If one chooses to live according to one's true principles as much as possible, then surely one cannot avoid the local day-to-day situations where you find yourself in amongst a bunch of people who are acting so far from the ideals you hold dear, how can you not act if you see something, if you feel that you could perhaps be of
any help?
I found myself in a situation just that yesterday as I was on the bus back from the studio. I was sitting on the bus talking to a friend listening to possibly the foulest example of 'working class' peasants squabbling helplessly amongst themselves. Crammed onto a large metal vehicle with seats small enough to only
just fit on, tightly packed into neat lines amongst the coughs, snot and filth that spews from their bodies. This is my bus journey home from uni. The summary of the situation is three fully grown men were clearly intoxicated - at about 4 in the afternoon - sitting on the back of a bus, riling up a poor young girl, about 20-21? who was clearly having problems raising and disciplining her three kids, no father in sight. But she was obviously able to stand up for herself; clearly hardened by her environment, she ended up launching a tirade of anger towards one man in particular who was the most intoxicated and unpleasant. She got off the bus with her three kids and then like the coward he was, he then proceeded to loudly and vilely slag her off to the whole bus, everyone simply trying to get home from a long days work, and to top it off, another bunch of little kids got on and sat in the same seats just in front of them. It got to the point where I couldn't stand just listening anymore, out of nowhere I said something along the lines of, "Come on mate, there's little kids sitting right there, you can't really be talking as if there's only adults around." and in response I received a tirade of abuse and hollow incoherent excuses,
"WHAT! HU DA FUK DO YI THINK YI ARE LYK? WOT DA FUK HAS IT GOT TO DO WITH YOU, YOU GINGER CUNT!", "I DIDNT EVEN KNA THA WUS KIDS THERE MAN" and "Who the fuck does this kid think he is?!? I gan sarve me cuntry n come back n get this fuckn shite, FUCK ME MAN" - hahaha, this was one of the funniest.
But basically, I intended to try and shelter these innocent kids from the harsh, brutal world that is the north east of England and in doing so almost got into a fight with three idiots who were telling me, "you wanna hope you don't get off at the same stop as us" so I ended up negating my whole argument slightly by swearing at them and stating "I divn't give a fuck if I do, I'm not scared mate.", but - why should one waste good manners and intelligence on such sacks of decaying filth? It would be wasted.
I allowed myself to succumb to anger but I was doing the right thing. After they got off the bus, the whole bus just felt a lot easier, atmosphere-wise. I could tell everyone else was thinking exactly what I was, but everyone is too cowardly to say anything. I believe this to be quite significant in the bigger picture of things, as if you don't speak out when you see injustice and things that you could perhaps change for the better, you have become part of the problem. The wider problem our planet faces; the enormous blob of ignorance present amongst our species in 2013. Fuck. People want someone else to speak out, and never want to themselves because it may just rock their cushty little bubble they have going for themselves. This is a huge problem. I ended up shouting at men in front of me, "where was your opinion on the matter there?!? where's your balls? where's your spines? this is the problem, when we see things that are wrong we don't speak out against them", then one of the guys montioned towards me showing me a cast and an uncomfortable smile towards me as to say "that's my excuse", and I obviously understand, but the rest of the bus was full of men who were not willing to speak out, not even when someone else does, they aren't even willing to back the person who has the balls to speak out. We're fucked. 'We're' meaning lower class peoples.
Men are no longer real 'men'. And women are no longer real 'women', they're victims (as a whole).
I feel like a lion amongst a bunch of cowardly hyenas.
I urge you all to speak out every time you see an injustice, and to support those who do. We can make our world a better place, we just need to start doing it at a local level. Help those around you if you are fortunate enough to be able to see heir plight and the causes which have burdened them with such problems. WE need to do something.
I can't wait till I get out the ghetto.
