Social Antiseptic; Flushes the System

What happens to the people who don't follow the rules? Who don't want to live the suit-tie-interview-officejob ideal? They don't feel comfortable getting a job filing sheets of paper or typing mundane data eight hours a day, five days a week, and so what happens to them?

Society calls it an "anti-social disorder" and gives them pills. Or sends them to jail. Or tells them to "suck it up," that "it's life." And we deal with this. It seems that with my generation, a lot more people are less than willing to follow out this box life. Boxed dinner, box house, box car. Boxed wife and kids. So why are we dealing with it? Will we change once our elders fade from power? What happens when it's that kid you knew in high school who becomes prime minister, president, CEO? Will they get sucked into the powergreedselfishness circuit like their forefathers? Will society, once we are the demographic in control, change into something ... more? 2012 is the alleged 'end of the world,' but maybe it is the beginning of a better one.

The economy is failing, true. And it sucks that you and I and that starving woman over there can't get a job, and I'm not saying that part is a good thing. Look at it in a broader perspective: as the economy fails, so does the consumer's faith in the system. And with this lack of faith comes new thoughts - are there alternatives to the way we live life as of right now? Perhaps we don't need to spend all our money on fuel? Perhaps we don't need to build a bigger gun? Perhaps we don't need to eat this junk that is prefabricated in a factory on the opposite side of the planet?

Perhaps we don't need to put a price on everything?

I see the failing economy and I hear the words my friends and peers have to say and I think "This could be it. This could be change." The pyramids were built by ancient Egyptians. That is their mark on the world. Will ours be a new governing system? Maybe a return to the barter system of old? Or a war over oil or water or trees or food will leave us all hungry and dying and dangerous? Capitalism has been tried. Capitalism has failed. Individual gain should never outrank the needs of the society as a whole, because when it does, someone gets left behind. Democracy has been tried. Democracy has shown its corruptibility in a capitalist society. And consumerism has shown us that there is an end to everything, no matter how plentiful it may seem.

So I think it's time we opened our eyes and set our sights on a life where wearing a box suit and a blue tie, conducting interviews with no right answers, and counting our dollar bills and pocket change are not imperative tasks.