Let it not be said that having a healthy mindset based in awareness is vital in coping and understanding the everyday.

Bear in mind, “understanding” doesn’t necessarily equate to a good or fun time, mind you.

Feeling deeply cynical this day, which is a shame, not so much because I have a strong intuition to feel a heightened sense of selfishness from humanity at large, but due to the notion that I do not have more time to explicate about such feelings and thoughts, as the schedule is an unfortunately tight one today. However, I feel a mix of pride and relief in the face of continued fortune, as I have been able to maintain a streak of posting articles for 127 days now, which has been an absolute boon for my intentionally practiced discipline of both writing and critical thinking on a regular basis. The luck factor comes in the guise of not having been stricken with any serious enough feels to derail my energy levels completely, even when the “Saturdays Sorrows”, reared their ugly head.

I’m not surprised my cynicism seems to be at a fever pitch, if one is to look at the recent trend of focus my articles have predicated themselves upon. I think, due to my closeness with both the stealth genre, Metal Gear Solid 3 (MGS3) specifically, I feel a much greater sense of disappointment, in regards to the humanity that relates to the poor practices observed in conjunction with the gameplay, as seen in many of the problems I’ve detailed in the past several days, those problems being impatience, shallowness, slovenliness…the list goes on, really. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: believe people the first time they show you who they are, and boy oh boy, has humanity made a regular habit of showing its hideous ass, time and time again.

I think one of the things that struck me, upon further review of The Turn Signal Paradox article, was the very simplistic notion of just how ridiculous a reality it is, that speaking aloud or acknowledging that “doing better”, in whatever form that takes, seems somehow an unreasonable request or excessive expectation of others. Again, with many of the topics I’ve discussed recently, the conversation and subject matter is all very broadly speaking, seriously subjective, and inexact in content, but it follows some basic throughlines of common sense, and as a result, doesn’t feel inaccurate when you get down to the brass tacks of the matter. Thinking about it at the moment, it’s hard to say what is more likely, in terms of others seemingly not having the same level of ire towards such pathetic behavioral patterns, as I am forced into a seconds pause, when considering if people are just strangely charitable with benefits of the doubt on the behalf of others, or if that many people are simply not paying attention and or not caring in the grand scheme of things.

And though it seems like perhaps low hanging fruit to grab onto, when any number of people are indoctrinated or under the spell of something as insidious and exploitative as capitalism can be, being self-serving and money obsessed is par for the course. When one views the world as transactional, empathy seems like a selfish ripoff, which if true on any level in regards to the worst of us, especially those who have enough leverage to influence the world in a much more wide sweeping manner, a grim picture is painted for society at large.

While obviously, this rant of condemnation is more of an espousement of disappointment by in large at people in general…who then also happen to play stealth games, and not necessarily a laser focused dictate on stealth players specifically, but the idea stands in my mind, that if someone is inclined to act a certain way sometimes, or even in something as silly as a video game, it may give one a glimpse into how they regularly purport themselves in more serious affairs. If nothing else, I always advocate for radical skepticism, and warn others to always question and observe the reality that surrounds them, whether it be virtual or otherwise, in order to best understand themselves and existence at large, cause understanding self first is the only way to essentially create the entirety of reality thereafter.

That last point brings to mind that Carl Sagan quote “To make an apple pie from scratch, first you must create the universe.”

–Pashford