Have a Little Faith
Many of my posts actually come from the comments I get on another post that I wrote. Ironically, the people that like to disagree with me are the ones that often fuel my fire.
Ain’t that a bitch.
Anyway, the other day I got a pretty well written post that disagreed with me. The person who wrote it was obviously intelligent and had the ability to apply logical thinking. It was on my McDonald’s article, where I bitched out the people that complained about getting fat from McDonald’s food. Their main point of contention was that the big businesses lied when they were putting out their advertising. That they tricked people into eating their food. That they weren’t being honest and upstanding. That they ignored the health of the public in the interest of making money.
I call that capitalism.
Mainly, the point I got from their comment was that people are sheep that will believe anything that is advertised to them by a cartoon clown, or packaged in shiny wrapping.
On that, I’m calling bullshit.
I know I sound like a cynic most of the time, but I have something to share with you all. I don’t truly believe that most people are deep down idiots. Sure, I’m pretty sure I’m smarter than most people. I’ve said that more than once, but that doesn’t make everyone else morons.
It just makes them average, and average doesn’t immediately equal ‘sucker’.
Back in the days of Big Tobacco, when Phillip Morris was telling everyone that smoking was fine, I’m sure there was a person or two that coughed up a big green lump of lung tissue in the morning and said ‘yeah, right’.
George Orwell’s book ’1984′ is one of my absolute favorites. What can I say? I enjoy a sad, but realistic ending. But there was one thing I always disagreed with. It was this statement. “If there is hope, it must lie with the proles.”
The proles in the book were the people that made up the majority class, in Orwell’s dystopian novel. The proles ran the show without recognizing their power. They only cared for immediate satisfaction and were happy as long as their masters were willing to provide alcohol, sex and violence. In essence, the proles were entirely useless as long as their mommy’s and daddy’s left the alcohol cupboard open and the television on.
At heart, I am a hedonist. I make a point of enjoying life for all its physical pleasures. But at the same time, I know good from bad. I know when to stand aside and I know when to argue. I might be a cynic, but I still have a voice. And that voice says this.
People are not proles.
They are smart. They know when they are being conned and they know when to say enough is enough. As long as I believe that the majority of people out there are capable of logical thought, as long as I believe that people can take what they’ve learned and make there own decisions, I will never call people proles and I will never believe that my fellow human beings need a babysitter.
A truly intelligent being will never need to be told what they know to be true in their heart.
A truly intelligent being won’t need a surgeon generals warning over the dangers of getting shitfaced and driving. They will be able to figure that out on their own accord.
A truly intelligent being wont get upset because the coffee the ordered was hot or the bacon they asked for came with saturated fat.
A truly intelligent being knows that Snooki offers no valuable parenting advice, that Dr. Phil can’t tell you how to lose weight and that not everything that Oprah says is right.
I have a little faith in my fellow man. For ever one Stella, suing McDonald’s over a hot cup of coffee, I know there are 1000 people calling her a fucking idiot. For every idiot out there who watches “Honey Bo Bo” and learns a valuable life lesson, I know there are 20 more who call it showbiz shenanigans.
The idiots do not rule the world. There are intelligent people out there and we make up the majority. I know we are not alone. Just being born middle class did not render us all idiots. We might not have money, but we do not cater to idiocy to serve your agenda. We are smart, we have hope, we are the future.
And we are not your proles.
