They're sure smart

I'm surrounded by very intelligent people. So intelligent, that frequently I feel completely out of my league. The number of folks who have advanced degrees, masters, doctorates, law degrees is paralyzing sometimes. It causes me to wonder if I am limited in what I'm able to achieve because I do not hold the same educational pedigree as most folks I know.

And yet, how many of these immensely intelligent people dedicate their lives to the betterment of the lives of others?

I read an article recently about the ways in which YouTube has altered advertising, that it has caused a fracture in a once well-mannered, centralized system. Where once before you had three television networks dominating the airwaves, and they were thus able to wield significant power over the advertising industry, now it is a free-for-all - an orgy of advertising messages. Instead of fewer messages and more spaces of silent reflection, we are instead bombarded, inundated and allowed no rest. The finest minds of our time, instead of expending the majority of their energy attempting to solve the world's ills, exert all of their attention on figuring out ever more innovative ways to market junk to us.

I can't express how distressed this has me. It boils my blood to think that so much attention and care is put into figuring out ways we can create marketing campaigns to manipulate the masses into perpetually endless consumption. I am a self-ascribed, unhealthy obsessive about World War II. I frequently contemplate the sacrifice that was made by everyone in that period of time, both victors and the defeated. From the rationing to the tireless homestead manufacturing, and all the way to the ultimate sacrifice asked of both soldier and unfortunate crossfire-caught civilian. Millions were slaughtered. Millions. And so many of them were asked to accept that this could be their fate, and still they persisted. Some might say these were not very smart decisions. And some might say that a more intelligent mindset would've done everything it could to avoid the war. Yet, I also wonder if the millions who gave their lives for a cause they believed in (or were forced to endure), would be able to stomach how much sacrilege has been committed against their sacrifice.

Would they have put their lives on the line if they'd known that so much of our daily energy was spent trying to figure out how to convince our neighbor to buy the latest crap? Or would they have considered that the sacrifice, like the trinkets we buy, wasn't worth it?

The thesis

There is so much potential out there for greatness and achievements that transcend our own personal and selfish aims.

Despite this potential, people continue to struggle. Poverty still exists. Hunger is an ever present reality. And these are just the large scale problems. Folks are still rude, self-centered, inconsiderate and hateful.

After all that we as a species have accomplished, why aren't we better?