Complacency

2003-01-07 - 9:16 a.m.

com�pla�cen�cy (n.) A condition of intellectual forfeit marking the end of youthful inquisitiveness.

Remember when you were knee high to a grasshopper? Remember the "Why?" game where you would ask "Why?" of every situation imaginable, and of every response? What the hell ever happened to that?

In my mind, it seems that a great many things would be different about our world if people would just inquire about things ad nauseum. Why do we have to war with people for oil we don't need? Why did the guy who the people didn't vote into office get to be President? Why does the media even bother running a story about human cloning that comes from a cult of whack-os? (I mean, really people, is there anyone who honestly thinks aliens called "Elohim" made mankind as clones, then came back to tell a French dude in a volcano during the '70's?)

The veritable corna copia o'shit that's going on in the current events section of life as we know it seems to be going unchecked. Are we being bred by elders too lazy to keep answering our questions? Is it easier to make someone feel bad about asking questions than it is to admit you don't know the answer? Perhaps it's that we're afraid of having to face the fact that the answers to the most poignant questions are stupid. That's right, stupid answers.

"WHY X?"

"BECAUSE N."

"BUT THAT'S STUPID."

"YES, WELL, ER, IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY, BLAH BLAH TRADITION, BLAH RULES, BLAH CAN'T CHANGE THINGS, BLAH DON'T ROCK THE BOAT, BLAH NOT MY FAULT."

I have to imagine that similar scenarios are to blame for our complacency as we get older. The more you ask questions and receive unfulfilling smoke screens or thinly veiled untruths as answers, the less likely you are to ask questions again.

Why?

Back to work, clean your room, I dunno, because, why not, who knows, and that's just the way it is.