Start Fiction:
Erik had an epiphany as he watched PBS. Humanity took itself and its place in the universe way too seriously, and not at all realistically.
Humans are dangerously intelligent, capable of great violence and atrocities. There were wars, trials, crusades, slavery, genocide, segregation, and random day to day homicide.
Pessimistic? Perhaps. However, Erik didn't feel that way. He felt it was a reasonable conclusion based in the recorded history of humanity.
As he watched the public television show with high schoolers trying to stop global warming, he felt empathetic towards their cause, their effort. Yet, Erik had grown feel that stopping global warming was as futile as trying to stop the universe from expanding. It was going to happen, deal.
Erik debated this often in the confines of his head. He wanted to be more optimistic, it just didn't happen. There was some good on this tiny speck of a planet, right?
He was often torn, trying to develop more compassion for humans than indifference. Just when something would happen to give him a glimmer of hope for humanity, that glimmer would be crushed under a cluster of shit, horrible and sorid human behavior.
There were great things about humanity, perhaps not to the same degree as the negative. A childish species, full of fear, anxiety, doubt, confusion. Most humans function in a defensive mode, feeling as though they are continually under some threat to their well being.
Was Erik any different? No. Was he better than his fellow humans? Definitely not. Did he feel he could help or change something, anything about humanity for the better? Not so much.
Motionless on the couch as his mind battled with itself, once again, Erik wished he didn't have to think about such things. Why can't he obsess over sports like his friends? Or American Idol like his co-workers? Or just simply sleep?
There were no answers; for himself or the universe as a whole. But, understand that wasn't going to keep his mind from searching, seeking, questioning. It was just the way it was. Son of a bitch.
End Fiction.
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