Pointless

I was reading the newspaper online and saw a story about a group of people planning (and then carrying out) and anti-war with Iraq protest here in Minneapolis today. This got me wondering, what are protests supposed to do?

I read many of the quotes from people who were participating in the protest and they all said things to the effect of “I’m doing this because I want to be heard.”

Ok, one little question…What good do protests do?! Who listens to protesters (besides other protesters)? Yeah, ok, that was two questions.

I think that people get too caught up in trying to change things. As Marilyn Manson says in a song from Holywood, and as history has shown time and time again, “Nothing’s gonna change the world.” At least not the way most people want to change it.

It seems funny to me that so many people are convinced that humans are generally “good” and that we can change things for the better. The reason I think it’s funny is because these people are only trying to convince themselves that it’s true so that they can try and glean some hope from the fact that people are good, or so they can make themselves feel better about being human.

Humans aren’t naturally good though. Want proof? How many children have to be taught to lie or steal or to be mean or hurt others? Not a one. The things that parents spend years trying to teach their youngsters is to do the exact opposite of what comes naturally to us all. People need to be taught to share, to consider other people’s feelings, to be truthful in all situations (although as much as people would like to say that they actually DO all those things now, they’re only lying to themselves. They may not do it as often or as blatantly as children do, but they still do. You can’t escape what you truly are).

So people try and try to make the world a better place, unable to accept the fact that their efforts are futile.

Those who are caught up in vain attempts to improve the world and humanity would probably ask me a question or two to the effect of, “Well what should we do? Nothing? Just give up?” To that, I say “Yes.”

Why waste time and effort trying to prevent the inevitable? Why get a sense of purpose from doing something that is going to be undone and forgotten?

So yeah, basically I think protests and things like that are a useless waste of time and I laugh at the people who think they’re accomplishing any more than freezing their butts off from standing in the cold for so long.

“Nail in my hands from my creator

You gave me life now show me how to live.”- Audioslave