A new look at the new year

Resolutions and New Year's go together like milk and chocolate. To be honest, though, I gave up on resolutions a long time ago. The intentions were there, the intentions were good, they were, well, well-intended, but let's face it: we don't, won't and can't just flip a switch and change. That's not how we function.

As I noted last time, 2015 was pretty much a waste in the grand scheme of things. I know that every individual in every generation for as long as there have been humans walking this planet has looked out at the world around him and wondered if this is as good as it gets. Figuring that it probably is, everyone opts for making the best of it for themselves, and we end up with the same, old same-old. If you always think what you always thought, you'll always get what you always got. Simple. And accurate, if you ask me.

It's not just the cynic in me that figures the coming year won't be much better. It's like the cartoon I recently saw on Facebook:

The speaker asks the audience, "Who wants change?"
All the hands go up
The speaker then asks "Who wants to change?"
All the hands stay down.

Yeah, change is good, as long as it is other people who are doing the changing. And that's why I'm not all that excited and hopeful that 2016 will be much better.

So, even though I have no formal resolutions for the new year, I am plotting a course for change. Things just can't go on as they have the in past. It's time all of us starting thinking about the kind of world in which we want to live. For my part, I'm tired of the all the ignorance, hypocrisy, intolerance, selfishness, and self-absorption I'm forced to deal with. I've had enough of opinions for their own sake, of uncritical judgements, baseless assertions and unjustified statements. And, I've certainly put up with unreflected, unthought-thorough, simplistic, and prejudiced positions for far too long.

But, maybe I've picked the wrong year for all of that. After all, the Americans are going to pretend they're still a democracy and have a presidential election this year, so I'll most likely be inundated with all that I'm tired of, had enough of and don't want to put up with any more.

It's not shaping up to be much of year, is it?