thehefner | I'm a ramblin' man.

Dash it all.

I started to write a whole entry about my bitter mood thanks to today's comic shipment, which saw the release of this issue* and this collection**. I don't know if they actually qualify as some of the ugliest, nastiest, just-plain-mean comics I've read in a while, or if I'm overreacting and/or exaggerating. Hyperbole might not serve me well here. All I know is they left me disgusted and in an unpleasant temperament.

But to that point, I was going to write a whole entry expressing my frustration with people who just bitch all the time. With people who focus on the negative and just complain, whine, and curse, milking their indignation, and how tired I am of being around those people after extended periods. I just want to create an LJ icon specially for these people of Emperor Palpatine going, "Good, gooooood, let the hate flow through you." Ugh!

But before I could even bring that up, I had to express further frustration regarding a type of person I call the "crushed idealists." I used to mistakenly think these people were cynics, until I met folks like

tompurdue and

little_dinosaur, two of my favorite cynics in the world.

I realized then that what really got my goat were the people who used to have high ideals, but were so crushed by disillusionment that they've since become bitter defeatists. And I was going to go into a whole analysis of the nature of idealism and cynicsm, and try to paint a vivid portrait of the creature I call the "crushed idealist," to further express my... uh... fed-up-ed-ness with them.

That's what I tried to write.

The problem was, I realized, was that I wasn't sure how qualified I was to really be speaking about any of this. I mean, several of the "crushed idealists" I personally know are in their mid-thirties. At age twenty-four, do I really have the life experience and insight to make any trenchant observations? Or would I just come off sounding like just another naive kid with his head up his ass? I'd be up for raising this as a discussion with several of my friends, particularly those I considered more learned and observant, but I don't think I have the balls to write a ranting essay about it.

And when you get right down to it, no matter how well-thought-out my entry might be... wouldn't I just be bitching about this without trying to change anything? Would not that, in effect, prove that I'm no better than those "crushed idealists" who frustrate me so?

...

So I won't talk about any of that. I won't risk making such a fool of myself.

Instead, I'll go for the far safer route, and post the sexy and wonderful music video of Nick Cave and PJ Harvey's "Henry Lee," brought to my attention by the incomparable

jellied:

Man, that's great.

Because really... posting YouTube videos is second only to pointless bitching as the great LiveJournal pastime, isn't it?

;p

*You better be going somewhere with this, Bendis. I say this, because Bendis clearly reads my LJ.

**Damn it, Ennis, I KNOW you're capable of telling a brilliant story with depth, humanity, and insight. Would you turn SIX already and finally get the hell over your issues with religion?! Okay, okay, that's enough footnote bitching. I'm going to bed.