Homosexuality

This is an article I was asked to write a couple of months ago, to be included in a magazine - 'The Bridge', published by the Youth Parliament.The event being held was on 'Homosexuality and the Gay Rights Movement', at the India Habitat Centre.

First off, let me apologise in advance to all you people out there who will probably be insulted by my article. I don’t consider this – Homosexuality and the Gay Rights movement – to be much of an issue, since I think that there are much, much more important things that we should be focusing on, and so I tend to treat the topic with less than the respect that some of you chaps out there might. My opinion, if you’re interested, is pretty simple. I really don’t care what (or who) you choose to do in your spare time, as long as you give me the same amount of freedom. Fair enough? Fabulous, darling, simply fabulous.

However, there is one problem that I have with the movement.

There are always majority and minority opinions in any given group of people – it’s inevitable. Therefore, there will always be a group of people whose opinions run contrary to the general perception. Take this issue, for example. Society, as far as I know, is predominantly heterosexual (which is a good thing, otherwise humanity would be dead in a matter of generations). Obviously, therefore, homosexuality is seen as something that goes against the norm – which is true whether you like it or not. The norm is what the majority do, not what you’d like them to do – and yes, I know, it sucks.

Now, I don’t believe that people should be discriminated against for their sexual choices. If your job, for example, has nothing to do with your sexual orientation, then I don’t think there’s any basis for discriminating between homosexuals and heterosexuals when it comes to applying for the job. When it comes to getting the job, there’s a bunch of other criterion that come in. Suppose, for example, the office is staffed by a number of homophobes. Firstly, would you want to work there? The discrimination might just be working in your benefit. Secondly, even if you did work there – what if the other employees couldn’t work to their maximum levels because of your presence? It’s them being intolerant, and their problem, at the end of the day, but I don’t think any manager is going to sack half his staff just to retain one person. Life just doesn’t work that way. It never has, so stop expecting it to.

There’s a number of ways out of this mess, of course – increase awareness levels in the general public, STOP MAKING SUCH A BIG DEAL ABOUT IT, perhaps try and fit in a little better, stuff like that. Hell, if none of these options work for you, moving is also an option. Homosexuals – males at least – already have a big advantage in India. Ever noticed how many Indian men hold hands and waists and generally cuddle while walking around in public? Blending in should be easy, man. However, there are some chaps out there who like to wear their ‘status’ on their shirts, and be proud of it – and it’s them you should blame for the mess that homosexuals are currently in.
Look. If the poster boys and girls of homosexuals decided to behave a little more like everyone else - Elton John for example, people might not consider homosexuals so different after all. See, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being attracted to someone of the same sex. However, I do have a SERIOUS problem with someone who chooses to dress and behave like a complete lunatic demanding like I treat him/her like everyone else. If you want to be treated like everyone else, you damn well behave like them.

I guess in the end, it really is all about choices. You have the choice, whatever your orientation, of either fitting in with society, or going against the grain. There is a middle ground, of course; nothing in life is quite as black and white as that. There’s always a price for a choice taken. If you choose to fit in, then yeah, you probably will have to put up a façade for a large part of your day – at least until there are enough homosexuals in society for it to be so normal that no one even thinks about it. If you choose, on the other hand, to dress and behave in a manner that will draw attention to your choices, then be prepared to have people make you the butt of the joke – pun intended.

Stormwinds gathering

George W. Bush will, at the end of his current term, have served eight years as the President of the United States of America - which, considerations aside, is the most powerful country on the face of this planet. Whether he's done a good job or not, he has, for better or worse, ensured himself a place in the history books. What he will be described as is the question (and I'm not talking about how much he looks like a chimpanzee).

I'm not going to get into the usual arguments for and against America - frankly, I'm sick of them. I've talked myself hoarse in endless debates over whether, being the most powerful country, America has the right to impose its own morality upon weaker ones, whether its attack on Iraq was justified or not - that's all in hindsight, and moot, besides.

What IS worrying, though, is America’s obsession with having enemies. It seems that they simply HAVE to have someone to hate, someone to be on the verge of war with. During the Cold War, it was the Soviets. Then, not in any particular order, was the First Gulf War, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan (first the CIA backing the insurgency that Osama B. is a product of), then their own invasion of Afghanistan, now this second Iraq War.

