an example:

A rather large lady is making her way slowly down the street, minding her own business, doing some shopping, quite happily getting on with her day.

My reaction - "Oh, she's quite a large lady" <- Still a judgement, but more of an observation.

Societies' less fortunate inhabitant - "Hahahaha fat cow! Hit the gym fatty! Who ate all the pies? She did! Ahahaha what a mess!"

The best part is, is that those with the above reaction will, nine times out of ten, be with a larger group of people, friends or peers.

And so we get down to the very nitty gritty of what is letting society down today - gang culture.

Now, by gang, I don't literally mean "kids in America who own guns and shoot opposing gang members". That's what gang culture USED to mean. Nowadays, I reckon anyway, it could be used to describe any large group of people who are causing a general annoyance to the public.

Generally speaking, people who abuse others do so because they feel they have a reputation to upkeep, a standing within a certain group, respect to gain or some thing to be on the same level as everyone else. This can be applied to basically any kind of abuse -

- Domestic abuse - generally happens because one person wants control over the other, ie; a reputation and standing within a partnership that they are the dominant person.
- Sexual abuse - again, another way of showing control and dominance
- Verbal abuse - a way of showing that they are better than the person they are abusing and thus have the right to bark down at the person because they are better, higher in the food chain if you like

And so on. There are many kinds of abuse. All of them are designed to let the victim 'know' that the perpetrator has control or dominance over them, that they are better or superior in whatever way.

So, by shouting at this large lady in the street, the thug is telling everyone within the vicinity that he/she is better than the large lady because he/she is not as fat as that lady. Everyone knows that being fat may as well be a crime these days, so that person is letting everyone else know that they are not fat, therefore they are better.

The scary thing is is that nowadays, it is much more likely to be a gang of youths that start the trouble than anyone else.

A great example are the London Riots that happened in 2011. A man was shot by a police officer, and the youths of England used this as an excuse to riot and loot. Now, according to them, at first, it was a way to show disgust at the way the government, the police and the city were being controlled, at least that was the reason of the PEACEFUL protesters. However, as soon as the kids got in on the act and started rioting, setting fire to beautiful buildings hundreds of years old and looting, the reason for it quickly became "WE'RE GETTIN OUR TAXES BACK INNIT".

Now, this is a fantastically beautiful example of irony at it's finest.

Firstly, for anyone that didn't watch any coverage of the riots, the very very vast majority of people involved in the riots came from places where unemployment is extremely high and income is extremely low, almost bordering the poverty line in many places. This is a horrid thing, yes, but how many of those young looters do you reckon have ever actually put anything towards their NI contribution, never mind tax? Do they even know what tax is?

If "GETTING OOR TAXES BACK"  was a good excuse for looting, then why weren't decent, honest people looting to get their taxes back too? People like my dad and my aunty pay £1000+ a month in tax, tax that goes towards giving these kinds dole money so they can go and get pissed every night of the week. How is that fair? My dad has been working for his current company for, let's see.... 12 years now? So if we just assume that he paid, on average, £800 a month in tax (I'm sure that would level it out enough to cover all salary bands he's been on), over 12 years, that's a grand total of  £115,200. That's £9600 a year in tax, btw. So if people were GETTING OOR TAXES BACK, why wasn't my dad grabbing a nice stash, to the total of £115k worth of plasma TV's and iPad's?

I realise I've gone off on a bit of a rant here, but at the end of the day, how can one get one's taxes back when one has never likely to have paid tax... ever?

SO, to round it all up, and make this as easy as possible for me to understand (because honestly, I'll admit, I've lost track now) -

The stereotyping/racism/general actively outward judgements come from groups of people who believe that they are better than the rest of general society and thus should be treated as such, and when they don't get treated as such, they get nasty, which, despite their general lack of employment, leads to them rebelling against a government that is trying its best to help them by "GETTIN OOR TAXES BACK INNIT" despite the fact they have probably never paid taxes, because they feel that, despite doing nothing for themselves or society aside from causing a general annoyance and a huge statistic on the world which shows this up and coming generation to be the most selfish, unreliable and thoughtless yet, they still should be treated like royalty, fed money from the hard working slaves who are working endlessly to provide them with food and cigarettes, and given nice houses in which they can lead a happy life getting up each day whenever they want and spending all day getting high and/or drunk and having a jolly good time with friends.

I have society sorted.

Goodnight.