Wall-E syndrome

Has today's youth caught what I have dubbed as the Wall-E syndrome? Have we all become too lazy (although not necessarily too fat) to do the most basic things and possibly lose what makes us human? I believe we're all getting to the point where our evolutionary chain will end with those people depicted in Pixar's Wall-E animated movie.

I was talking to a couple of people in my class last week and I was shocked to hear what a lot of them had to say. It seems like most of them don't even know how to take care of themselves if they were to be left alone. Now this wouldn't be too bad if there were under the age of 12, but these people are all over 18, so it's disturbing to say the least.

I was appalled when one of them told me how she hated her mother's food, yet instead of making something for herself, she yells at her mother, often throws the food out and orders take-out instead. Is this really how we've become? I asked her why she doesn't just cook for herself if she really doesn't like her mother's cooking, but she looked at me in disgust and told me that she'd rather spend all her money on take-out then cook something herself. She also admitted that she wouldn't know how to cook if she tried anyway.

I wasn't all that surprised when the rest of the group started to agree with her. The food part wasn't the worst of it either. They all admitted to never helping out at home. They don't do any chores because they find it, and I quote, "disgusting when there are bits of food on the dishes when you have to wash them. First thing I'm buying when I get married is a dishwasher." I can't say I disagree that washing the dishes isn't pleasant, but what did they expect to find on a plate if it's not bits of food? You also have to clean most of the plate before putting it in a dishwasher anyway since bits of food will clog the drain and possibly dirty other dishes.

They don't know how to wash their own laundry, they never clean their own room or sweep or mop or anything at home. They spend their time partying and paying other people to do their work for them. If they plan on getting married, like one of them said, did they really think that anyone would want to be with someone who did nothing for themselves? I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons people split up so early in the marriage. But that's a rant for another day.

Wow. Just wow. We have this level of ignorance in the 21st century. It's rather disturbing in my opinion. At this rate, the depicted people in Wall-E will be a reality in a lot less time than that of the movie.

When Should You Give In?

If there's one thing I hate, it's when people argue over something pointless. You can't imaging how many times I have lost friends because they argued with me over something so unbelievably trivial that they couldn't remember what it was a week later. But alas, hating arguments doesn't prevent them from happening. The worst kind of argument, in my opinion, is one where you're not interested in the subject whatsoever, rendering you useless when it comes to opposing the argument.

A couple of friends of mine dragged me into an argument a couple of weeks ago at school, where they were discussing something about divorce and why they liked and disliked the idea. I'm rather neutral to the idea since my opinion wasn't going to change the chances of the law being passed or not. I was dragged into the argument when they noticed me looking on nonchalantly. I didn't want to side with either one of them, since that might have caused one of them to feel like I was betraying them, but I had no choice as it was. I expressed my views, leaving them both enraged since I disagreed with both of them, and although I tried to pull myself out of the whole argument, the more it turned into an attack. After a good hour, the argument had evolved into a name-calling show of ignorance. Both of them seemed to have joined views to oppose mine. I refrained from answering their insults which lead to them becoming angrier. The argument ended when we had to return to class.

They forgot all about the argument for the duration of the lesson, but still dropped coy hints of them disliking my views in the following lessons. This became annoying very very quickly. It resulted in me screaming at the top of my lungs when they finally got on my last nerve. They've been avoiding me since then, even though we still talk casually.

I'm not one to hold grudges, but I don't want to be a pushover either. I'm usually always the first one to apologize but this time I refuse to apologize for something I didn't do. I didn't even want to share my thoughts to begin with.

This seems to be happening quite often nowadays since two days ago I also had the misfortune of being dragged into an argument that I has no interest in. To make matters worse, I didn't have enough knowledge on the topic to be able to defend myself against the cruel words being spewed.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think anyone has the right to attack someone in an argument when the person is unwilling to attack back. I felt very uncomfortable in both situations. Am I just being hard headed? Should I stick to my views regardless or should I be the mat everyone wipes their feet all over and just give in? It wouldn't be the first time I agreed with someone just to shut them up, but I don't want to give these people the false hope they thought they would get by attacking me verbally. I really don't know what to do in these situations. Maybe I'm just antisocial. What would you do?