Week 3 "They Said I Could Be Anything, So I Decided To Be An Idiot"

People tend to do things that make them happy. Sounds obvious, right? I mean, it should be common sense to spend your free time and effort, your blood, sweat, and tears, on something you enjoy doing. Unfortunately, common sense really isn't very common, and what makes people happy usually isn't what's best for them (and vice-versa). Yes, I know that no one really enjoys spending their time doing homework, but if you really stop to think about it, going to school provides you with the education you need to get into college and end up with a decent job. I mean, sure people complain about school and homework, but I'm sure they'd rather not end up as a hobo or as a McDonalds employee. No offense to McDonalds employees though, of course - as far as I know, that could be someone's dream job - or hobos.

In any case, people are dumb. Honestly, we have to be the second most self-destructive species on the planet, with the trophy going to lemmings, delightful little rodents that jump off cliffs in large groups when they migrate as a result of overpopulation.

There's a happy image. Of course, with how fast lemmings reproduce, the death of many, though of course unfortunate, does little to affect the natural order. Oh wait, that sounds familiar! Honestly, humans aren't much better. All we ever seem to think about is sex fornication, which is supported by the fact that the topic seems to come up, in one form or another, in almost every unit of AP Psychology. With all the talk of orgasms and whatnot going on this week along with the slideshows we're subjected to in Health, school-appropriate really isn't appropriate anymore. And yet we aren't allowed to watch anything more graphic than your average Disney movie (and we can't even watch those anymore because of copyright apparently). I will never understand our education system. Then again, if the education system were more sound, there'd probably be more, well, educated people in the world. Now that's a scary thought.

Anyways, I suppose the whole point I wanted to make before I got off topic was that psychology hasn't really done much to answer the one question I really wanted an answer to: why are people so dumb? Why is the human race so self-destructive? Why is it that, unlike most other species whose survival instincts motivate them to act in ways that help them, all of our natural tendencies lead to either self-destruction or the destruction of others. Or both, more likely than not. Except for reproduction, of course. Our survival instincts are pretty darn effective in that regard.

There are a plethora of examples littered throughout this wonderful world that we've been messing up (oh hey, screwing with our environment; that's one example right there). Why is it that most people naturally gravitate towards unhealthy food and treat perfectly healthy vegetables as poison? Why are teenagers so prone to procrastinating, which can lead to low grades to an inability to get into a good college to an inability to acquire a well-paying job which leads to dying a slow and miserable death on the streets (I bet now you wish you had some of that salad)? Why do people smoke and do drugs at all? Why are humans naturally prone to be greedy and selfish, backstabbing little pricks (not 100% related, but I thought I'd throw it in anyways)? Why do we wage wars all the time (I mean, the number one cause of death for people is…people)? Why are people just so dumb in general?

There are simply too many questions out there, and I don't think I'll ever be able to answer a large majority of them. But hey, at least I had fun asking them. Well, I suppose that just about wraps up this blog post, so if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go grab some McDonalds.