Absolution

Reasons I believe the Apocalypse is coming soon:

1.      The Suicide of Amanda Todd –and many other teens who have died the same.

2.      Elizabeth Escalona’s brutal beating of her daughter.

3.      Catarina Migliorini selling her virginity “for charity"

Contrary to popular belief the end of the world has been foretold to occur on an “ordinary day”. The times will be flawed, violent, and vain –but the conditions won’t necessarily be as devastating as many people believe. It will be the destruction of souls rather than the planet that will signal the “end of times”. 

Granted there are currently more issues going on in the world with wars, deforestation, poverty… but there have always been those things. What really makes me concerned now is how close to home the degradation of humanity is getting. Countries and societies will always have shared issues and conflicts as a whole –but when individual lives start to fray beyond recognition you know the worlds turned into something else. 

On a personal note: 2 of my unmarried friends under the age of 21 have had pregnancy scares. My 24 year old friend is concerned that she needs to have a baby in order to keep her boyfriend’s interest since he had a daughter with his ex-girlfriend. Both are living with their parents. My other 24 year old friend just found out her husband has been having an emotional affair for the past 9 months despite the fact they’ve been together for 3 years and have a 1 year old daughter together. And the list goes on…

But right now I’d like to focus on 3 news stories that illustrate this point and try to find out WHY all this is happening. 

1.      The Suicide of Amanda Todd

Teens have been committing suicide at an alarming rate these days. It’s almost like it’s a popular trend. Youtube is flooded with kids showing note cards of stories of the suffering they’ve been enduring at the hand of bullies. Teens are already prone to suicide due to hormones, stress from school, instincts towards independence while living under the house and rules of parental authorities, drugs/alcohol/sex… Bullying is the cherry that completes the Sunday and pushes people over the edge. 

The case of Amanda Todd is distinctly unique though. While most teens are bullied for being weak, gay, or suspected of being gay Amanda was bullied mostly on Facebook and for her sexual activities.

Amanda Todd was an “attractive” 13 year old girl. Some boys on Facebook kept complemented her and convinced her through flattery to show them images of herself naked on Facebook. She messaged them the photos and the pictures ended up in the hands of bully #1. Bully #1 threatened to show every one of Amanda’s contacts her naked photos if she did not send him a video of her performing sexual activities. She never answered him back and a few days before Christmas everyone on Facebook who was associated with Amanda was sent her naked photos –including her parents.

For me, at this point, I don’t know why the parents didn’t sue Bully #1 for eliciting what I would call in court “child pornography” and take their daughter to a safe place where she would not be exploited for her mistake. Instead the family just moved to another state. 

At a new school she met a boy who convinced Amanda that he liked her. When the boys girlfriend went away he invited Amanda over and they had sex. Afterwards the girlfriend found out and she, her friends, and the boy beat Amanda at the school and left her unconscious in a ditch until her dad found her and took her home. Amanda –who had been depressed throughout her ordeals and had been cutting herself and contemplating suicide- attempted to drink a bottle of bleach. She was then sent to the hospital to get her stomach pumped. She survived, her parents moved again, and the kids at her school continued to harass her on Facebook and say over and over how they wish she would just “die already”. 

At this point I’m wondering 3 things: 1.Why did Amanda continue using Facebook when clearly it wasn’t exactly a fun social site to be on, 2. Why didn’t it dawn on her parents to block her from that site and 3. Despite her parents attempt to send Amanda to therapy, why didn’t it occur to them that moving from state to state was not going to make the issues go away? Idiots.

Amanda posted a video on Youtube with her cue cards sharing her story and one week later she committed suicide. 

This series of events shows how radically our society has shifted. When a 13 year old girl can post naked photos, sleep with a guy, get beat up, and commit suicide –you know something’s gone wrong. Part of the problem is social media –mostly the adult content that’s shown to young generations like Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and so on. I’d say parents should step up and take more control. When did they get so passive and disinterested in their kids’ lives? It’s their job to make sure their kids are looked after and taken care of physically and mentally. 

