So, can any of you give me one reason why I should give a shit about the future?

[Greyhound]

I am an over-educated, under-employed, post boomer that has been, for my entire life, relegated to following the largest generation in history, cleaning up their crap, all the while hoping that they would drop a few crumbs so that I could survive another year.

I never bought into the "God will reward you after you're dead" bullshit (they should have invented a better lie to sucker in those of us that can actually think), and I have never felt the need to create a bunch of ankle-biters to "look after me when I'm old".

Because of the fact that my head is full of largely useless knowledge, I have no worries about the earth surviving our hyper-wasteful plundering and unprecedented spew of toxic flotsam. I has been around for well over 4 billion years and our brief episode of filth production will not make any significant difference whatsoever in the long term, although it will be too bad about the horrible suffering and extinction of some truly remarkable species that had the bad luck to rise during our toxic garbage-fest.

I've grown and witnessed the utter indifference of what we cynically name humanity, all the while seeing that this is nothing more than a lie we tell ourselves to justify how we fucked over somebody else so that we could gather some meaningless, short-term benefit, even when it makes no difference in our immediate circumstance, all the while telling ourselves that we are really "good people".

We revere the worst thieves for how cleverly they steal from others and blame the unfortunate for some undefined lack, and truly believe that somehow, someday, we will be the beneficiaries of this perverted system of corruption. We honestly believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that if we "Build a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door", and never consider the fact that if we were to build a better mouse trap, the Acme Mouse Trap Company, Inc. would either simply steal the design with the blessings of the court, or sue us out of existence.

We pretend that what our nation is, is some kind of superior model upon which the utopia we envision can be constructed, while actively resisting and preventing any measure that might make it possible. After all, if Paris Hilton were to have to pay taxes on the unearned fortune she got, how could I pass my imagined empire on to my broodlings?

So tell me, why should I make any effort, whatsoever, to help you? You, who will literally step on another human being, or pretend that they don't exist, to avoid dealing with their inconvenient existence. How many closets do you have in your house right now, that are full of clothes that you are too fat to fit into anymore, that you are "saving" because someday you will get off your ass and work yourself back into them? It is cold tonight and somebody will die because you live a life of delusion.

How much willyou spend on lunch Monday? $10, $12, more? Are you even conscious that the people you ignored getting into that restaurant could eat for 2 or 3 days on half of that?

To the fortunate few that slum here to assuage their guilt and pretend they are in touch with the "little people", are you honestly unaware that you can literally turn somebody's life around with virtually no effort or sacrifice on your part by simply talking to them and making a few phone calls or, god forbid, writing a check for less that your pay to go out to dinner? Do you think that by saving a few hundred bucks today, you will become tomorrows Bill Gates, or are you simply reveling in the fact that you can punish these meaningless proles by pretending that it is more than one person can change?

Will you vote for a corporate whore because you are afraid that the demise of the insurance industry, or the multitude of "defense contractors" you've invested in, will cause your portfolio to drop a few points, even though you know that they are enriching you and themselves by murdering, stealing, and bringing misery to thousands or millions of others? Do you really think that the Wackenhut rent-a-cop at the gate will stop a desperate person from coming into your house and killing you for the baubles he can get to live another day? I don't believe it, I think you are smarter than that, and therefore are simply partaking, and perpetuating, in a barbaric system of the stronger preying on the weaker.

This being the case, I ask again, why should I care about you? Why not just take what I want from you? Why should I suffer your existence at all?