Jungle creatures

Most people are strange. I know they think I'm strange, but I wonder if they realize how strange I find most people? Their obsession with TV, their lack of interest in science and wonder, their disdain for learning and forbearance, their thirst for violence.

We claim to be an intelligent species, but it's obvious our technology is more advanced than our wisdom. And this isn't a complaint against the modern world; our willful stupidity outstripped steam when it was around and everything that came before. We're still jungle creatures.

You only have to look at everyone in this election -- in any election -- to see that we've not evolved into decent people. Check out Facebook to see how bitterly hateful we are to people who hold other beliefs, and God help them if they happen to be the wrong skin color or worship a stranger god. I'm tired of the useless politics. The blindness of believing that if only everyone believed like us, the world would be perfect. The blandness of conformity.

People tout science as our savior, but conveniently forget that very science is wielded by men who have shown themselves to be infinitely corruptible. There are no rational men. There are only men who have periods when their irrationality subsides for a season.

But darkness waits for us. Beneath a thin veneer of civilization and manners. And the veneer thins daily. People rail against politeness and call it "political correctness." We rejoice in the vulgar, the cheap, and the meaningless. We are the scum on the surface of the natural world.

Naturally there are exceptions. There are people -- peaceful warriors who attempt to hold back the darkness. We beat them down when they're alive and hold them up as heroes when they're safely dead. Every year we lose more of them.

This is the way of the world. The way of the jungle. Still crouching beneath the trees, looking out toward the wide and beckoning plain with fearful eyes. A whole wide wondrous world awaits, but we cling to the shadows. We cling to the darkness and the vulgarity and the filth.

Someday ... maybe we'll step forth. Maybe someday we leave the jungle behind. I hope we do. I hope we rise.

I hope we rise.

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