If you were, you can go ahead and close this window down now, because this blog is not going to have anything to do with the lovable rascals who build impossible things to avoid boredom and achieve greatness.
Instead, we're going to be talking about something a little closer to reality. Namely, logic.
No, wait, no. We're not going to talk about logic, as much as we're going to talk about a lack of logic.
Because lately I've been seeing quite a lot of it. People have been saying and doing whatever they want in the name of free will, and although it's been culminating under the surface for many many years, it's been especially close to erupting recently.
Don't know what I'm talking about? Here, let me give you some examples:
Valentime's Day instead of Valentine's Day.
Did you hear that this year? From at least more than one person? Did you happen to correct them? If so, what did they say? Because this year, I heard someone talking about how they heard so many people say Valentime's Day this year, and when they said something about it, they were told "why can't we just say Valentime? it's easier."
The answer ought to be "because it's wrong."
Or how about when someone spells a word with a g in it and they write a q instead? Don't believe me? This one happened to me personally. When I mentioned it, I was told "That's how I do g's."
I was genuinely surprised. Because it's not just that they do their g's in a strange way. It's that they replaced it with a q. So they write "qood" instead of "good," "qone' instead of "gone," "qreat" instead of "great." And they actually got mad at me for pointing it out. And you might say "Why does that matter? Why can't they write their g's however they want?"
And the answer ought to be "because it's wrong."
There are so many things in this world that we've just let slide for no other reason than because it's easier than speaking the truth. Papers riddled with misspelled words, conversations riddled with mispronounced words and bad grammar... the list could go on.
Why on earth is this acceptable? Why do people let their loved ones get away with this level of ignorance?
And before we go any farther, I want to clarify that I'm not talking about people with learning disabilities or anything. Dyslexia is a very real thing, and that makes it hard for people to spell their words right. Some people have poor oral skills, and that makes it hard for them to speak. I'm not talking about situations like that.
I'm talking about the people who think it's just easier to say the wrong word than it is to say the right word. Or the people who think it's just easier to write the wrong letter than it is to write the right one. Since when did "easier" become better than "right?" Since when did "wrong" become a matter of preference?
There is an interesting story behind the old cartoon Invader Zim. The cartoon is set in the not-so-distant future, and it portrays the cartoonist's prediction of what that future will be. It's a rather dark place, with a bunch of obese ignorant zombie-like humans who spend all their time watching television and eating from filthy burger joints where the food is made of garbage. Many of them have huge metal implants jutting out from various places of their bodies, like their heads or their backs. The general level of spelling is so bad that the schoolhouse says "SKOOL" on the outside, and almost every other word shown in the show is misspelled in a similar nature. The teacher in the school spends all her time teaching the kids that life is not fair, that the universe is nothing more than doom waiting to happen, that death is the only thing you can count on, and that in fifty years everything that exists right now won't exist anymore. The streets are filthy, the buildings are run down, the sky is filled with smoke and pollution, and all the kids are stupid and can't see sense. Everyone who isn't a personification of "ignorance is bliss" and thinks their world is perfect, is blackmailed and controlled into pretending their world is perfect by unknown faceless people.
Really, there's a reason I don't think Invader Zim would be a good show to let kids watch. As an adult, I think it's hilarious. But it disturbs me to realize that the not-so-distant-future isn't as distant as I'd hoped. Whenever I see a "foto" booth in a mall, I get this sinking feeling in my stomach that says "Not long now."
And why? Because "easier" is more socially acceptable than "right." Because "easier" is a justifiable excuse for "wrong."
This makes no sense! This is illogical. It's like saying "2 plus 2 is 5 because that's just how I do math."
Math isn't math that way. If everyone could do "math" however they wanted to, there would be a worldwide disaster. Everything in life is based on some form of math. But we'll make just one simple example. If math depended on who was doing it, money would be absolutely worthless. We all know that a 1 dollar bill is worth 100 pennies. For one man to say "No, it's worth fifty pennies," and another to say "It's worth 135 pennies" is foolishness. It's illogical. Math is not subject to temporary feelings or personal beliefs. Math is math. When you do math wrong, it's wrong.