The other problem is the fact that most teens are sexually savvy at earlier and earlier ages. There’s a reason it’s considered rape for a teen to have sex with someone older. Teens are naïve –especially because they go out of their way to believe that they aren’t. Teens aren’t exactly known for being the wisest group of people. Teen pregnancy is enough of an issue, let alone a bunch of kids running around playing adult with elicit affairs and sexual “drama”. 

The other issue is violence. Teens are emotional rollercoasters as is and when they get angsty and pissed off AND they group up it’s surprising if murder doesn’t occur –and often it does. In music videos and songs –when a girl cheats with another girl’s boyfriend the cheating girl is often beaten up or with anthem like vengeance that is “just” and “well deserved”. People almost root for it to happen. “She’s getting what she deserves”. 

My point is: At this point if people can’t even manage to live past the age of 13-16 what hope does this young generation actually have? 

Are kids are screwed. Future generations are basically screwed. Our future is looking pretty bleak in terms of human survival and integrity. 

2.      Elizabeth Escalona’s cruel beating of her daughter during a failed attempt of potty training.

Escalona’s lawyer defended her actions saying she was “the product of a broken home, abuse and a childhood that included illegal drugs and hanging out with gang members”. So already, this 23 year old woman had not exactly been having a good time in life. At 23 Escalona was a mother of 5 kids (and then a new born after the attack). I keep repeating the age 23 because she’s one year younger than me (although she looked like she was in her mid-30s in her pictures). 

When Escalona’s 2 year old daughter Jocelyn had potty training problems, Escalona snapped and kicked her daughter in the stomach, beat her with a milk jug, and super glued her hands to the wall –in front of her other children who later testified in court. Her daughter was taken to the hospital after lapsing into a coma and was found to have bleeding in her brain, a fractured rib, bruises, bite marks, and white paint chips from the apartment walls on the palms of her bleeding hands. Jocelyn came out of her coma after a couple days and is doing better now.

Escalona was sentenced to 99 years in prison. The judge said in court, "On Sept. 7, 2011, you savagely beat your child to the edge of death, for this you must be punished." According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, about 2,100 inmates are serving prison sentences for felony injury offenses involving a child, elderly or disabled victim. A lot of people felt that the sentence was a little “too harsh” –but the media followed this case and most parents were horrified by the brutality used against a mother’s own 2 year old girl. One person argued that “if a stranger had beaten Jocelyn the same way, no one would hesitate to give that person life in prison.”

Well it looks like the Young Adults in this country who do make it past their teens are then screwed because their teen years were screwed up –as often everyone’s are. The problem is really finding a solution to help teens overcome these issues instead of continuing on a downward cycle after their messed-up years of youth. Where is the solution? Many philosophers, spiritual leaders, visionaries, and therapists have millions of written works that could give greater insight and enlightenment to people –the only real tool that could help them overcome that which they have not been able to concur on their own. If you’re lost in a forest who do you call –someone who’s in the woods with you or someone who has a higher line of site overlooking beyond the woods who can see where you are and where the road you want to be down is? 

But this solution is rationally impractical since the teens and young adults who find themselves in these issues of derailment do not turn to “wisdom” or “guidance” but instead seek refuge in drugs, sex, violence, alcohol, vanity, sloth… whatever. 

It is not just that the livelihood of the individual is dying –it’s the rate and the means by which it is slowly sinking further and further into the abyss. 

3.      Catarina Migliorini auctioned off and sold her virginity For $780,000.

Catarina is a tan, voluptuous 20-year-old college girl from Brazil. For that reason alone she would be desirable by any man’s standard. Over the past few weeks her “prized possession” was up for grabs and was taken by a man from Japan named “Natsu”. There were 5 other interested parties whose bids were in the $100,000s but Natsu’s took the cake with $780,000.

