I am A Fire Breathing Dragon
My take on people, happiness and modern political discourse.
I’m Okay.
It seems like wherever you look on the American political spectrum there just happens to be something wrong with the world. If you look to the far left, climate change threatens to end the world in the next 5 to 10 years, and on the far right immigrants are replacing us and we have to make everything great again (as if we didn’t have it good enough already). Go to the center and there is a literal circus clown juggling education, military spending and healthcare subsidies. It’s like we’re trapped in some evil triangle matrix of doom staring us down as we look into the barrel.
Yet despite this we still get into our cars every morning listening to the same six songs on our way to work; and if you’re lucky your job is one you actually enjoy. I can’t tell if deep down inside we know everything is alright or if it’s a testament to human resiliency. I will admit the US is far from perfect, but we as people have things pretty darn good.
Human happiness is far from a mystery, so why does it seem so hard for many to attain it? In my experience, as people age happiness has more to do with being content with what we have as to oppose to having or achieving things that make us feel “happy”. As Bojack Horseman’s mom said “I know you want to be happy but you won’t be… and now you can fill your life with your projects and your books and your movies and your girlfriend. But it won’t make you whole”. That rings true, at least for me.
Life can be tough sometimes but a lot of us have everything looking back at us in the mirror. But everything we have can disappear in an instant. Like the when Job says “the LORD giveth and the LORD taketh away”, or that Benson Boone song “Beautiful Things”, you know the one of ten songs they play all day on the pop station when you’re in the back of the house cooking.
On the flip side there is obvious doom and gloom. The US tip-toes over heightening political escalations with Russia and China, and in the Middle East Muslims and Jews eagerly await at the line of scrimmage for the ball to snap so they can rape and murder each other. You know they say the center of the earth is the end of the world? And don’t even get me started about the Higher Ups. It’s almost like the greed and (blood)lust of man knows no bounds. The quality of life (at least in the US) of modern man far surpasses the living standards of European kings just barely 150-100 years ago, yet it still seems like everything is on fire. And I know some people just want to see the world burn.
This incites imagery of Cicilian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer in the new Christopher Nolan movie. What’s that movie called again? I was too afraid to see it because of what I read from some person on the internet. Maybe the world is really messed up. Call it luxury beliefs, but I don’t let it take me down. Maybe I am that dog with the hat who thinks “This is Fine.”
Yet the consensus is still mixed. People really do drive around in $80,000 trucks acting like they never want to see their children again, and some of us take a more stoic and laid back approach. It makes me wonder what type of ancient catastrophes befell man to bottleneck us into who we are today; and what it kind of catastrophe it would take to eliminate all the insufferables, probably a really cool and fun one!
Regardless if things are better than they’ve ever been or if this really is the end of the world, if you guys are all okay with it, then I am too.
I’m Okay.
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