O_O! You have guts. Far beyond anything I could ever hope to do. _o_;; Have fun, ne?

Had an ... interesting conversation in fifth period today. Last night for our block Christmas party, we watched this documentary (we're nerds, okay?) called "The Big One." If anyone's heard of it, it's the one by Michael Moore, who wrote "Downsize This!" and it's a humorous, somewhat insightful look at blue collar America -- the politics of downsizing, with a close up portrayal of people who have lost their livelihoods. It's certainly not the best thing ever, and as a political statement, it doesn't accomplish as much as it grabs your attention. And by 'grabs your attention,' I mean it snatches fistfuls of hair and shoves your face into the workers' plight. That said, I think it's important. We don't see a lot of that as upper-middle class suburban high school students, and any exposure, arguable quality notwithstanding, is beneficial.

Anyway, today in class, we had a discussion on the film, and -- UGH. I'm not going to rehash the whole thing, but there are some people in my class who could really use a reality check. Liberals are deluded idealists? How about people who are well off who think they deserve their station in life, and anyone who isn't where they are doesn't, and yeah, shit happens, but if it does, you can't whine or complain about it, or at least not where they can hear. According to one person about minimum wage workers: "They don't need benefits." (If you're looking for a context for that comment that justifies it, there isn't one. Though, to be fair, the person who said that is my friend, and that was extreme even for him.) Basically: no, I don't think whining is productive; no, I don't think we need to throw out our economic system and jump headfirst into communism; and no, I don't think forced charity will help anyone, in the long run. BUT. Just because capitalism has, for the most part, been successful so far, it doesn't mean it's perfect. You can't do well just by working hard; conversely, not succeeding economically doesn't automatically mean the person is lazy. If trying hard really worked, we'd all be able to be top scholars and athletes and artists just by "doing our best." Also -- and I really wish I'd made this comment during the discussion, but chickening out and drowning out were both involved -- presented during the class was a perfect, if somewhat abstract, example: One person who was on the "opposing" side (at least, he didn't agree with the movie) complained about not being called upon by the teacher to speak. Again, this is one of my friends, and he and a couple of other guys complain about this teacher a lot. And, hey, if they think she's being unfair and that it might affect their grades, they have a right to. But, to use their logic: if they've got a problem, why are they just sitting around and whining about it? Even if they are going to do something eventually, well, heaven forbid they complain first. And anyway, shouldn't grades depend on what you do? It's not anyone's responsibility to help you; you can't whine about what's "fair." Survival of the fittest -- that's our educational system, isn't it? (Does this make sense to anyone else? ^^;;)