personality — home last changed 1 November 2006

personality

as you may have noticed already, i often choose not to capitalize. i have a number of other interesting and amusing quirks. that's not what this page is about.

...how do you describe a personality? introverted but lonely... rebellious but sensitive... passionate about turning ideals into realities... these things describe me, but digging them up without context takes more effort than i expect it to so it usually only comes up in conversation.

i tend to get frustrated a lot, with society and systems which are in my opinion counterproductive. my tirades against civilization inevitably fall on deaf ears, because... well, realistically, what are our alternatives? i understand this objection, and it's true that i don't really have anything to take the place of the things i'd like to see dismantled. i don't think about replacing things, because i figure the replacements will be flawed as well. and yes, it's stupid to tear something down without something better to take its place, because whatever is resting on it tends to come crashing down on your head. i get it. but that doesn't change the fact that things need either fixing or trashing.

i believe that we need to change the way we move ourselves. the ubiquity of paved roads doesn't make automobiles a wonderful form of transportation. there are serious problems with being dependent on internal combustion engines... chiefly, the accompanying dependence on fossil fuels which immediately makes us beholden to foreign governments and over time irretrievably screws up the atmosphere and kills most living organisms. the fact that we don't yet have a widely available improvement to take its place should not delude us into thinking that we have the perfect vehicles now. we should be aggressively pursuing alternatives. and no, we are not in fact aggressively pursuing alternatives. that's screwed up.

i believe that the leaders of nations need to be held to (at least) the same standards of behavior that the rest of us are. the fact that many guys on the planet enjoy blowjobs does not entitle the President to enjoy one in the oval office. neither does the supposition that every other President in American history has gotten blow jobs, banged and fondled various aides, or impregnated his slaves. i am not a prude. i am a little bitter perhaps, but i think my point is still valid in spite of that. if i got some action here and there from a coworker or assistant, it would be called harassment (even if she liked it) and if i got caught i could expect to lose my job, pay an insane settlement, and possibly spend some time in jail. not only did the President keep his job, but the people who demanded that he be impeached were ostracized from the rest of American society for being a bunch of jealous pricks. that's screwed up.

i believe that the global economy is accelerating at a rate which will make it impossible for most of us to keep up. in order to create and maintain any level of lifestyle in America, it is necessary to spend (at least) nine hours a day, typically 8am to 5pm, doing something at somebody else's beck and call. the tasks are generally trivial, repetitive, and utterly devoid of any sort of mental challenge or feeling of accomplishment. the upper management is typically composed of people–pushers who spend their days delegating tasks they lack the skills or patience to perform for themselves. to take exception to this system is to relegate yourself to the fringes of society... living in a cardboard box or joining a commune. that's screwed up.

it seems to me that the majority of my fellow human beings suffer these and other abuses in silence, for various reasons. two that come immediately to mind are ignorance and fear. i detest both, and i will always fight them. advocating alternative fuels doesn't really have much to do with my personality, and while it's probably true that i do more than my fair share of complaining, complaining isn't a personality trait either. i stand up for principles, and i am not afraid to refuse unfavorable compromises... and that is at the core of my personality.