So why is it so hard to see language in the same light? When you say a word wrong, it's wrong. When you spell a word wrong, it's wrong. It doesn't matter how easy it is, it doesn't matter how you feel, it doesn't matter how long you've said it or spelled it that way, or who taught you to do it like that. If it's wrong, it's wrong. That is logical.
Let's go deeper with this argument. What about truth?
Once upon a time, if somebody said something that didn't match up with an event that really happened, it was called a lie. Now, it's called their version of the truth.
Please, tell me how this makes sense. If a man was pushed off a bridge, and another man said "He jumped, I saw him," that is a lie. It is not the truth. It is incorrect. It is wrong.
But that's not how it works anymore. Now, lying is no big deal. Anyone says anything that pops into their head if it makes this moment right now any easier. "My boss told me to do things this way," when someone you work with tells you you're doing your job wrong. "My mom's making me come home now and she's like, freaking out on me." Because you want to leave work early. "My cousin's in the hospital with Pneumonia and we think she might die because she's asthmatic and she's like, not able to breathe and she used to smoke a lot so her lungs are bad and she like, ran a marathon yesterday and so I want to be there for her." When you don't want to come to work at all.
The sad thing is, this isn't uncommon. Even that last outrageous one, I've heard things a lot like that, for many different reasons. And people don't even seem to realize that the rest of us aren't stupid and we probably know you're lying anyway. Nobody has six birthdays a year, your grandma died twice in the past six months, you didn't write that song, and we know you're dating that guy.
And the lies keep growing as you keep needing them to get out of the past lie. "Why was she in a marathon if she was asthmatic, you ask? Oh no, I never said she was asthmatic, I said she was... in traffic, and the fumes from the cars got to her lungs." "Oh, you've met my cousin? Oh no, it was my other cousin... yeah, she's like, blonde, and she doesn't come to family reunions, so that's why you didn't meet her." "Oh, you saw me hanging out in the mall that day I said I was at the hospital? No, maybe you saw someone like me. Oh, I was wearing this shirt and someone was saying my name... Ohhhh! I remember now, I like, went to the mall to grab some lunch because the hospital was charging like, ten dollars for a muffin, and I wanted to get my cousin a get well soon card but I didn't like the ones in the gift shop so I wanted to go to Hallmark."
Be honest. I mean, really. Your blonde cousin that doesn't come to reunions wasn't in the hospital for catching Pneumonia from traffic fumes and you weren't in the mall to get her a Hallmark card and eat a less-than-ten-dollar muffin. You just lied.
Saying something doesn't make it true. Sometimes it just makes you a liar.
But we can't say that anymore. It has become more socially acceptable to lie than it is to call someone a liar. Because we can't judge you, how dare we call you fake, you're just misunderstood, we just heard you wrong, excuses, excuses, excuses.
This is illogical. If you say something that isn't true, you are lying. Just like how if you misspell something, it's wrong, and how if you say 2+2=5, it's wrong, if you say something happened when it didn't, you lied. That's just how it is.
This is why "subjective truth" is illogical. Taking it a step further than just the run-of-the-mill lie, let's talk about religion. It is logically impossible for every "truth" to be true, simply because they contradict each other. A monotheistic religion, a polytheistic religion, and an atheistic anti-religion cannot all be true. That is logic. I'm not here to argue about which "truth" is true, that would be the subject of an entirely different discussion. Right now, I'm just pointing out the obvious. They can't all be true. Truth is not subject to temporary feelings or beliefs. Truth is true, whether you believe it or not. That's just logic.
When people use this kind of "logic," it is completely peccable. And yes, I know that "peccable" isn't a word. Rather ironic, in a sense. But still. It's peccable. And we see right through you. We might not call you on it, because that's no longer socially acceptable. But we certainly catch you on it. And instead of getting away with it, you just end up looking like a fool and losing all the respect you might have hoped to gain.
"Surprise" is spelled with an "r." "Thing" is not pronounced "thin" or "Thin-guh." Two plus two equals four. And when something isn't true, it's a lie.
That's just logic.