Catarina has told the media that she will donate 90% of the money to her local community with charities that will build homes. (Although I don’t know what charity would want to be associated with money gained from the prostitution of a virgin).Whether the donation to charity itself actually happens or not remains to be seen. The auctioning of her virginity is also a part of a documentary that has been going for the past 2 years. As far as the details of the inevitable encounter are concerned –the act will not be filmed but there will be before and after interviews of both people. 

To avoid jail time for prostitution, Natsu and Catarina will be joining the “mile-high club” on a private jet between Australia and the U.S. Natsu of course will be checked for sexually transmitted diseases prior, Catarina will be checked to make sure her “purity” is in check, and Natsu will also have to wear a condom –as stipulated in the contract. 

In Catarina’s words in defense of her activities, she states: "If you only do it once in your life then you are not a prostitute, just like if you take one amazing photograph it does not automatically make you a photographer." The auction is just business, I'm a romantic girl at heart and believe in love. But this will make a big difference to my area."

Issues with this go beyond moral issues concerning Prostitution and Pre-marital sex. It’s about the precedent being set. The internet is making it easier and easier for women to “get popular and wealthy” from displaying sexual behavior –which in turn is making their desire to do so increase.

The problem with this ultimately is how/when/or even if you can say: This is Wrong. Many would argue that she is “of age” and can decide what to do with her body and is technically not doing something illegal. True. 

And that’s it. If that’s the only reasoning we can use as a society that’s it. That’s where we’re at now.

It’s convenient indifference. As long as you don’t physically hurt yourself or anybody else –do what you want. I don’t care. Nobody is taking responsibility for their lives and nobody else is making them. Nobody else is stepping in. No one is telling them “No”. We live in a society of “whatever” and “do what you want” and “it’s not my concern” and “it’s that person’s problem not mine”. This is not compassion. There’s no grace to this line of thought. There’s no concern for the wellbeing of others. It’s easy. It’s simple. It’s uncomplicated. It’s apathy. 

And when nobody cares and nobody feels cared for then why should any of it matter. If anything goes as long as we stay in the grayish confines of the line, why NOT do whatever? 

It all comes down to the Absolute. When morality is relative there is no morality. What you say is right is right by you and what I say is right is right by me. But rape, murder, and other obvious crimes like stealing are things we can all agree are bad. But with these “lesser issues”… that’s up to you not me. And yet it’s also my views and beliefs and actions of whatever whatever whatever...

It’s hard to state what is and isn’t wrong and what is and isn’t right if there isn’t a common ground that we agree to stand on together. It’s the chaos of an invisible social matrix. And yet despite our lack of moral standing people still find ways to  judge others. If you were a complete stranger who said “I like cheating with married men” the response of most people would be an awkward turn of the head and a disconcerting look of disapproval. If it was your husband on the other hand, you’d have a little bit more of a reaction. 

If it were your daughter who sold her virginity to a stranger for money. If it were your sister who was beaten by her mother. If it was your niece who committed suicide. Then there’d be a reaction.

Despite all of our technology and knowledge we still fail as a people to see how interwoven are lives are. How deeply impactful the actions of others ripple out to the people round them. How can we pretend we aren’t affected by this? When did it become “just another teen suicide”? Lump in in that category with all the other cases like it and move on. 

This is why the world will end soon. Not because our society is worse than others –the Inquisitions were pretty bad. But unlike any other century before it we live in one of the only times when man has the freedom to choose his own way with as little moral restraint as there has ever been. You HAD to marry by the age of 13 if you were a girl in the 1600s. You were put to death or ostracized for having an affair. You were arrested for being gay. You were shunned and disowned for getting an abortion. Whatever the government decided was moral on the basis of religion was FORCED upon people. They essentially had their God-given free will taken from them like an infant being toddler a cookie.

But not anymore. Now we’re free to choose. Now we are free to act for or against God on our own accord. Now God has a fair chance to see who will honestly choose to follow Him because they genuinely choose to and who will go their own way and disregard Him. If ever there was a time it was easy to see who was with God and who was against Him –it is now. 

And that’s why the world will end soon. And I’m ok with that.