A Public Service Announcement From Your Neighborhood Alien:

It just occurred to me, in quite a vexing realization, that my craving for chips this evening might have something to do with the fact that my new next-door neighbor has taken to exhausting seemingly impossible volumes of marijuana smoke out his front window - which is adjacent to my window and door - neither of which seal 100% perfectly. Grrr! That really pisses me off. I respect everyone's rights to damage their own bodies and cognitive abilities however they see fit, but when it crosses the line is when I'm forced to be exposed to the same harms. Of course, I also reserve my sovereign right to punch anyone the fuck out if they impinge on my health or freedoms in any way, shape or form, and I'm seriously considering it right now. The kid is a teenager, so it's not like he has any good excuse! I met him when he moved in... preeeeetty sure he doesn't have one of the few degenerative diseases for which marijuana prescriptions are—I mean "should be"—justifiable. Even if he did, he doesn't need to blow it down the fucking sidewalk so the entire neighborhood is subjected to an unwanted contact high.

On the one hand, I cannot abide inconsiderate people - so payback is on my mind, and I am very, very good at making people regret invading my rights (especially to uncontaminated air)...

But, he is young yet - so on the other hand, I almost feel compelled to go have an honest conversation with the kid, and ask him why he feels the need to chemically dissociate from reality: has he ever thought about it in those terms - or did he just take it up because it was a social pressure at some point and that's the most he's ever thought about it since? Is he trying to seek refuge from some emotional shit under a cloud of smoke, and if so has he maybe considered confronting his problems instead of avoiding them? Or, even if he'd rather stay detached from reality... has he perhaps considered alcoholism as an alternative - since the repeated numbing/dissociation/depression has an identical net effect on the subconscious, and because the biological damage caused by alcohol is generally less long-lived and won't scar the lungs or arteries—including those of other people—like smoke does? Does he fancy himself the creative sort, even though he's actually just an average nincompoop with delusions of importance - in which case does he think that causing his neurons to fire randomly constitutes some form of meaningful creation... and in that case, has he ever considered finding actual inspiration in some real part of life, (or perhaps in that infinitely-vast and potentially-objective abstractive playground called "an imagination"), rather than simply trying to draw it from a few puffs of illusory faux-experience? Has he heard of the very basic logical concept that, while perception is infinitely variable, reality (in complete contrast to it) is binary - and that the more unnecessarily-varied and -complex perceptions are allowed to become, the further reality retreats from the consciousness... and that self-awareness and logical intelligence and emotional harmony alike all depend on being able to first achieve and then maintain an honest and accurate vision of what is real and what is not?

Eh, it'd be a lost cause, anyway. Mostly I'm sick and tired of people blowing smoke in my face, either directly or indirectly. But if I'm honest, this whole legalization of marijuana thing is a huge step in the wrong fucking direction, and the ever-increasing evidence illuminated by the toking-trend is both depressing and overwhelming. THC alone suppresses essential neural chemistry, disrupting vital hormonal patterns and putting tremendous stress on the body's adrenal system by burning it at both ends - and that's before considering the damage done to the respiratory and circulatory systems by any kind of smoke. I get that it's trendy, and that all the stupid fucking hipsters are doing it, that it makes people feel "good," (particularly when they have perfectly sensible reasons to feel bad, as with any other form of emotional self-medication), that there are plenty of bored wannabe-artists from both the past and present whose few accidental moments of clarity are credited to their pursuit of "altered"—(actually: diminished)—states of consciousness as if that somehow constitutes plausible causality, (fallacy - delicious!)... but it really just makes me want to start a different counter-trend that involves vast populations of people walking straight off a lethal cliff - just to make the fucking point unavoidably obvious.

But... I won't do that. I have to remember that I can't fix people; they have to be left to make their own mistakes. If they're looking for reality, eventually they'll stumble through the obfuscating cloud—pun intended—of entertaining delusion and find it... and if they're not looking for it, there's no way to even point them in the right direction.

Seeing the entire god-damned picture is really depressing, sometimes. I will admit to occasionally allowing myself brief moments of self-pity in which I half-wish I only saw the "bigger" picture, or just plain old "big," or, hell, how about "average," or even "small" like your average mouth-breather. Ahhh... but, the moments pass, and then I realize that I have to watch with open eyes as everyone around me destroys themselves and enslaves themselves... and then proceeds to erect enormous subconscious effigies to those "successes," and worships them unquestioningly until the day they die - when, for a fraction of a second, just before the electrical energy fades from their brains, they realize their mistake. It's really fucking sad, and frankly I suspect that such a waste of the gift of life may somehow translate into a lesser contribution to the universe in the post-biological phase of life, whatever that may be, and that also pisses me off a bit. It's a damned frustration that the universe doesn't enforce any sort of useful standard, frankly.

Still, I can't do anything about it - and, if I don't continue to pay stark attention as people devolve into real-life zombies around me every day, I might someday forget the lesson inherent in their failure and become a zombie myself. I owe more to the universe than simply "giving up," so I can't accept that.

That said... Why are people so dumb!? Why!? And to people who smoke (anything!): DON'T ALLOW IT TO ENTER ANYONE ELSE'S AIRSPACE. PERIOD.

I feel like a fucking alien on my own planet.