A Mediocre Rant

I've noticed a few things lately that have got me thinkin'.
And considering I'm inherently a thinker anyway, these things stood out so much that I decided to do a mini social-commentary on here.

A few weeks back I was watching TV in the midafternoon with my roommate, and while flicking through the channels he decided to stop on the Ultimate Fighting Championship reality show that basically leads to a student in the class being inducted into the UFC as an official fighter.
We watched the fight, which was incredibly boring, and one fighter came out the victor, while the other was left to pout about his loss. Let's call him "Cement Head".
In an interview, Cement Head was devastaed. He was crying. He was raving that he would rather have left the ring in a bodybag, than lose the meaningless fight. He was quoted saying "There were two ways I was coming out of there - the winner, or dead."

Guess what friend, you came out the loser. That's right, the LOSER. And you're still alive to bitch about it and claim that you'd rather be wiped off the earth than accept the fact that your opponent was a better fighter.
Ignoring the fact that being a UFC fighter is hardly something to aspire to in life, it's even more baffling that Cement Head would prefer death over life. I guess his life must be pretty horrible if the only thing keeping him going is a reality TV show, and a shot at a picosecond of fame.
I find it very difficult to believe that this toolbox actually meant what he said. But come to think of it, maybe society would be better off if such idiots were actually forced to fight to the death. Then again, that might be a little harsh.

I was in one of my 700-student classes a few weeks ago, and above all other voices and even the music from my headphones, I could hear a girl proclaiming idiocy at the top of her self-involved lungs. I overheard her talking to two of her friends (both of whom seemed utterly disinterested with her) about how great she was.
"I am SUCH a nice person!" she said, referring to the fact that she had wished her friend a happy birthday on facebook the previous night. She followed this up with a rundown of exactly where she had purchased all of the clothes that made up her outfit for the day. "I got this at the Store For Idiots, and these pants came from Slut's R' Us. Oh, and you'll NEVER believe where I got this bag from! That cute little store called Daddy's Money at White Oaks!!"

Well done you selfish bitch. Well done indeed. You have solidified the thought in my mind that the world is worse off now than it was 5 seconds ago. Now, I realise this girl is about 3 years younger than I am (considerig it's a 2nd year class and I'm the older of the double cohort), but is that really any excuse? When did it become alright to become so disconnected from reality that you can't even wish someone a happy birthday without asking for recognition of your kindness? That's not to say that youth is the excuse for this mindset - I see it everywhere at this school - but it's amazing that at an instutution of higher learning you can find some of the stupidest and most self involved people anywhere. I thought we were supposed to be intelligent people aimed at the betterment of society here?
I almsot felt like throwing my coffee at her (ruining her Daddy's Money leather bag), but I realised I'm even more frustrated with her parents. I'd like to slap them silly until they reevaluate their parenting practices and straighen their bitch out.

Last week I had stop-in at the pisser in our North Campus Building. I saw two guys already at the urinals, each at the farthest end of the 5 that were there. Naturally I went to the middle one (as to allow for elbow room), but I noticed the douchebag to the left of me was having a conversation. Confused, I looked around to see who he was talkign to. A few other guys were washing their hands behind me, and another was at the hand dryer, but they weren't even lookin in this guy's direction.
That's when he finished up, and it all became clear - he was on a fucking cell phone.

"Don't worry about that sound in the background John, I'm not standing in a public fountain. That's just me having a piss while I talk to you. I'm just too damn busy to wait two minutes. Fuck am I ever cool."
I don't even know what to say about this scene that I witnessed. I guess respect for other people (not to mention self respect) have gone out the window. I hope he drops his phone in the toilet next time he's taking a shit.

I have a pin on my backpack that says "If you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention." My roommate said if he had a pin on his bag it would read "Don't worry, be happy!"
He thinks I'm too pesscimistic and I should look on the brighter side of life.

I think he just proved the point that the pin is supposed to be making.

Lastly, there has been a fair bit of controversy on campus lately about the privatization of education, in the sense that corporations are trying to influence universities by offering donations and other incentives in order to have their needs satisfied. Such an example is the involvement of UWO Engineering in the research and development of the Stryker armored vehicle that is currently being employed in Iraq and Afghanistan. A company by the name of General Dynamics is producing this "light armored vehicle" under contract with the US Army, and utilizes students to help with the design of the machine.
Interestingly, I have a friend who worked on the project this past summer. I had a talk with her about it (in which I criticized her for working for warmongers), and her response was just what I expected - a shirking of responsibility.

Besides the obvious dangers that corporate influence can have in the education system, the issue here is the morality and accountability that every person must own-up to if they choose to work within a program that ends in something immoral. My friend is not a bad person by any stretch of the imagination, but when a thousand pieces of the puzzle assemble into a killing machine, each part should be evaluated. It's all-too-easy to say "Well, it's not ME that's shooting the bullets at those people", and much harder to say "I'm not going to take this job because it might involve innocent people being murdered."
At the root of this is self-interested people who fundamentally don't care what happens after their job is done. It's kinda like eating the burger, all the while knowing that the cow had to be grown and killed for us to eat it.
And it's best not to consider how the cow feels. Otherwise we might choose tofu instead...