A recent epiphany...

I've recently been between rants on a lot of things. The struggle with living up with the title I've given myself - The Baltimore Cynic - is that it can be hard to live up to the title. With so few hours in the day, is it possible to scribe your contempt for so many things in so little time? Unfortunately I have failed to some extent because I haven't really articulated my disgust recently.

In the process of searching for a good topic to write about I found myself asking why I haven't been able to explain my disgust. And I think I found it. Honestly - the issue is not one person, racism, or anything like that. The issue, my fellow cynics, is people.

In the past I've expressed contempt for a student who was unacceptably rude. The fact is that this is something bred by academia, which was bolstered by people. The first recipient of a PhD, the first law student, and the first doctor weren't told to treat people in such a manner. Yet, remarkably, this mentality has infiltrated the world.

I complained in the past about the corrupt politicians who do anything and everything to further their interests. Many people I would consider friends can blame this on corrupt parties that allow such travesties to occur. However, the fact is people vote for these people. People support these policies by voting out effective politicians in favor of those with a catchy tune. As much as I dislike how dishonest people like Martin O'Malley and Sheila Dixon for being photo-opportunistic liars and cheats, the people apparently support them. So perhaps I can't blame them for playing the game better than most.

Finally, one of the biggest sources of ire is crime in Baltimore, my former stomping ground. Although crime here is a dismal issue I encounter on a nearly daily basis, I believe that if the people here were genuinely concerned about it then it wouldn't be an issue here. However, I suppose that they don't want to support tough decisions like holding criminals accountable for their actions.

In essence, as frustrated as I am with the current state of things in my city, my state, and indeed, my world, it is not appropriate to incorrectly assign blame. As such, I'll blame the 99.9% of those who make our world as terrible as it is. As time passes, I'll posts more examples of those that do and don't fit into this description.

That's all for now, thanks for listening...