Stupidity and whatever is left

I’m an idiot.

I know, I know. You already knew that, dear reader. My articles are your proof. So is this sentence. And so is this one just because of the repetition.

But I need to say things many times to understand them, and among the many things I reiterate is that I’m oblivious to my own stupidity. I mention my intellectual ineptitude because the whole world looks as if it has gotten up in a hurry and I’m just here type, type, typing away. Look: did you hear about that whole Ukraine situation? What about that riots in Venezuela? And don’t get me started talking about Syria. Seriously. Don’t. It would be a very short conversation.

Let’s not get it twisted. I’ve tried to understand. Really, I have. In between this show and that, in between my own bumbling work and pretending I don’t have any, I’ve tiptoed on the issues. Whole minutes have been dedicated to appreciating the gravity of the kerfuffles. I’ve read opposing viewpoints. I’ve tried to probe the discontent. And I've tried to use what I’ve learned in university to contextualize the numerous worldwide problems, but I found myself referring to a textbook for help.

In the meantime, killings happened. Lines blurred. People exchanged blame. And in just a matter of hours after I lifted my nose from a theory that might just solve everything because it did so on this one test, the black and white bled into the grey.

In each revolution, riot, and dispute, the simple causes that led to an ostensibly justifiable and morally correct stance compounded into something incredibly complex and unsettling. Aren’t the majority of the Ukrainian protestors part of the Svoboda party, a Neo-Nazi-propaganda machine? Aren’t the rebels in Syria massacring average civilians and blaming it on the Assad regime in order to incite military assistance? Why are the Venezuelans revolting against the supposedly injust government when it is the petrodollar that has caused the corruption, and isn’t their inequity a prerequisite of the capitalist model of having oil-rich wealthy elite, and doesn’t this very same model lead to my own comfort, and isn’t it their arduous labour for penance that helps keep my gas costs low, and did I just cause deaths in Venezuela?

Before one can understand the volatile situations, it reaches flashpoint, and whoosh there it goes. The circumstances change. Lives are lost. And nothing remains the same. So you go back to grindstone, trying to understand a state that seems so alien yet is on the same world as yours, that seems so inexplicably intricate yet is being lived out on a daily basis somewhere else. And just as you get close, when you think you can understand the whole snafu, whoosh – there it goes again.

So back you go. Whoosh. Back. Whoosh. Back and whoosh again.

Most of us give up in this ever-increasing whirlwind of misunderstanding. And even if we don’t and we keep trudging through the mud, things almost never become clean. Corruption blooms from corruption. The positions of power that led to injustice are filled with new titles and new problems. The model of governance is abused without complete oversight, something an average citizen cannot possibly ensure with their busy lives. And the multitudes of people, all different and all vying for unique goals and hopes, are still unhappy whatever the situation.

Maybe this cycle unavoidable. It’s hard enough for five people to agree on where to eat, so what hope does any movement, however seemingly good it sounds, have with millions of different people with different ideologies and different experiences and different aspirations?

The answer may be too dark, too unsettling, and so we avoid it by craving simplicity.

We digest easy content like stories on Miley Cyrus or Kim Kardashian. The fact that those names mean something in the first place serves as evidence enough.

But this insipid lifestyle of the useful useless is accessible and simple. Anyone can participate with these mediums. Anyone can watch it, enjoy it, and relax with it.

It starts off small – a few magazines here. A few videos there. Then our indolence grows as we laugh harder and follow more intently and oh did you see what she was wearing and I need to buy those shoes and oh my god like who does she think she is, Chloe, and we begin to melt away as complicated individuals. As a whole, we become vapid and superficial because we observe those that are vapid and superficial.

And then just as a commercial fires off about a burger or we’re chasing some car or did you read that tweet by Justin Bieber, we realize we are bored of the real and substantial issues. We can’t be bothered to care. They are too complex. And besides, the show is coming on and we don’t want to miss it.

That is why it easier to say that we are stupid, that we can't understand, and to dress up an article in inadequacies, uncertainties, and reductionist statements than it is to actually say an opinion on some issue. We don’t want to be wrong because it is easier to be right about things that don’t matter. I can sit here, write about nothing at all, and wonder where the time went instead.

But then again, I’m just an idiot. I’m not sure about anything really. Even this. And this. And this. And so on.