Dissapointment, and an Opinion

I was disappointed today.

One of my blogging heroes, V at Violent Acres, made a broad, sweeping generalization that smacks of ignorance for a person of her clear logic and rational intelligence.

She said:

The problem with Atheists is most of them are snobs.

She went onto describe them as "dumb" and "fighting a losing battle", amongst other things.

This doesn't particularly sound like something she would say in a rational state of mind. Generalizations like that are akin to saying "MOST Catholic priests diddle little boys", "MOST protestants gaybash and witchunt", or " MOST Sicilians are part of the mob".

In a repeating cycle, people from any one group who are at the fundamentalist end of the extreme are also the loudest. These are the people who want to make their arrogant and misguided views known to the world with as much muster and fanfare as they can possibly provide. Their voice does not represent the whole, rather, it makes the rest look bad. Most people are trying to live their lives, not host rallies and websites and posters that scream to the world "Everybody that believes anything other than we do are retards!"

People who spearhead fundamentalist and extreme, loud and obnoxious initiatives are all the same people; they are merely waving a different banner.

I do, however, have an opinion that can be construed as a broad, sweeping generalization.

I do believe that most people live for themselves, and work towards mostly their own interests. It's an evolved trait that's good for the survival of you or your own, but in this rapidly constructed "village" of millions and billions, there can be adverse effects.

For example, next election pay attention to what many people are saying around you. I bet it'll be something like "but this candidate is going to slash taxes, that's good." or "But this candidate will be giving us more money for child tax credit! I have six children, that's good! Vote for him!"

Very few people make statements concerning the policies that affect the good of the whole, unless it's a popular topic such as the environment. And that's only because it's a bandwagon opinion, and they're whole heartedly jumping on board (only after ensuring their candidate makes an election promise that benefits them directly).

Politicians cater to the people's whims. More so, they cater to the whims of the large conglomerates, and the large conglomerates want to ensure that the people are consumer whores. It benefits them, and what benefits them benefits the politicians.

In essence, an entitelist "not my fault" attitude is good for big business, and what's good for big business is good for the politicians. That attitude changes little among the first world, and you don't get much change between major parties, only superficial differences.

In the futuristic world of Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, the only people on Earth who are allowed to vote are people who are classed as "citizens". Sure, you can live your life without getting your citizenship. You can get a job, you can start a company, you can be the CEO of a major corporation and rake in billions of dollars if that's your aptitude. But unless you're a citizen, you can't vote.

Citizens are those who have served time in the military. Hard time. That's the only way you can get your citizenship, and that's the only way you will ever be allowed to vote.

The reason this system was instilled? Because those who have served time in the military are trained to think of the good of the whole above the good of themselves. That attitude is carried forward to the polls.

The world he created does not suffer from a draining social system, rampant frivolous lawsuits and a self centered attitude. The economy is strong, taxes are low, and people are happy. The only real threat to this planet comes from off of it, from an alien species.

Call me jaded, as good as this sounds, I don't think it will ever be possible to achieve. At least, not in the very near future.

Oh, and just for the record, the definition of atheist is as follows:

atheism is the absence of belief in deities

That's it, that's all. Anything further to that is the opinion of one person, or a group of people, and has no bearing on anyone else.

My personal feelings are a lack of empirical evidence, and the entirety of monotheistic religions claim they are correct and insist that everyone else is wrong. Accordingly, even the subsets of the same religion cannot agree; so which religion would I choose when all of them are as right, and as wrong as the next?

The answer is none of them.

At the same time, I cannot prove that said deities do not exist, and a particular religion is wrong. I believe that all have the right to practice what they believe, as long as it does not do any harm, physically or emotionally, to their own or to anyone else.

I believe in the RIGHT for anyone to uphold their own personal belief without harrasement.

And I expect the same from everyone else.

Yea, I was rambling, and I mixed in two different topics together. It's my blog and I'll do what I wanna!

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