RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION!

The other week I snarkily noted that the above song would make a good Official Theme Song of Twitter. The more I think about it, however, I think it's more my response to a lot of the negative commentary out there. It seems that lately, everyone seems to have a beef about everything under the sun. Someone said something unintelligent and all the fingers come out to point out racism or sexism or whatever -ism. Someone had an unpopular opinion and it's considered unforgivable and they're forever branded A Horrible Person. Someone wrote a rape scene in their novel and they're branded misogynist. Someone does something wonderful for his or her community, but others dismiss it as unimportant because it's not addressing the same issue elsewhere in the world. And so on and so forth and yadda yadda yadda. It's what I've termed RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION! of the Internet.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't have dialogues about some of the stupid things us humans do. I totally agree that there's racism and sexism and other -isms out there that need to be addressed. I'm just saying that it's hard to navigate the internet lately without everyone under the sun posting articles about the injustices of the world and ensuring everyone else in the world has 'feels' about it. I've grown tired of hourly feeds of injustice in the world. I totally admit--I, just like most other people, respond emotionally to these stories, whether I want to or not. It's the way we're all wired. This is why I've backed away from politics and the news over the past few months--I'd just burned myself out and had enough. Like I said to A., I've decided not to actively follow the news anymore, and if I need to know something, I'll just ask her, because she still does. I'm not choosing to be ignorant, I'm choosing not to be plugged in 24/7.

Point being...I can understand if people are horrified by the occasional stupid things us humans do. I've just chosen not to actively look for and respond to these things anymore, because it's exhausted me, physically and emotionally. If I'm going to spend all my time feeling indignant that Joe Celebrity said something sexist or racist, or that I can't feel happy that they caught the surviving Boston bomber because violence like that happens every day in Syria and We Must Do Something About Syria, I'm not going to get anything done. If anything, I'm going to blow a lot of hot air at other people blowing a lot of hot air, get high blood pressure, and annoy most of my online friends. And more importantly, I'm going to get shit-all done in my writing, and I can't afford that, not when I only have a few hours a day to work on it. I'd rather focus on more positive and productive aspects of my life.

The chorus to this song, if you can't see or hear it, is "life is unfair...kill yourself or get over it." Now, I'm sure there's a handful of people out there who are going to be Righteously Indignant and horrified that I and the song suggested such a horrific thing. Fine, but that's not what I or the song is suggesting at all. It's a lot less about Having Feels or Being Mentally/Emotionally Unstable, and more about Letting Everything In the Universe Getting to You. It's about looking at the world that you already perceive as horrible and unjust. And you know, life is sometimes unfair.

But sometimes you really do need to get over it.