What's Happened to Us?

So the last Batman moving is coming out tonight - as we all know. We've been told in the ads that it's going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread and all that jazz. And who knows? It could be. Though I don't know if anything can ever topped sliced bread. Think about it:  can you imagine the tedium of living a life with non-sliced bread?

But I digress. Some critics have pointed out that The Dark Knight Rises (God, what a freaking mouthful - why not call it Dark Knight 2?) is not as good as its predecessors. Or just not good at all. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. But, you see, we don't live in a normal world anymore where people can disagree and move on. What happened to agreeing to disagree? What's happened to respect? What's happened to being a civilized, controlled human being with, you know, some humanity? Without it, we're no better than wild beasts. Now, imbeciles have taken over the internet and are threatening to kill any critic who does not say that TDKR is God's gift to mankind. And these comments are coming from people who haven't seen the bloody movie yet. That is at least five different levels of stupid. People are so obsessed, so sure that they will love this film, that they are going wacko on movie critics. In fact, I went to several websites and read through comments from critics who gave negative or neutral reviews. There were hundreds of posts - all frighteningly hateful, many sexist, and others just murderous.

Come on! Aren't there more important things in life to get upset over? How about the millions of people suffering from AIDS or starving to death in Africa? How about genocides? How about the fact that national governments are getting out of hand (you too, USA) and taking rights away from their citizens? Where was the outrage when the Patriot Act was passed? It's... disheartening. It makes you feel very alone. Like you're the only person on Earth who cares about the things that really matter- and then you start to wonder what does matter anymore. So why is everyone so wound up? - so ready to snap at the slightest provocation? Relax. Breathe.

It's the same way now with politics. Mr. Right and Mr. Left can't have a frank discussion over a cup of coffee and plan to talk again later. No - there is a great deal of garment rending and mouth foaming. And over what? Differing opinions?

Why can't people be just civilized, polite, and kind? Why does everyone feel the need to be so enraged? Is being angry fun?