I'm a cynical bastard because I care so much, dammit

However, the reason that these things infuriate me is nothing to do with believing that people are inherently evil or anything like that. The reason I scream when I see yet another example of somebody getting things horribly, horribly wrong is that it's completely unnecessary. We're the most intelligent organism on the planet. Over a short period of time, we've managed to overcome most of the handicaps faced by every other life form we can find. We've created works of great beauty, artifices that inspire awe in all those who see them. We've come up with poetry, philosophy, the concept of society. Every time nature has hit us with some now and unpleasant selection pressure, we've adapted. We're wonderful. We could create a utopia. But no, you bastards keep screwing up. You start wars. You destroy ecosystems. You're nasty to one another. It's so damn frustrating I could cry. And I know that you'll carry on doing it regardless of how many times you're told not to. There'll be more disasters, more death and suffering, Things will happen to me that will make me punch things at the injustice of it all.

I'm angry and frustrated with you because I care, dammit. What would be the point otherwise?

I could consider myself a cynical person that cares too much, but I'm too cynical to accept that. Instead, I'd rather be pessimistically real. I'll get further into the analysis later, but I just would like to state that I greatly enjoy many of the accomplishments of our societies. As human beings, we have accomplished great things, but we have also produced great destruction. Sadly, the destruction is inevitable and utopia will always remain as an unattainable goal.

The simple and basic reason that we could never obtain utopia is because it is impossible that every person could see or desire the same idealistic society. It seems to me that each person has different wants. Of course, most people have the core desires of peace and happiness, but after that people's wants have as much variety as a hot dish potluck in northern Minnesota. There's virtually an unlimited number of possibilities that each individual person could use to craft their own unique life. Imagine the different lifestyles that exist in the different regions of your country alone, now raise that variation to some exponential power and you have reached a fraction of the difference between all people.

The problem is that everyone who envisions a utopic existence believes that it is very close to the lifestyle that they already live. As "highly civilized" nations, we believe our arts and technologies to be of great importance. There are plenty of cultures that see our reliance on technology as wasteful and spiritless. I myself am guilty of considering other lifestyles to be ignorant and pointless. That's because my experience has taught me one thing, while other experiences have molded other people. In my case, I can see that many people have similiar notions for happiness and that a minimal compromise could lead to a mutual relationship of respect and no conflict, but I am not deluded to the point to think that my way of life would ever be universally accepted, nor am I willing to make a drastic change to my values.

Inevitably, a conformation to a utopic life would require the impression of elements from someone's lifestyle onto somebody else's lifestyle. Eventually, the impressed would decide that a limit had been reached. Whether the limit was cultural, religious, or just plain psychotic, a point would come where the person or culture would take any action necessary to prevent the limit from being crossed. This isn't terribly cynical, it's just the way it is. While many are moderate, there will always be extremes. Frankly, I wouldn't like to be without the extremes because sweet isn't half as sweet without the sour, and I would rather die than live in someone else's vision of utopia.