Watch Yourself, Puppet
by Missy


It happens everywhere. All around you are people who do it. Perhaps you’re one yourself on occasion. Perhaps you’re on all the time. If so, maybe you’d like to think about what I have to say.

I live my own life. It consists of school, work, socialising, expanding my mind (no, not with illegal substances), and spending a lot of time thinking. Granted, it isn’t the most exciting life a person could lead, but I’m happy with it, bar a few things.

However, there isn’t enough room for anyone but me to live it. And I’m sick to death of people trying to live it with me, for me, thinking they know everything about it, and trying to make it hell.

I’ve had people telling me what to do – "for my own good". This actually translates to "for THEIR own good", as how some things are supposed to be good for me, I don’t know. Apparently, though, I’m supposed to be grateful when I’m instructed that I should lose weight to avoid becoming fat (anorexia is apparently acceptable); when I’m told who I should or shouldn’t fall in love with; how I should think, and express my thoughts; what career I should choose; and how I’m supposed to reconstruct a life destroyed be various factors over the years that still continue. I’m told that only I can make my life better – by the very same people who continuously make it harder! This makes me extremely angry – I’m told I’m a loser and a winner, a slut and an angel, a freak, a fruitcake, and a fucking Messiah.

I’m tired of people who try to run/ruin my life when they don’t know a thing about me or it – even more so when they go on rumour rather than even attempting to find the facts out for themselves. It shows what a sad race human beings are when we pretend individuality but automatically believe things we hear and don’t check for ourselves. I myself have occasionally be guilty of this flaw, but, although I anger myself when I do it, I count myself better than many others, as I can see what I am doing, which gives me the power to stop it. Recognition is the key to prevention, and eventual cessation. However, this problem is a basic human flaw that has been exploited by the media to its full benefit. Even by writing this I am encouraging you, the reader, to think in the way I believe to be right, by making your own decisions. I’m sure many religious leaders would be angered by this – after all, they live off the meat of their flock of sheep.

Getting back to the media dilemma, we read newspapers, magazines, watch TV, listen to the radio, everyday. Everyday we are bombarded by items of supposedly unbiased news by people who are telling us how to think. We’re told to hate an evil murderer who kills 3 people, but we’re also told President Bill Clinton is a hero. This is a man who cheats on his wife and lies about it, has "sexual relations" with several women employed to work for him, and as a grand spanking finale, orders his armed forces to bomb Iraq to teach Suddam Hussein a lesson, consequently slaughtering hundreds, if not thousands, of Iraqi people, who then become faceless, nameless statistics for the media to comment on in their tabloids and on their TV news programs. We are never shown the human element of this, merely that Our Hero Bill is teaching that son of a bitch Hussein a lesson.

So here we have mass-produced media telling us not only how to thing but what sort of person to be. By listening to a toneless journalist report that hundreds of innocent people are dead, we are encouraged to become desensitised. Thus, we become how the media wants us – dead to compassion, so we cause more murder and suffering for them to report on. IT IS A CYCLE WE ARE ALL TRAPPED IN MERELY BY READING A MAGAZINE! But there is a way to fight against all this. Don’t lose your compassion and passion. Allow yourself to become enraged when you hear about assault, rape and murder. These are the correct emotions to feel about these things! They are atrocities! They will never completely stop happening, but by dealing with them through outrage and action, rather than apathy, we may be able to change something. We don’t have to invade other peoples’ personal lives and cause them pain – there is enough of that in the world already. Next time you hear some "hot goss", don’t pass it on. You will be hurting someone and helping to destroy their life – and what you hear is quite possibly not even true.

Apathy over world tragedy and outrage over something your boyfriend’s/girlfriend’s ex said about them is not the way to change the world. Personal issues are important, but to get deeply enmeshed in only what happens immediately around you (not necessarily even concerning you) is not a good way to live.

Take the power back and be a catalyst for change by thinking for yourself and not blindly believing everything you hear.