OK- let me start by saying to anybody reading this-if you haven't ever checked out Reddit, click that link and go do it. If you've got a bunch of free time and you want to know the reality of the Internet and the world around you, start exploring.\
Now-the topic of my blog today. I've been spending a lot of time on a few particular sub-Reddits, /r/creepy, and /r/LetsNotMeet, the first of which is a collection of usually 100%true stories from people about creepy things happening to them. I don't want to give anything away, because it's very much worth your time to check it out yourself, but I will say it's astounding how many people discover that somebody has snuck into their house and been living on their attic/basement. Absolutely mind-blowing. /r/LetsNotMeet is similar, but revolves only around 100% true stories of people having run-ins with shady people or people who turn out to be shady people; rapists, pedophiles, serial killers, etc. So this paragraph is part one of my rant and me promoting Reddit. Check it out. It's not just creepy stuff on there either. They have sub-Reddits for just about every single topic you could want to talk about or be interested in.
The second part of what I wanted to blog about stems from a conversation I had with my old lady and a friend of ours while we were painting today. We got on the discussion of addressing crimes and properly punishing people for crimes. This story got brought up, about a 22-year old cheerleading coach in Shelbyville having "inappropriate relations" with a 17-year old and the debate began as to whether or not this was inappropriate. Notice I said inappropriate, NOT illegal. I'm not arguing the legality of the crime, only my opinion on it. The woman was convicted of Child Seduction, a class D felony. According to the article, "Crafton will be on probation for approximately a year and a half, she will serve 25 hours of community service, and pay court fees among other court-ordered requirements." Also, she will not have to register as a sex offender. Now, the question, and inspiration for this blog, is this appropriate? And here's what I say-while I understand that, as he was a student, it makes her an authority figure which makes it inappropriate, I say if they were both willing participants, then who the fuck cares? I think that the age restrictions we put on things are so arbitrary. If the BJ had taken place just a year later, it wouldn't have been a problem for anybody. Take the drinking age-21. Here's what I say-I did almost all of my drinking before I was 21 and I'm fine. I never got arrested for it, never got in any trouble, and was smart about it. I think some people are mentally, emotionally, and physically ready to drink at 18, and some aren't ready until 30. It's so arbitrary. And the problem is, we try to have a cookie-cutter, black-and-white world where we say "this is right, and this is wrong", and we don't take individual cases into account. That's the problem. We try to lump people into categories based on their actions and not find out the actual causes that led to them or the cases themselves. And the same goes for the incident I mentioned above. Some people are ready to enter into having sex at 17 or even earlier, (I was), and some aren't ever really ready for it. So to say that at "this age", you're ready for it, go ahead, and jump in, is fundamentally wrong. And I think the only person that knows when they're ready is that person themselves. I think, like I said, you have to talk to the two people that were involved. Is he okay with what happened? Is she okay with what happened? Okay, then who's getting hurt? Where exactly is the crime? Maybe it's not socially acceptable, but there are many things that aren't socially acceptable, and they're not crimes at all. Now, if either of the participants had stated that they weren't okay with what happened, then I think you've got a crime and it needs to be handled.
Unfortunately, the solution for the black-and-white, right-or-wrong mentality isn't simple at all. The problem is that we try to maintain a tribe of 300 million people. Humans aren't meant for that. We're biologically meant to live in tribes of about 150. (See Dunbar's number) With 150 people, everybody knows everybody and everybody is held accountable for their actions by the other 149 people. At 300 million people, we just do not have the capacity, even with groups such as police, Congress, Supreme Court, etc., to hold people accountable. We HAVE to put people into categories because that's the only way we can handle that many people. It's not possible to address 300 million people's actions on an individual level. So the only solution is less people. (Which is a theory I subscribe to, but I don't want to seem too sadistic.) But that is the only way we can properly address people's actions and truly understand why people do the things they do. In a group of 150 people, you can't be a dirtbag. You just can't. In 150 people, everybody has to pull their weight and contribute to the survival and well-being of the group. If you're a dirtbag and you don't contribute, you're not gonna last in that group. And that's how humans are biologically meant to live. It's believed that part of the blame for different mental illnesses and horrible crimes can be placed on the fact that we have to live in such huge groups. There have been rat population density studies (see Behavioral Sink) where rats that have been placed in cages with too many other rats have shown signs of mental illness. According to the study, "Among the males the behavior disturbances ranged from sexual deviation to cannibalism and from frenetic overactivity to a pathological withdrawal from which individuals would emerge to eat, drink and move about only when other members of the community were asleep." The same behaviors can be observed in humans who live in too large of groups. So there's the problem, there's the solution. Potentially, anyway.
That's all I got. Hope you enjoy. It takes 492 seconds for sunlight to reach the Earth.
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