Population is going to become a larger and larger issue in the future. More and more people are being born and those people are only going to make more babies. One of the problems is what I like to call “The Reverse Darwin Effect.” This effect is what results from more advanced medicine. As out knowledge of human ailments becomes more and more advanced we can save more and more people from death. It is truly amazing.
Unfortunately, many people who are “saved” have problems that doctors really shouldn’t have anything to do with, or medication. The largest of these is Obesity. People who become grossly obese have become eligible for medical treatment. Medicine and all of its branches, I think, should be reserved for ailments that people have no control of. A broken arm, a viral disease, sickle cell, cancer and AIDS are all eligible in my view. Having a habit of eating too much McDonald’s is not. Drug abusers don’t get medical treatment, they go to rehab. Obese people get diet pills and diets. Many of them are so far addicted to high cholesterol foods they don’t even want to do healthy diets and don’t participate. The Atkins Diet is one but it can be effective if applied properly, but who’s supervising?
Some people go so far as to have surgery done to solve their psychological habits. Liposuction is one. Having all your fat sucked out doesn’t improve your health, it lessens your fat. Another much more dangerous and problematic surgery is to have your stomach stapled. In this process ones stomach is literally stapled to itself to decrease its size and therefore storage capacity. The problem with this is the huge loss of absorption area. All that space that used to break down food is no longer available. People who have this surgery done can only eat certain foods and can have very adverse reactions if they eat the wrong ones. But once again it is not a real fix. Even though one is strictly prohibited from many unhealthy foods, people have still been able to find all the high calorie good tasting food and gain back all their pounds. Now they are over weight and have a minute stomach, awesome.
By allowing these people to persist in eating so unhealthily we are doing them a grave disservice. If they can not muster the self control to stop themselves from eating a Big Mac, is it really moral to pamper them by supplying surgery that doesn’t actually work to fix them? It is persisting the week link, the “Reverse Darwin Effect” the week are no longer subjected to the elements, people can go from place to place in cars and elevators (or on those ridiculous little scooters i see people riding in). They don’t have to try, all the answers are given to them, its a business. But by supply such simple answers it destroys any control of population. In the wild “natural” state we humans lived in for so many years all these unhealthy people would die. Stopping those week genes from being continued in the world. Only the strong survived, those that were adapted to the climate. There is no climate anymore. Cold no longer exists with central heating, heat no longer exists with air conditioning; people can live any where.
What happens to all of these “naturally” unfit people, who don’t live up to the ape man standards, if there is a terrible world wide disaster. If there is some kind of disaster that destroys civilization and we have to live off of the carcases of endangered species, will we still feel the urge to help those who do not help themselves? A pandemic is the most eminent of world wide disasters. If the avian flu really blows up, who will be the first to die from it?
The only way to stop obesity is to fight it from its roots. One’s eating. If you eat unhealthy food you get fat. If you don’t exercise you get a little chub but it isn’t that bad. If you mix the two, you have a problem. Get on a good diet and exercise, don’t ask for some kind of miracle cure its in humane.
English is missing a word. I am always lost whenever I come to point where it would be necessary. When I do come up with a word, I never have confidence in it. And that sucks. It’s time for a new word to replace the void representing the third person gender-neutral singular. Here’s an example:
If an artist wants to be famous, ________ must have unique ideas.
Okay, let us examine the possibilities. If there is any context to suggest one gender or the other, you can use he or she with confidence. But if there is uncertainty, as there usually is, he is the correct choice of olde. I suppose that was the way things used to be. But as any language evolves, popular culture will change words and even the definition of correct grammar. He has become archaic, and even chauvinist. I suppose we have Latin to thank for that. Latin and its brood of romance languages use the masculine form, corresponding to he in English. But I think the English language has moved on.
Around the time of the Women’s Liberation movement, society decided that gender-specific words had to go. Equality for all words! Stewardess became flight attendant. Mailman became mail carrier. The replacement for he became he or she, or sometimes even the radical she. Using he or she became politically correct, and it still is today. It offends no one, it is neutral. But it still sucks. It is three whole words, for one thing. And it sounds very indecisive. The replacement also spawned a corollary, s/he. While you mostly see s/he in writing, it attempts to solve the three-syllable issue. But s/he suffers from a lack of eye-appeal and can take a second to pronounce. The quest continues…
The current trend is to use they, but that is by far the worst. They is just an evasion from the syllabic burden of he or she. It implies a plurality that simply does not exist. English teachers will not accept it, but most of my generation uses it without second thought. That could be remedied if a new word were to take its place.
So, what does that leave us with? We cannot use he, he or she, or they. That leaves us with precisely nothing. That is why I think we need a new word. It would solve all sorts of uncertainty problems. You could finally write in this situation with confidence, instead of rephrasing your sentences. I spent a little while brainstorming a word, and here is what I came up with: Shey.
If an artist wants to be famous, shey must have unique ideas.
