I think society, as a whole, is incredibly ignorant, and becoming increasingly ignorant, as it refuses to try to understand that which it does not. Or, maybe it just won't admit that it understands. It just shuts out anything that the whole decides must be rejected.

Communism. Socialism, more so. Communism... What a great idea with great flaws. Socialism... what an even greater idea with fewer flaws. I'm not quite sure what's so horrid about economic equality. What's so scary about socialism? I hate the negative spin people give that word. They just seem stupid and uneducated... Or maybe they just can't assess what they've been taught. I'm to the persuasion that FDR is/was the best American president and economist. How ironic that he happens to be a socialist. The New Deal, in retrospect, is socialism.

I think that those who oppose Communism are just like the leaders of Communist nations. Both are very, very scared of economic equality. It's human nature, I suppose. It's human nature to be greedy, to want money, or status, or what have you. But, again, it's also human nature to want to bend a person's spine until it snaps when you find out they've gone behind your back... And this certainly isn't the right way to go about things, even though it seems to be the current foreign policy of dominance.

To that extent, "terrorists" and "counter-terrorists" are pretty similar too. We're both acting upon basic instinct to crush our opponents and fear. In the middle-east, they've fallen into a trend of a fear of Westernization and maybe even Democracy. In the West, we are being told to fear the Eastern threat, and ultimately fear the lack of Democracy out there. Subsequently, we're both trapped a whirlwind of bad choices and stopping at practically no barriers of right-and-wrong... er... pulling the trigger... just to feel safe.

On a less political note, melancholy and suicide. Melancholy is the most important emotion. Without it, the world is crap. It brings light to the more enjoyable times. The good times. Life in general is not worth living without good, solid depression. I think depression allows us to rationalize... It certainly does me. In fact, I sometimes enjoy being upset or sad, because I know in the big scheme of things, better times will come. Not to say I am a "glass half full" type of guy, I'm far from that. I find myself perpetually pessimistic. I've even come to the personal conclusion that being optimistic will only lead me to greater disappointment. Being pessimistic is probably leading me to a great deal of disappointment, but at least it's controlled. Without sadness, happiness just becomes a blur of bullshit that would be, and rightfully, taken for granted.

And suicide is a healthy conclusion to make of these equally healthy emotion. Maybe not the act of suicide, the thought of suicide. I think that just about every adolescent boy in the history of man, myself included, has spent nights laying in bed pondering about suicide and premature death for long hours. The mentally fit knows it's not worth it, overall, but that's no reason not to think of it. It's worth thinking about, on the basis that it'd bring an end to your mess. It's not worth acting on, on the basis that it'd bring an end to everything else. It's all just a system of checks and balances that the mind needs. For some reason, individually, people can comprehend this, but in masses and social pools, people tend to spit on it and ignore the regularity of this, while they go against what they know is right, at the fear of seeming mentally unfit. And it boils down to fear again. They fear themselves. They fear others. It's a complete social and personal mind-fuck.

It's a basic instinct or emotion. And that's a mind-fuck in itself. People are too afraid to act on basic instinct and emotion. Let's use that whole "love at first sight" notion glorified in art... cinema in particularly. How many Helen Hunt movies are going to bitch and moan about love at first sight? I'm certain love at first sight exists, but no one ever acts on it as that alone. Not like a movie, a romantic comedy, or whatever. People always find bull shit excuses to get to know someone, when they know their own intentions all along. No one will ever be able to go to the doorstep of someone they barely know, and say "I love you". And even if they could, that person would probably assume the other to be a whacko, and turn them down. It all links back to fear. Fear of others. Fear of what one might think. Fear of what one will do. And so on. And it's fucked.

Just some thoughts that've been running through my head as of late, and a few thoughts that've been running through my head for years.