The best argument against Humanity

This rant started as a critique of the Winston Churchhill quote, "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." The problem I have with the quote is that it is a downplayed, ironic, laughable representation of a valid point. If you have seen the West Wing episode where they use the quote you'll see this. The quote there is portrayed, as it always is, as an ironic exaggeration. Sure, there are problems with democracy, but it is the best we have.

As I delved into the quote and attempted to embrace it and so fix democracy I realized that the quote really is quite laughable and ironic in its simplicity. In truth, the quote does not go far enough. So here is my altered and, I think, more accurate version of the quote:

"The best argument against humanity is a five minute conversation with the average human being."

That's better.

Human beings really do not behoove anything. We don't help the universe. All we've managed to do thus far is clutter space with our trash in the name of "science". We don't help the planet or "nature". Rather, we've managed to destroy it. And when you think about it we really don't help ourselves all that much either. Sure, we have houses, painless dentistry, and Enzyte but fuck if I can figure out how that behooves us and takes us somehow beyond this mundane existence.

At the risk of discrediting myself forever more I'm going to use a quote from The Matrix right now:
"I'd like to share a revelation I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to another area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure."

I know that Agent Smith is supposed to be the bad guy, that Keanu Reeves is supposed to be the hero (Fucking empirical proof that we as a species are epic failures) but the difficulty I have with this characterization is that Agent Smith is right.

Think about Jurassic Park for a moment. That movie is a wonderful portrayal of the human condition: Human beings use their intellect and abilities to fuck themselves over. And the worst part is the complete lack of awareness they have about it. In Jurassic Park they create Raptors. And then when the Raptors behave like raptors they are portrayed as evil, the villians, simply because they are trying to eat people. Which, really? Is quite a sensible way for a Raptor to behave. Especially when you consider that the Raptors had been crammed into a cage their entire existence.

There is an individual with whom I play WoW about whom I need to bitch as well. The guy lives in an apartment, owns a golden retriever, and seemingly never lets the damn thing out of its cage. How this relates to my present rant is his reasoning for keeping the dog in its cage: When he lets the dog out the dog behaves like a dog. The dog chews on things. The dog wants attention. The dog wants to run around and play. His response? Keep it in the cage. Because a dog behaving like a dog is inconvenient.

And that is so much a part of the human condition: this desire to denaturalize everything; to make everything conform to our petty and idiotic and convenient little ideals. We destroy nature to make suburbs. We effectively imprison animals to actualize this idiotic little idea we have of the human-animal relationship (as if that idea itself is not fucking idiotic and the result of speciesism). And we enact and utilize these adorably naive little systems of government to makes ourselves feel secure and superior without having the damn self-awareness to realize just how fucking futile the whole enterprise of humanity actually is.

"Why, Mr. Anderson? Why, why, why? Why do you do it? Why, why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something, for more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is, do you even know? Is it freedom, or truth, perhaps peace or could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify it's existence that is without any meaning or purpose! And all of them as artificial as the matrix itself. Although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it Mr. Anderson, you must know it by now. You can't win, it's pointless to keep fighting! Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why do you persist?"

Mother fucking right, Agent Smith. Mother Fucking Right.

I really do hope that I live long enough to see our idiotic little bastard species off itself in some terrifically spectacular culmination of years of asshat-stupid idiocy. Because we've had it coming from day one. And the sooner we're gone the sooner reality can get back to its own self-sufficient, beautiful little waltz.

I just hope we haven't fucked it to the point where it can no longer recover.