10100: Unkind

Growing up in the midwest, the change to the much more uptight East Coast seemed to be a major shift in pace and strain of life. Here everyone seems to be much more interested in themselves, almost to a fault. While I'm sure the overall pace of life might be nice to some, for someone used to the more laid back lifestyle it seems to stress everyone out, to the point where they don't have the decency to be kind to their fellow men, or if not kind, at least indifferent. No, these people seem to find a sort of perverse pleasure in being unkind. They seem stuck in the generation X "I'm hard, I'm an asshole." What they seem to misunderstand is that no one gives a flying fuck. All this teen suburbian angst is supposed to make them cool. They are the ones in control, they are the only thing that's important. With their white picket fences, they rebel against everything, as long as mommy and daddy keep the green flowing. They hate their parents. They hate everything they see as "The Man", rebelling against the very system that allows them to be shitty human beings. They are failures, straining the very system that taught them they are wrong. They make fun of what is considered "proper", then immediately go home to their perfectly manicured lawns and nice single family homes, to listen to their Sony stereos, playing their Sony Playstations, or Nintendos, or whatever the latest toy is. They mow their lawns and then collect their allowances. The money mommy and daddy give them goes straight into the self destructive behaviors that make them cool. Smoking. Drinking. Drugs. All of the things they were taught were wrong, they did. They did alot. Then they switched to something else. They drive fast. Not necessarily because they enjoy it, but because it's cool. They wear their torn clothes, or their trendy hats, or their whatever. Trends come and go, and they run out and spend their money on them. Easy come easy go. Whatever their friends do, they find themselves doing. They are individuals, just like all their friends. Whole groups of people congregating based on the fact that they want to be seen as an individual.

Now before you attempt to berate me for being hypocritical, let me say this: while I may live in a suburbian neighborhood, while I may be an asshole, while I may get everything from mommy and daddy, while I may hang with a group of like minded individuals, I am different. I know how stupid my actions are. I see the pointlessness of all this posturing. I've seen people disliked because of the clothes they wear. I've seen people kick crutches out from under a cripple, in fact, I've been the one sprawled out when someone kicked a crutch out from under me. I've seen the nerds put up with constant hostility, and hostility for what? The only reason nerds are any different is that the cannot or will not spend money on a trend that will not last. They are intelligent, and give a fuck about what happens to them. They will one day rule the world, and I almost, if only for a second, feel sorry for the bully that will come to an ex-nerd for a loan to get some much needed medical treatment, treatment needed to undo all the things he did when he was younger. I can see the nerd, now wearing an Armani suit, sitting in his office at the bank, looking accross his desk at his blue collar counterpart, and making the decision to let him die, based on the bad credit risk and the fact that he remembers the bully beating him up and stealing his lunch money to buy smokes that put him in the position to need a loan.

-omnicolor
Not Copyright
Pit Labs, Digital Darkness '97