WHAT PISSES ME OFF ...

The following lines are a random collection of issues that have come to my mind that annoy me, move me, make me wonna cry out in anger or just amuse me because I myself or the world just doesn't get it.  I would be very happy to receive a couple of lines on your little issues that you are annoyed with and would be happy to add them to the list! Just email to  arindler at cmu dot edu.

As a non-American, it is annoying to read the daily news in the US about how stupid this and that  foreign country's leader is, and how non-democratic this and that government is, how rights are not protected, how much better the US system is, how the rest of the world should acknowledge the superiority of the Western value system, how the only way to a better world is through accepting the standards, laws, values, political system etc. of the West and especially the United States of America. Who are we to claim that?  (arindler, 07-08-2003)


Why are people so ignorant and cocky, all at the same time? It seems that some among us take pride in actions of others, for which we should neither take pride nor present as our accomplishments.

I happened to mention my impressions from a short weekend visit to the Allegany Indian reservation, to some people I work with. This reservation is where the last remnants of the Seneka nation still lie. I met the people and was taken aback by their liveliness, their friendliness, their spiritual freedom. I envied them, for, amidst all the suffering and destruction they have suffered, they have the strength to be more merry and live their lives more freely and intensely than any of us. They live in pride and honor in a world disgraced daily by the acts of the few slave drivers and the passive masses that endure these acts.

But right after I had started my story, right after I had told my audience how lively these people seem to celebrate each and every day, with good food, beer and the company of old friends, the cowboy culture spake through the lips of an automaton of my audience and uttered:"Hell, that's why we kicked their ass!" I would feel sorry for such people, but unfortunately there is too many of them, and that ruins my world. As part of a culture that has conquered and been conquered as much as the next nation (except the USA), I wish that these people would stop taking pride in genocide, trickstery and destruction. Alas, they will only realize their mistakes when all these atrocities are inflicted on them. (apapadop, 07-14-2003)


"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.  The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose--especially their lives."  (Eugene Victor Debs - arindler, 10-30-2003)