I think about change a lot. The current state of humanity is in this world is going... well, if you have ever read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn, it's about this gorilla, named Ishmael, who takes a student and starts teaching him about the declining state of our society, and says that it's like people trying to create flying machines, and just driving them off a cliff. At first, you're still in the air, so you feel like it's working. It's only after a while that you notice that the ground is getting nearer, and fast. This is how our society is, he says. That from the agricultural revolution, when men started claiming land as their own, this society has been in a gradual decline.

And that's how I feel. I'm sure most idealistic fucks like me do. And we will talk about it and talk about it and talk about it until we're blue in the face. Thing is, I am so sick of talking to people who feel the way I do about things. I mean, its all just really verbally patting ourselves on the back. Having a word-wank. What does that DO?

But, one of the reasons that (our... is it western society... i'll just keep saying "our", because it's the one I am a part of) society is the way it is is because people don't ever discuss. I mean, there are prizes out there for being the best at winning arguments. Winning. To get the other person to concede their point. Oh yes, you are soo clever. Congratulations. Convince the whole world to think like you and Hitler might have a party in his grave. I don't understand this mindset. I don't often have a point to concede-- when somebody asks my opinion, I will offer it (unless I'm drunk. When I'm drunk the entire world knows what I think about absolutely everything, because I am so important once I have a beer in me), but when it comes to yelling back and forwards trying to get the other person to be shamed into silence, I can't deal with it. It makes me want to hurt people. It's just so... egotistical. It seems like the holy grail of growing up is to get thyself an opinion. Get thyself an opinion and defend it to the death.Let it become your identity, so that the thought of changing it is terrifying. It becomes as scary as dying, because the self becomes wrapped around this opinion. If the opinion dies, then the self dies too.  He who is left standing, with their opinion intact wins. Or becomes prime minister. Or some shite like that.

Thing is, this doesn't DO anything. For the most part, the person shamed into losing grip of their word-sword walks away, tail between his legs, still thinking that he was right, and rephrasing things, re-arming for the next fight. DOES ANYBODY HERE EVER CHANGE THEIR MINDS ABOUT ANYTHING? What I like is a good discussion. "oh, you feel that way? Really? I never thought about it like that. Tell me more." I think it's a wonderful thing to have a discussion with somebody who feels so differently about something to me. It shouldn't be so much about winning points as it should be about expanding perspectives. Yes, I have opinions on things. No, they aren't carved in stone. I was crap at debate. I would be crap at politics. Unfortunately it's people like me who would be better equipped to run things because we don't see things one way. So who is left running the world?

I bring this up because so many people want to make change. I do too. But it's not our own point of views that we need to expand. My step-father is my complete opposite in many ways. The most right-wing conservative thinker I know. I forced him to watch "An Inconvenient Truth" with me, (note: not because I like the movie. I actually don't. It really annoys me. But it's the most concise summation of the global warming thing that I know of. If anybody knows something better, please tell.), and I realised halfway through, while my step-dad was huffing and puffing, about what utter shite it was, that things like this will never work. People who agree with it think it's wonderful. People who think that global warming doesn't exist will look at even the most accurate data (though that wasn't the case with A.I.T. I think...) and not believe it. People who want to believe could be told by a three year old, and want to change their lightbulbs. I don't think that presenting evidence is going to change anybody's minds-- they are clinging onto their opinions too tightly to let go and grasp something else. Keep in mind that we have all been practicing this our entire lives. We need to change our language somehow.

Presenting arguments is not going to work. We need to coax people into discussions. Put on your lowest-cut tops. Bat your eyelashes. Bake fucking muffins. (before any feminist arguments arise, I'm joking). Maybe if we don't get people on the defensive immediately, some change can happen. When it comes to the state of the planet, I see people pedalling their flying machines furiously, looking up at the sky, instead of at the approaching ground. But everybody's too scared to take their eyes off the sky for a second to try and find another way to fly.

What I'm saying isn't set in stone. I'm open to opinions. Let's discuss this.