Tased

Why do I go through life feeling as though I'd just been shot with a taser gun? Why do I react so strongly every single time I'm confronted by anything I perceive to be utterly stupid and/or egregiously devoid of logic? Why can't I, like everyone else I know, simply accept things for what they are?

One of the infinite number of things I find totally impossible to comprehend is how any human not afflicted with scientifically recognized mental problems manages to survive from day to day without reacting as I do; how they can blithely sail through raging storms of mind-boggling contradictions and astounding balderdash seemingly unaware...or, if aware, able to ignore them. I can't. I never could. I doubt I ever will.

How can anyone...anyone...not be driven to distraction by the hate-filled, irrational rhetoric spewed out by human sewage plants posing as self-anointed pundits, politicians, and Speakers-for-God? That so many so blithely do stuns me to the soul. How can so many people, refusing to think for themselves, sit there like newborn birds in a nest, eyes unopened, beaks agape waiting to receive regurgitated nonsense, which they eagerly swallow?

I have a friend who is an intelligent, well educated professional, and yet for absolutely no reason I can even begin to understand is rabidly, utterly irrationally anti-Muslim. He believes to the depth of his being that there are no good Muslims. None. Not one. Nowhere on earth. Women, children, newborn babies, they are all terrorists in cahoots with Barack Obama--a Muslim--to destroy our great nation. Tased does not begin to describe how I feel when he sends me yet another stupefyingly irrational email forwarding.

There is a man in my building whom I will cross the street to avoid. Like my friend, when speaking of things other than politics he can be pleasant and rational enough. But he speaks of nothing but politics to the point where I fear for his sanity. I have told him time and time again that I while I respect his right to his opinions, I do not agree with then and do not wish to be exposed to them. Does that stop him? Silly question. Why do people do that? Perhaps I should use a taser on him.

Why am I incapable of glancing at the flood of messages pouring into my Spam folder without going into a rage which sometimes borders on the uncontrollable?

The answer is simple...at least for me: I expect my fellow humans to be good, and kind, and considerate of others, and at least reasonably logical, and no matter how often I am confronted with the fact that so many are not, I am truly shocked. I certainly should have gotten used to it by now, but I haven't.

I know the old saying that a cynic is a frustrated romantic, and I fear, while I do try to fight becoming cynical, I can feel it creeping up on me when I'm not paying attention. I fully realize that all my negativity is counterproductive; that I'm not going to change anything, and that the time I spend raging against perceived wrongs could far better be spent in constructive ways.

I admit, as a self-proclaimed romantic, that I see humanity in probably too rosy a light at times, I have to keep reminding myself that humans are, after all, biologically animals. We are predators; why can't I simply accept this elemental and incontrovertible fact? Spammers and far-too-many pundits and politicians and Speakers-for-God are, at their core, nothing more latter-day Tyrannosaurs eager to pounce upon and destroy the weak. They have no conscience, no morals, no concept of dignity or compassion or the common good.

So a good case could be made that if I'm constantly being tased, it's my own fault. I should just shut up and go along with the crowd, and accept the world as it is. I should, but I won't.

Dorien's blogs are posted by 10 a.m. Central time every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Please take a moment to check out his website (http://www.doriengrey.com) and, if you enjoy these blogs, the recently-released Short Circuits: a Life in Blogs (http://bit.ly/m8CSO1 ).