Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, "I will not be as those who spend the day in complaining of headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it." As humans, it is only natural for us to complain about the things that ail us. However, it makes absolutely no sense when people keep doing the things that cause them to complain. Ironically, people's complaints spawn from their extreme
glutinous behavior of the things they love. People must decide if the gorging of the things they love is worth the repercussions the will cause.

     We always hear parents telling their children, "no cookies before dinner"--one of the very first lessons we ever learn about over-indulgence. However, as the years progress, many of us forget this very important lesson as we gain independence. The cookies turn into drugs, alcohol, sex. It goes from having a stomach ache from too much sugar, to having dangerous, life threatening addictions & sometimes even diseases.

     So, if we know we're going to get bit, then why do we play with the snake? Because it's fun & exhilarating (until you get bit, of course.) There's nothing wrong with having little guilty pleasures here & there as long as you're prepared for the possible consequences that come along with them. Unfortunately, some people don't learn from the first time & continue to complain about said consequences. They get mad & blame their problem(s) on everything else except for the main culprit--themselves.

     Eventually, these people become immune to the continuous consequences. These consequences become steadily more extreme & inevitably become the everyday life these people are conflicted with. Their suffering becomes the "norm." They will continue to complain, continue to do the things that cause their suffering, all the while ignoring the fact that they have complete control over stopping it.

     Marlo Thomas once said, "One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man." I believe this statement to be especially true because young women today have little to no respect for themselves. I find it devastating that my fellow young women also allow men to treat them with no respect. What's even more sad is the fact that these women will still do whatever they can to please the men who oppress them, yet they will complain that the respect is not reciprocated. Women, especially young women, need to respect themselves by demanding respect from the men in their lives.

     Since the beginning of time, women have always been seen as less than men in almost every aspect. Over the years, we have gained more respect in society, but we have never reached the level of respect men have always had. During the Women's Rights movement, women were motivated to overcome their male oppressors; however, today, women accept the disrespect that men & society bestow upon them. But I don't think it's men's faults-- I believe it is because women are unconcerned with themselves & are more worried about the happiness of men: getting dolled up for them, apologizing for every fault, making sure all their needs are met. Naturally, men will not object to these things, but they certainly don't appreciate them either. If women spent half as much time treating themselves well as they do men, they'd be a whole lot easier to respect.

     If men saw that women treated themselves equally to the way they treat them, they'd be sort of subconsciously brainwashed to treat them better. If women make it obvious that they treat themselves with respect, then men would see that & realize that their standards are high and treat them accordingly.

     Ambrose Bierce once defined mad as being "affected with a high degree of intellectual independence." I agree with this statement because I often find myself mad at the conformity and ignorant acceptance of  our surroundings by my fellow human beings. I feel that people are generally intimidated by being intellectually independent in fear of losing social acceptance. I fear that if people don't become brave enough to challenge the status quo and question what's around us, our society will dwindle down into a meaningless wasteland of unoriginality, mindless social obedience, and will be overall unproductive.

     Naturally, with intelligence, there comes anger. People who are intelligent view the world with a scrutinizing perspective. Now I'm not saying that we're all cynics (only a large chunk of us are), but what I am saying is that we question and analyze what we see. When intellectuals see something that is wrong with society, we zoom in on it, we realize it is a problem and that it must be changed one way or another. All change in the World has been brought about by original ideas and the examination of our surroundings. We've seen it all throughout history, in every time period- people who believe their government is corrupt, people who want freedom, people who want change, whatever it may be. These are the people that make the world go around, the people that make change happen, the people that fix what is broken, the people who achieve. These are the people from which productivity & societal growth derive from.

     Just as intelligence brings anger, ignorance brings bliss (unfortunately, it also brings it's evil twin: stupidity.) If one is unaware of all of the horrible things that go on around them, naturally, they will be content with the way things are in their society. You may think, "what's wrong with people being happy?" Nothing is wrong with being happy, but there are a plethora of things wrong with being ignorant. For one, ignorance spawns the disregard of problems, & if problems are never recognized, they will never be fixed & we will never learn, change, or grow as a society.

     I am an observer of people and I always have been. When I look around, I see smiling, laughing, not a care in the world. You ask these people how they feel about current affairs and they either have no idea what you're talking about, pretend like they know what you're talking about, or give a vague, unintelligible response. It scares me that my peers don't know what's going on in the World. I mean, one day these people will be voting for our presidents and making critical decisions for the future of our country and they don't even know what's going on politically today. If these mentalities continue to plague my generation, I am genuinely worried for our future.