Post by pixie on Mar 5, 2013 6:12:00 GMT
So, this is something that's been bothering me a lot lately. I've had several discussions with my roommate lately that have just left me furious. I don't think she's a bad person and she can be really funny and she's good to live with, but recently I've realized that she's been raised to be totally apathetic towards people she doesn't know and it really upsets me. I feel like, if this person I know who I think of as a good person can just NOT CARE about some of these things, no wonder humans are so douchey to each other.
Here's a couple of examples. I'll start with the smallest one first.
The other day I saw a guy drop some money on the bus as he was getting off. I was getting off at the same stop, so I picked it up and chased him down and gave it back. When I told my roommate about the incident and how I had to run to catch up with him, she said
"I would have just kept the money."
And when she said that, I just thought, "you're an a**hole." Because we're in school and none of us have money and that could literally be his last $20 and why on earth would you ever think you're entitled to someone else's money, just because they dropped it?? Sure, if I found a $20 bill on the sidewalk with no one around, I'd keep it. I have no way of returning that money and I have no idea who dropped it. But if I see someone drop money, I'm not just going to take it. That just seems abhorrent to me.
But that was just a little incident.
Today I watched a video about the wealth distribution in America. It's so ridiculously skewed and awful and watching it really upset me because (even though I live a perfectly comfortable life and it doesn't really hurt me that much to have this huge skew) I'm genuinely upset that people are living in extreme poverty while other people are living in extreme wealth. There is nothing (no amount of hard work) that is worth that much more than whatever it is the poor people are doing. That's just wrong. I brought this up to my roommate, just assuming that as a decent person this would bother her and she was just like "It would suck to be the poor person, but if I was a CEO that would be awesome and I wouldn't want to give anyone any of my money either."
I actually wanted to punch her. It's like if it doesn't directly effect her, she doesn't care. How can she not care? I mean, no, I don't expect her to go marching around carrying a sign and boycotting things, but something like that isn't that hard to take a stand against. It's all about paying attention to politicians and their agendas and electing the right people into office. As an average person, staying informed about issues and the political stances of people is how you're going to affect that. But she just doesn't care because she's got a fine life. It makes me so angry because I genuinely feel that I would rather give up some of the comforts I have in my life and have to pay more taxes and such for the good of others who have nothing and work just as hard as me.
I swear I'm not trying to sound like a pious obnoxious person or something. I was just raised to never believe that I was entitled to anything more in life than anyone else and I genuinely am upset that other people feel that way.
meh. okay. rant over.
Here's a couple of examples. I'll start with the smallest one first.
The other day I saw a guy drop some money on the bus as he was getting off. I was getting off at the same stop, so I picked it up and chased him down and gave it back. When I told my roommate about the incident and how I had to run to catch up with him, she said
"I would have just kept the money."
And when she said that, I just thought, "you're an a**hole." Because we're in school and none of us have money and that could literally be his last $20 and why on earth would you ever think you're entitled to someone else's money, just because they dropped it?? Sure, if I found a $20 bill on the sidewalk with no one around, I'd keep it. I have no way of returning that money and I have no idea who dropped it. But if I see someone drop money, I'm not just going to take it. That just seems abhorrent to me.
But that was just a little incident.
Today I watched a video about the wealth distribution in America. It's so ridiculously skewed and awful and watching it really upset me because (even though I live a perfectly comfortable life and it doesn't really hurt me that much to have this huge skew) I'm genuinely upset that people are living in extreme poverty while other people are living in extreme wealth. There is nothing (no amount of hard work) that is worth that much more than whatever it is the poor people are doing. That's just wrong. I brought this up to my roommate, just assuming that as a decent person this would bother her and she was just like "It would suck to be the poor person, but if I was a CEO that would be awesome and I wouldn't want to give anyone any of my money either."
I actually wanted to punch her. It's like if it doesn't directly effect her, she doesn't care. How can she not care? I mean, no, I don't expect her to go marching around carrying a sign and boycotting things, but something like that isn't that hard to take a stand against. It's all about paying attention to politicians and their agendas and electing the right people into office. As an average person, staying informed about issues and the political stances of people is how you're going to affect that. But she just doesn't care because she's got a fine life. It makes me so angry because I genuinely feel that I would rather give up some of the comforts I have in my life and have to pay more taxes and such for the good of others who have nothing and work just as hard as me.
I swear I'm not trying to sound like a pious obnoxious person or something. I was just raised to never believe that I was entitled to anything more in life than anyone else and I genuinely am upset that other people feel that way.
meh. okay. rant over.