Now, there are two possibilities. Either America's just unlucky. They're top dog, everyone's jealous, so everyone hates them, therefore everyone attacks them. Possible, yes, certainly, but there's one or two holes in that theory. Aside from everything else, they're also the most powerful country in existence, and no matter how much you may hate them, you don’t attack them until you have absolutely nothing left to lose. The other possibility is more of a probability - America, until recently, seemed to be following a rather vigorous foreign policy - both via the diplomatic and clandestine channels. Since they got so damn good at it (a relic of the anti-communism era - they saw spies everywhere, so became damn good at being spies themselves), they found that it was possible to divert other countries into choices that, ultimately or immediately, would benefit America herself.

Now, this is nothing new. It’s been happening forever - the British Raj, for example. Only, they didn’t even bother with the diplomatic or clandestine channels. They just turned up, took a look around, figured they liked the country, and took it home. Much more direct, and a lot less red tape involved. But I digress.

America's problem is something like this.

They've had it great forever. While the rest of the world was just about getting to its feet after World War 2, and some others were just gaining their independence (like us), America had a nice, long head start, more natural resources than anyone else (since North America was a relatively virgin continent), no horror of war, since no enemy ever reached their shores, an industrial sector that was booming, what with all the production of war materials to be sent to the Brits and Russians, so on, and so forth. This consolidated into a solid advantage in almost every sector, as besides this head start, they also had virtually no competition. Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, China, India, Africa, South Africa, Egypt - no matter where you looked, revolution/war had been roaming the countryside. The only competition to the USA was the USSR - which imploded a few years later, giving rise to a bunch of new countries even further behind than USSR was before. Lovely. Not to mention, since all the money, technology and opportunities were in America, the best and brightest from the world went there.

Standards of living reached ridiculous new heights, which we in other countries would regard as almost Olympian in their standards, but to the average American, no more than their birthright. Now, here's the problem. In all natural cycles, the end result is a sort of balancing out of everything. That is, perhaps not an equal, equitable distribution of resources, but across the boards, more or less average conditions prevailing. Human society is no less of a natural phenomenon. If one country has it SO great, there must be a lot of countries that go without - since it takes a lot of free labour/ under priced resources/whatever to make life so good for the one country. And for a time, they were. The made in Korea tag exemplifies what I'm talking about - the price for the American dream was borne by other countries, who got bullied into toeing America's line. Sell us your Oil cheap! Work for 50 cents a day! Buy our mass produced garbage at inflated costs! Send your best and brightest to us!

This wanton self worship has reached its peak in Hollywood. Usher wears two diamonds the size of large grapes in his ears. Some arbit rap artist routinely changes his cars (yes, cars - eight of them) every six months, because he's tired of the colour. Paris Hilton and Nicole Riche have launched a reality show which shows them doing whatever the fuck they want to at jobs that people depend on for their livelihoods - and with the American public considering it good enough entertainment to broadcast abroad, rather than cringing in self disgust. P.Diddy routinely throws parties that cost about $15 million, for one night of wild partying. Forget how much that sort of money could help people in genuine need - where famine, or war, or disease has struck. Forget the debate about whether what he does for a living is actually worth so much money. Forget all of that. Just remember that this is a ROUTINE party. Once every year. Dress code, white. All white. Real angels, the lot of you.

It's disgusting. But it's also inevitable.

This isn't really anyone's fault, since what's happening is usually too ethereal to actually reach out and pinpoint. You could just say it's an effect of Capitalism - the generation of enormous amounts of wealth - gone bad, since it was more like monopolistic capitalism on a planetary scale rather than competition. But here's the deal. The rest of the world has grown up. India and China are blazing along at ridiculous growth levels. Russia is once again starting to flex its economic muscle. Potentials for growth, and therefore, for investment, are much higher in the rest of the world than in America. Therefore, following the simple rules of capitalism, a lot of that enormous wealth that has spurred America along should be reaching our shores anytime soon. With everything that it entails.

I don’t believe that we'll be able to become anything like America anytime soon. For one thing, we will always have our battles to fight, since we're not the only ones heading up this mountain. It's a race, and so growth, and investment, and competition will always be at the forefront of any governmental decision. With any luck, this should keep us stable as a country, and as a people, and help us avoid the price for achieving paradise in this world - that we lose our edge.

Perhaps this happens with every civilization on the path of greatness. There must be some point where the armies are strong, the land is secure, and the wealth is enormous, the time for leisure, and the arts, and the sciences, limitless. It happened in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Rome...hell, even to us.

It's sad to see a superpower fall. But it's also the American Dream. The Last Stand.