Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. Should you be wondering of that which upon your eyes are most probably set, fear not. The following is but a highly opinionated ramble that would be best avoided and shunned, should your character dearly appreciate the concept of sanity. My sincerest apologies are due and given for the lack of quality in the following piece. Thank you for reading this little; I'd request for you to "enjoy," but I wouldn't want anyone to try and establish any sort of unattainable goal.

Rather uncomfortably insincerely,

Aether

Fact: As children, we are sent through school and are fed the concept of self-esteem.

Fact: Modesty is not taught in public schools.

Fact: Altruism is not taught in public schools beyond Kindergarten.

Fact: Personal sacrifice is not taught in public schools beyond Kindergarten.

Undying opinion: Ignorance &endash; a veil of egoism &endash; is cultivated, but never properly removed.

Pitiful reality: This subject is considered so "touchy" as to never be even once considered in lives obviously far too many.

In too many men(2) in this world, the inherent puerility that resides in and accompanies incorrigibility is yet breathing. "Open-mindedness" has been reduced to an empty word. Defeatism has become a concept only pursuable and practicable by "martyrs of sensitivity and rectitude." People have been reduced to blathering grousers, unable to accept their own idiocy and preserving it through the medium of expletives and petty, pejorative phrases. Welcome to today, I hear you mutter.

You may be wondering: "What exactly is he getting at here? Sure, people are stupid and can't accept being wrong, but that's flagrantly obvious." Well, I'll tell it to you succinctly and straight(3) - only egotistical ignoramuses will imply the inverse application of an accusation of any sort. If that didn't make sense, let me explain. For example, Joe is walking into a store and trips on his way in, smashing his thick skull into the tiled floor. Fred, already in the store, laughs at him for his ungraceful catastrophe, although Fred himself has fallen twice before he reached his current location. As Joe picks himself up and walks away, Fred shouts, "Haha, Joe! You're so uncoordinated!" Joe says "And you think you're coordinated?"

There is the fault. The divine error. The stupidity worthy of being addressed by a divine ramble, composed by yours truly. Fred did not say he was any more coordinated. Fred is not any more coordinated. Joe seeks to imply the inverse application of Fred's remark because he himself does not want to accept that he is uncoordinated. Joe seeks to somehow compensate for his lack of coordination by declaring that his coordination exceeds Fred's, an act that somehow negates the fact that Joe is uncoordinated. It does not. It does not matter at all whether or not Fred is coordinated. Joe is an idiot who wants to blame his problems on Fred. In another example, let me show you…

An amateur basketball player, Adam, tries to shoot from the three-point line. He misses pitifully, and the ball falls directly into the hands of his opponent, Johnny. Johnny wails, "Gwah! That shot was pathetic! You're horrible at shooting!" Johnny himself, however, is no better. In fact, he is worse; he has much trouble shooting from a few inches directly above the basket. Exasperated, Adam screams "Shut up! You don't even have the right to say that!" In this way, Adam has somehow exterminated this truth that Johnny has projected upon him &endash; that he is a bad shooter. However, if a professional basketball player had told Adam this, Adam would not be entitled to make that comment; he would merely have to accept that he was a poor shooter. In this sense, Johnny's words somehow have less power or emphasis than do this anonymous basketball player's words. The statement has a different value when it comes from a different mouth &endash; and may I inquire, my fair ladies and gentlemen, what sense does this hold?

To ascribe value to words and to claim that they may be dispelled by the speaker's incompetence is blasphemy. It is utterly atrocious of a concept. Words are words and should have meanings independent of their mutterers. People make these claims for the personal satisfaction of believing that these true claims are somehow now invalidated; that somehow, one's own poor trait has been disregarded and is simply no longer existent. It is only logical to judge the ideas that come from a person's mind, not the person whose mind has an idea. On the other hand, however, only someone with a large ego will be offended by the above scenarios. Only an egoist will take offense to his own lack of ability. Let me explain &endash; if Johnny from the above story is an egotistical moron, he will take offense and respond, "Shut up, you idiot! I hate you, <some inappropriate expletive>!" for he has no grounds with which to defend himself. All he is looking for is a chance to succeed in this competition that Adam has established through his former statement. Should Johnny be an intelligent being who is calm and aware, however, he will respond with something similar to, "Hmm. Well, yes, perhaps I do not possess and abilities greater than your own, but that does not change the fact that you are a bad shot. I used no relative terms &endash; I never said I was better than you or that you were worse than me. I declared the fact that you are a poor shot and I refuse to engage in a mindless quarrel about it. I needn't be better than you to know that you are not a good shooter. Neither am I. We are both bad shooters, and that's all that there is to my words." Johnny probably has a large attention span, the ability to talk very fast, and a lot of breath. I envy Johnny.

Well, that's it for today folks; I'm all exhausted of incoherent ideas to lob at you. Remember, if anyone tries to challenge your claim of their abilities, remember that it's true; you may be worse, but that doesn't change that they're bad. Nice to know I've made a difference(4). Thank you for your undying attention, and please have a nice day, night, afternoon, or perhaps just a pleasant period of silence; whichever mode of existence you may currently be experiencing.

Most insincerely,

Aether

(1)The impersonality merely for the sake of literary effect and clarity. Nice observation though.

(2)A sexually transcendent term, in this case.

(3)Or is it too late? (Ooh, that rhymed.)

(4)If I have, that is. If I haven't, feel free to disregard that statement.