Today I (Delia) was thinking about something: why do we regard difference as such a bad thing?? I mean, from the time most of us are young children to the time we grow up and are actually able to really think about it, we've had the impression that it's best to try and "fit in" and be the same as everyone else. But why is so much value placed on being "normal"? It's strange, because I'm sure everyone knows how goddamn boring the world would be if everyone was the same, but still we keep conforming for the sake of not being alienated. It seems so ridiculous. It's so unbelievably stupid to alienate people just because of the way they act or dress, or just because they don't give a shit about what anyone else thinks. -Delia, Feb. 13/oo ... Another thing: why is it that our culture is so dogmatic in it's values? Why are we so close-minded as to what we think? There are so many amazing people out there who just might not fit into a category that we've deemed "normal", and we decide that they shouldn't be taken seriously, or as least not as seriously as us... also, why does our society choose to regard certain age groups as more important than others? For example, teenagers today are treated like they're criminals, when in fact, most of them are not. We're treated (in general) like we're not important, and told that our opinions aren't as important as other people's. This is pathetic!! How are we supposed to learn to be respectful of everyone if we aren't treated with respect? And senior citzens are rarely treated as anything else. They're frowned upon for 'soaking up the taxpayers' money' and not "contributing" anything to society, but why on earth should they? They've probably spent their whole lives "contributing" to the world by working or whatever they did, and everyone deserves a break without being accused of being useless. Why do we regard being old as such a bad thing? You can see traces of this idea almost everywhere. For example, it's almost impossible to miss a commercial on TV promising "younger looking skin" etc. Why do we feel the need to hide or defy natural human processes, like aging? I'll tell you, humans are taking their power a little too far with things like that... I've noticed (and I'm sure many other people have too) that there are certain age groups that are used most often in advertisments, movies, and television; and that age group has changed quite a bit in the past fifty or so years. If you think about it, in the forties and fifties, the people who were considered the "ideal" age group were people around the age of thirty-forty, then in the sixties, seventies, and eighties, it dropped to the twenties. Now it's teens. What's going on with that? When I only see images of teens, it makes me think that my life won't be as good when I'm not a teenager anymore... I hope that all made sense. -Delia, March 18 ...
