15) Apocalypse How?

Let's face the facts. America is not in a good shape right now. You don't read the front page of the newspaper or watch the local news without seeing some disturbing, convoluted, or depressing image.

And yet here we are, nearing the most holy of days, and the general aura around me seems to be getting sadder and sadder. There is an unspoken, unrealized trend of depression going on, seeping into the very fabric of our lives, dragging us down into the depths of our own private hells.

But who's to blame? You can't really be optimistic when you see the long list of things this current society gets to complain about. There's global warming, the war in the middle east, the destroyed housing market, the collapsed economy, the rising unemployment rate, etc. The list goes on.

I try to remember the happier days, when others around me weren't so grouchy and pessimistic about everything. You could sense the shift from the happier times to the current hell. You might not have seen it, but I did, in very subtle and nearly unnoticeable ways.

Take the slackers for example. There are always a group of people in school that don't do the work, joke around, disrupt class, etc. I always used to think that they really didn't care about their future. But now, I start to question whether they are subconsciously smart enough just not to care anymore. What good does an education do you when the world is ending? Why not laugh it up while you still can? Isn't the guy with no brains and a stable low-paying job worth more nowadays?

I don't really know. All I can know is how to pull through. But if I survive long enough to see the next generation suffer, I can tell them what an idol of mine once said:

If you're going through hell, keep going.

- Winston Churchill

14) Ego Stroke.

It was all started in 1899 by Rudyard Kipling. "The White Man's Burden" unleashed a hell of what is today, arguably, a policy of global intervention and imperialism. Granted, the poem can be interpreted many different ways, but the main message persists: It is the white man's way to try and help the other, lower, inferior races.

It all started the spiral of Eurocentric racism, and more importantly, it is still a vital part of many countries today. However, I bring this up to remind you of the repercussions.

Racism is what is too natural in compulsive human behavior. Nobody can be blamed for prejudiced behaviors and opinions because they cannot be easily controlled. There is still no effective way, in this day and age, to eliminate racism.

But when it comes to conquering other countries and killing their people to satisfy the "White Man's Burden", how far is too far? Where does the global superpower draw the line between the improvement of other countries and genocide?

Take the Philippine-American War for instance. When the U.S. tried to annex the Philippines, what happened? The country, expectantly, fought back. And then the U.S. government now had an obligation to correct the wrongs of the country and instill "peace". And that's exactly what happened. The Philippines would not become independent until 1946.

And so it continued, and continues to this day. The fact is that Imperialism is just another form of racism, clear and simple. I said you couldn't prevent it. That you couldn't get rid of it. But when people realize it, and do absolutely nothing against it, we have a serious issue on our hands. Forget the moral implications. Isn't it more central to American ideals that all men should be able to live with their creed and beliefs? Without being punished for it? Without being forced to change it?

What gives a country the right to impose on another, when they have been doing perfectly fine by themselves for the past thousand years?

And yet, we see the paradoxes that have occurred. Today, the war in Iraq serves as a prime example of the American ego that has not yet been quelled. Of course the war is justified on some means. But you want to be fair? Put U.S. troops in every single major conflict in the world. Put them in Israel-Palestine, put them in Africa, and then we can talk.

And then I'll be able to look you in the eye and tell you humanity has advanced themselves for the past two millennium. That they've risen beyond selfish compulsions of resorting to violence.