Public Mess

I sat down tonight with a topic in hand to delve into for today's entry. I remember the body, the main section, but I can't for the life of me figure out why the topic came to be. It was at work, a kid did something relating to an old habit even though there was a better way to do whatever it was he was doing right in front of him. This sparked a discussion with my co-teacher.

I can't think of what it was the kid was doing . . .

Ah well.

It was related to Public Mess.

Did you ever have a lazy fit while in your room? You're on the computer, pretty much drained of energy, and something falls from your desk onto the floor. An envelope, let's say. You're too lazy to pick it up, you forget about it. The next day, you notice the envelope but again you don't pick it up. The next day it's almost unnoticeable. The envelope suddenly belongs there in your head and you don't notice it.

This is the status of my room, by the way. Everything is in its right place, just like Fox Mulder's desk in "The X-Files". It's a pig sty, but us pigs know where to find the different kinds of mud when the time calls for it.

I was thinking that that's maybe why society doesn't change. I mentioned a few entries back about how people don't really aspire to change the way their people think in the art world or in social norms. They mainly just put new perspectives on already established norms. I think the essence of Public Mess plays into this as well.

Just like the envelope in your room, people become accustomed to having shitty trash in their pop culture. It almost seems like an empty void if you take antagonists out of the equation. You get rid of all the corrupt executives perpetuating the economic crisis you'll turn to another intern who happened to get sperm on her dress while conducting business as usual with the president. I guess you can say the media makes this possible, the evergoing process of having an interesting story to portray to an apparently bored public.

It's not the media's fault. It's yours. It's ours.

In high school, you're obsessed with the aspect of government conspiracy. The OTHER is up to something behind the curtain. You grow up a little bit and it turns into consumerist guilt: you realize that shit like this happens because you let it happen. You like hearing about it on the 5:00 news after you get home from playing Monopoly: The Real Life Edition with banks and properties in the gamers convention skyscraper orgy downtown. No one speaks up about it. You like hearing about conspiracies, it's part of the norm. Take the faulty government away and you can't blame the mistakes of the world on someone else. You have to look at yourself.

You get used to the mess. It becomes part of you. Part of us.

Street Sweeper Social Club -- "Clap for the Killers"