While these days it’s often called “First World Problems”, really this phrase is just another excuse to complain. I think now, more than ever before, people complain. They whinge, the whine. The opine. The heartfelt lamentations over minor injustices – real or perceived – I find sickening as well as a waste of time. Unfortunately I don’t have a shortlist of people I know who approach life in any other way. That’s because it’s fashionable to complain and be the bearer of “bad” news. Legitimate conversation now is every participant re-hashing whatever broad “issue” is enough to warrant their wringing-of-hands at the time. People see it as entertainment. They feel good by feeling bad. To properly investigate the problem and develop a potential solution isn’t required, nor are people interested in it. If there were solutions, what would we complain about? All of a sudden we’d be without a dismal story to bring to dinner, the home, the water-cooler, and what then? Being the herald allows feelings of self-importance. Without them things would be a lot more quiet and pleasant, I’d suggest. The rolling of the eyes, the tut-tutting, the raised blood pressure over sweet nothings only serve to exacerbate a problem if it exists at all.