It takes getting used to, but it works. It combines all the previous forms of he, she, and they. If someone can come up with a better idea, be my guest. But for now, shey is the solution!
I have been thinking about this for quite some time. After many of my friends diagnosed me with homosexuality, I have come to the conclusion that if everyone was just a little bit more gay the world would work a lot smoother. First off if guys were a little more gay I think that it would greatly increase the lucrativeness of our society and create a lot more balance in the world. If guys were just slightly more gay they would have a lot less hygiene problems, like smelling like ass all day. Who cares about how someone smells? If you’ve ever been sitting next to a guy who smells like he’s been swimming in his own sweat for hours on end, and then he starts hitting on your friend who’s sitting on the other side of you, you’d probably realize what a terrible condition poor hygiene is. Not only is it unhealthy but it is also very unattractive. If every guy at your school started smelling good, or even like nothing at all, I’m sure that you and I would like to hang out with them a lot more frequently than we would now. Disease is also a concern but I doubt that much would change just from a few baths/showers.
As well as creating a more sociable aura I think that a little bit more of fashion sense could help. I know that fashionableness doesn’t come naturally, but it is not hard to obtain. Just imagine for a moment what a nice environment that school or work would be like, if every man in the building was wearing something nice that looked nice on him. It’s not that hard. The one thing that I see that bothers me is guys that don’t even try to wear something that fits. I think the main reason that no guy tries to look nice is because it would tarnish his masculineness. “I can’t wear that, it makes me look gay.” Who cares. I wore a pink sweater that was almost skin tight and really short dress shorts one day, and at least three girls told me that i looked hot, not even mockingly. I had no fear of being called gay by someone because I know that there is nothing wrong with it. If people weren’t afraid of hurting their image I think that they would get a lot more action.
Diversity would be improved. Most of the gay people I know are easy going and don’t give a crap what anyone else does. How awesome would it be if every one was hella lax instead of lame and on your ass about stuff all the time. Every one would feel a lot less threatened by each other because instead of thinking ” She/he’s moving in on my action, She/he’s so much hotter than me” you’d just think “damn, what a hottie. I sure hope I get to be friends with that fine ass” And you wouldn’t end up being all protective and lame.
It would also partially solve the problem of the greatly increasing population. If every one was more gay they would feel much less obliged to bang their partner as much. Though the want for children would be just as great. There would be more control for those who have unwanted/unplaned/unexpected children.
In short, I am very radical and want wide spread great change in order for my strange plans to work.
Have you ever sat next to the person on the roller coaster who starts screaming before the drop? Part of you thinks, what the heck are they doing while the other part wishes that you could be that excited. I find that if I’m no longer motivated to let loose wild screams, the ride is no longer sufficiently fun. Last weekend I was at a water park with a fat innertube waterslide. Going by myself was fun, but riding with my sister was something else entirely. She launched into the experience screaming all the way–invoking hoots of laughter from me.
It’s all about SPIRIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last year at homecoming I was the biggest loser ever…maybe I dressed up for one of the days-color war- and that only involved wearing a pink shirt. BORING!! So this year there were a few changes. Each day I played up to the fullest- my pink costume for color war was augmented with hot pink shorts, pink socks, running shoes w/ pink on them, pink hair accessories, and somewhat pink sleeves. I attended all the activities (that I was around for) and even went to the homecoming game…even though it’s football, not particularly my favorite sport. AND GUESS WHO HAD FUN AT HOMECOMING THIS YEAR!!!! Me, that’s who.
It may take a little of looking like a complete idiot to get yourself into the spirit of the moment, but it’s ok…especially because even when you DO look like a complete idiot, everyone else wishes that they could be you…wishes that they wouldn’t mind looking like a complete idiot so they can steal a little bit of that excitement you’ve got. So scream down the 2 ft. water slide, wear a grass skirt and coconut bra on hawaiian day, make people laugh and you will too. The task now is to plan something spectacular for Halloween…
The First Noble Truth quite clearly states: Suffering and sorrow are part of life. Everyone everywhere is constantly subject to pain and suffering.
Andrew has advised me to futher my education on this topic before presenting my argument, but I’ve decided that all of your responses might be the best education I can get. Plus I like to spite Andrew.
Okay, here goes. For all my life, I’ve held the Buddhist religion in the highest esteem. In fact, I always felt it would be the first place I would go to if I ever decided to seek out my spirituality. I mean, Buddhists have never once in the entire course of history started a single war, so they have to have something going for them. But in this Religion unit in my World History class, I have come to the realization that the teachings of Buddhism directly contradict many if not most of the philosophies I currently employ to govern my life. Here’s why:
Siddhartha Gautama, while sitting under the famous bodhi tree, came up with four truths of life. They are as follows:
The First Noble Truth quite clearly states: Suffering and sorrow are part of life. Everyone everywhere is constantly subject to pain and suffering.
