Hypocrisy

Accusing somebody of being a hypocrite is like accusing them of breathing. Hypocrisy is a natural part of human nature. I know nobody who is immune from this fact of life. The problem isn't recognizing the hypocrisy in others, it's recognizing it in ourselves. As I've gotten older, I've realized that people just need to shut the hell up. Seriously. People love to jump up on a self-righteous soapbox, pound their hollow chests and tell others how to fix things and how the world should run. Shut up. Pound yer chest and yell at yourself in the mirror. That's where everybody needs to start don't you think? And yeah, I know I just contradicted the statement I just wrote about telling others how to live their lives. Yes, I'm a hypocrite but so are you.

So how about we have a National Day of Shut The Hell Up where everybody takes their own personal mental inventory eh? Where we all discover we are all hypocritwes, one and the same. A day where the person who rages against a big block business like Wal-Mart yet fills up at a gas station on the way to the protest shuts up. Doesn't he realize that the oil companies have more money than ANYBODY and do more damage that Wal-Mart ever could? Probably not. And he'll probably stop at a Target or a Safeway on the way home. Shut up.

The person who complains about the Immigration policy in Arizona yet doesn't step up to sponsor anyone for citizenship. The person on the other side of the coin who complains about illegal immigrants and how America needs more jobs, yet hires the aliens under the table, tax-free because they are cheap just to save a few bucks. Shut up.

The Christians who spout Bible verses who have next to no knowledge of the origins of that book and who constantly speak of a God of Love, yet use those same words from a loving God to harm, divide and judge other people. Shut up.

The pro-lifers who aren't standing in line to adopt all these unwanted babies and who cry out against abortion but yet are against teaching our children the merits of safe sex (and abistence does NOT work people, get real). The pro-choice people who use abortion as a regular birth control tool instead of using an actual birthcontrol tool. Shut up.

The people who protest gay marriage and call it sinful, yet are barely holding their own marriages together because they are out banging their neighbors or co-workers. Shut up.

The white guys who say they aren't racist yet sweat a little bit everytime a group of black guys walk by their car. And the black guy who complains about racsim yet always feels the need to remind us that he's black. Shut up.

Anybody who rails against one political party, yet blindly follows their own. Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Janene Garofalo, Anne Coulter, Michael Moore, Bill O'Reilly.....God, just shut up. Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!!

So let's all calm down and take all of our snappy, pithy bumper stickers off of our cars that let everybody know what we believe and how clever we think we are. I don't care who you're favroite political candidate is, or if you think meat is murder or you're a dickhead hunter. I don't care what church you belong to or if you think Jesus is Lord. I don't care if you just want to Co-exist. Everybody just knock it off. It all seems like just an effort to annoy the person next to them. Life is too complicated to be summed up in a clever slogan on a bumper sticker or T-shirt.

Everybody is breaking their shouldrs patting themselves on their backs. Everbody is talk, talk talking but nobody wants to listen. Everbody loves to point the finger but nobody wants to figure out their contribution to either the problem or solution.

And you know what? It's okay. That's who we are as a species today. A bunch of soft, big-mouthed idiots who when it comes right down to it, are too afraid to be genuinely inconvenienced or put out to really change anything. That includes me. Everybody is willing to go as far as the point of ALMOST being uncomfortable. I think once we all shut up and realize our own inherent collective hypcritical natures, the world would be a better place.