Apathy is death

Apathy is dead would've been more hopeful, but alas, apathy is a close third to stupidity and greed in pretty much every aspect of our societies. A prime example of all three working in tandem is the Flemish reaction to the European Union's accusation of the discrimination of the French speakers around the language barrier: an arrogant 'they don't understand our situation'. I'm sure the Chinese react in the same way when questioned about Tibet. Oh, sure, Flanders isn't Israel and the Walloons aren't the Palestinians (and the Flemish people definitely aren't the Palestinians, whatever illusions our nationalists hold), but we're still an numerical and economical majority that violates at least number twenty-one, and probably a few more of the rights written down by some people who clearly didn't understand how Belgium works. For the love of humanity, just start other language learning at the age of seven - inside the critical learning age, at least, not right after it has passed - mend the tear in our country and stop bitching about some mythological 'shared history' that mostly consisted of strife and civil war. And even if we did share some history, if you make your perspective broad enough, everybody shares some history, and if you make it narrow enough, no one does.

But we all know how this'll end: with all this nuclear proliferation, someone is bound to do something stupid, while being oh so certain it is the right, no, the only thing to do! And that'll be that, better to burn out than to fade away. The skies on fire and the people screaming, all of them equal as their skin bubbles and melts. The rich and the poor, the smart and the pious, the junks and the straight edgers, everybody will vanish in a flash of resounding fury, barely noticeable against the background radiation of space. The only planet in the known universe to support advanced lifeforms, put to the torch by the stupidity of its own intelligence. The house always wins, whether it's now or five billion years from now. So why try, huh?

We've realized this for quite a while though, which is why we celebrate surviving another trip of our planet around our star, as if we're surprised we've made it once more, relatively unscathed and still sane, passengers on a dying world. Not this year, but maybe the next.

Tomorrow it's my turn. One more flight around the sun, and every day some idiot has a bigger stick than the last guy. I'd say it's what has made me so tired, but the lack of sleep probably does its part as well.

Still, I'm quite contented. Death Cab for Cutie has released its (their?) new album, 'Narrow Stairs', and it's really quite beautiful; Jango Jim has a weblog, and it's really quite hilarious; Philip Pullman has written the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy quite some time ago, but it's still really quite excellent. And then there's people, of course, but my sharing stops here. Chin up, now!