The Second through Fourth Noble Truths go on to say that all this pain and suffering come from people’s self-centered desires, and the only possible way to escape from all this pain and suffering is to rid oneself of all these desires and spend the remainder of one’s life following the Eightfold path and seeking enlightenment. Then, finally, if you succeed, when you die, you get to escape the pain and suffering and reach a state of nirvana. However, if you fail in your quest for enlightenment, you get reincarnated and have to endure at least another entire lifetime of pain and suffering.
First of all, I find much of this counterintuitive. I mean, as soon as you figure out how to enjoy life, that’s when you get taken away from it? It seems like if you’re enjoying life, you would want to stay in it for a while longer.
Second, I don’t think pain and suffering is a problem. I think you will lead a far better life if you can just accept it, rather than wandering around with a shaved head trying to get rid of it. That’s seriously what you’re supposed to do if you’re really trying to reach enlightenment. In the last part of your life, you’re supposed to get rid of all your possesions, shave your head, and go out wandering, and eat only a grain of rice a day. That sounds like a terrible way to deal with pain if you ask me.
Personally, I don’t lead a painful enough life to have developed my own concrete priciples about dealing with pain. I know the way to get the most out the life I have been given, and those are where my philosophies are based. But the fact that I don’t lead a painful life contradicts the first noble truth. Either that or I’ve reached enlightenment, which I doubt, because I still have the occasional material desire. I don’t think that these desires can take all the blame for causing people pain, it’s natural for humans to want things, and they may or may not be the cause of their sadness.
But what about people who are oppressed? It sounds like Buddhism just tells them to not want to have equal rights as everyone else, and then they can be happy. That, whether or not it is actually what Buddhism teaches, is bullshit. People need to fight for what they believe in, that’s way more important than finding a blissfully ignorant happiness. If Buddhism tells them to just accept that they’re worse than everyone else and not want to be anything better, then I have just lost all respect I ever had for it ever. Someone, please, tell me I’m wrong!!!
There are many thankless jobs out there, and if you’ve ever experienced the joys of refereeing you know exactly what I am talking about. The job itself is simple enough–run around and make sure the game goes right and nobody starts pulling nasty tricks (or in my case as a sideline ref stand there and point the flag in the right direction.) Most of the time the ride is smooth and nobody gets too mad, but then there are those coaches who seem to take certain pleasure in making the referee miserable. It doesn’t matter what the calls are or how the game is going, the ref is always biased, alway negligent, always a complete idiot. Their player trips over their own feet…”Are you watching the game ref?!” Their player plants an elbow into an opponent’s side…”What kind of penalty is that!!?” Their team is awarded a penalty kick…”That should have been a red card!!!” Oh yes, and yelling is a necessity. It doesn’t matter if the yellow shirt is five or fifty feet away; all accusations are at the top of their lungs. I should know this type of coach well; I used to have one. Being on the team of a coach like that is scary enough, but being the person holding the flag or whistle is even more unnerving. At our own Memorial Park, next to the high school, at a U-10 (!!!!) game, a referee was pummeled by an unsatisfied coach (maybe parent) for following the rules and not letting the team play because half their players were overage. (When you have 9 year old boys, one year makes a big difference size-wise). Thankfully I’ve never been in a situation that rough, but just getting yelled at as a sideline by an unhappy coach is bad enough–and that has happened to me.
Two weekends ago I worked at the Nevado Classic Youth tournament. Most of the games were very clean, easy to ref, pleasant to watch. There was one boy’s game, however, in which one team was very fond of “flaking,” which is exaggerating a fall in order to get a free kick, and the other had a coach who was, to say the least, verbal. A player would pull a spectacular dive off the ball and this coach would grumble and rumble and yell at our center about how he can’t let the other team “play him” like that, and this was after the center had warned the player who had played up the foul too much. It isn’t just the coaches who are unhappy, the parents as well get into the act, though usually not as openly. (However in the game afore mentioned, a parent had to be kicked out of the game due to some vulgar language directed at the other sideline.) Parents won’t yell at the ref as much as the coaches will, but every time I would trot past them, flag in hand, they would be commenting on how the ref is soo biased, how he doesn’t know what he is doing. I know that it shouldn’t affect me as much, I’m not the one being commented about, but it still is biting to hear my coworker talked about like that. These parents don’t realize that we as refs are doing the best we can and that their childs team is not in the right all the time. You’d think that these people would be a little more grateful that they have refs in the first place; their teams wouldn’t be able to play if they didn’t.
And what’s funny is that the people who seem to get riled up the least are the players themselves (though, especially in the case of a bad ref they will…first hand experience), it is mostly the coaches and parents who whine and complain and this is what, if anything, gets the players riled up. Referees just aren’t appreciated…fact of life. We are the enforcers, so as a result anything we say will fall in the wrong with someone or another. Perfection is expected, so every little wrong call is pounced upon while the right ones are overlooked. Such is the life of a lawkeeper…and it’s a good thing I get paid for it.