I’m taking the stupid Jeopardy test in a few weeks and I know I won’t pass – it was just an odd fluke that I passed the online screening test, because my history and geography knowledge is really poor. You have to take another test in person.
But I thought, since I was lucky enough to be invited to a regional tryout, I should work to improve my scores. And I probably ought to know more about the world anyway.
So I got some geography books (for kids, thought I’d start small) from the library and I’ve been gathering information in index cards, trying to put together a mental picture of where places are and who lives there.
Now I’m so fucking depressed.
It looks to me like whenever the world “gets smaller” because of increased exploration and travel, people just fight. Somebody takes someone over. People grab after resources. They don’t care about anything, just themselves — there’s talk about principles, sure, but whether it’s “spreading Christianity” or “fighting terrorism”, it’s really about getting yours. Ours.
The slogans are meaningless, and cruelty is staggering. Slavery and genocide. One book had a little blurb from a former slave (somehow he was freed in his 20s) who’d been kidnapped from West Africa as an 11-yr-old, describing his experience. My heart is broken over that one.
I don’t think human beings really WANT to live all THAT closely together, but it’s happening anyway. I see the same hatred and intolerance in our local newspaper’s forum, where the rednecks complain about Mexicans. They have no idea of the power of their fear and hatred.
Interesting, too, that 5000 years ago the Sahara was a grassland. I don’t know if human activity contributed to that change - but if AGW turns the midwestern U.S. into a desert, it’s going to get real ugly real quick.
Scary shit, history.