"Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them. Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul. For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter. This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all. I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered." - Robert Kennedy.

I have just finished watching the movie Bobby. It was absolutely brilliant. I've been wanting to see it for a while now, but only got around to hiring it today. Amazing. Just amazing. The final scene, I think, made me like it so much. There was the mayhem of the people who had been shot playing, with Robert Kennedy's speech from April 5, 1968 overlaying the scene. His speech was very powerful and moving, and it just makes me wonder what kind of a world it would be if he had not been assassinated. Then it makes me think of the world we are living in today, with such senseless violence and killing happening everyday, but with countries (such as Australia) who only intervene in a situation if there is personal (ie. economic) gain. It truly disgusts me how self centered so many people are today, as compared to a time when there was revolution everywhere, where people up rose against their governments for better rights for not only themselves, but for people everywhere. It is hard to imagine this today, especially for someone like me, who lives in a (largely) conservative country town in Australia who has never really had to deal fully with racism, intolerance, or violence. How can so much have changed in such a relatively short amount of time? How does the world change from a generation who was lead by a man who once stated that "What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by an assassin’s bullet.No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason" to a man (GWB)  who has proudly told the world that "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully". 
I'm not trying to say that our generation doesn't have a social conscience. We simply don't know any different. And I know a lot of people don't really give a shit about what I'm saying here. But it is so, so, so important that everyone has even a little bit of an understanding of how some some people have to live, and how some people have to suffer merely because of where they were born, what their race, colour, gender, or sexuality is, or what their beliefs are. I know that some of the people reading are probably feeling like they should care about these issues, but then it twinges that if they do become involved, it might affect them economically. And really - how important is money over the rights of another person? So long as it doesn't affect them personally, so long as they don't have to hear about it, it's ok that needless violence and discrimination continues? I know sometimes when something likes this comes up in discussion, words such as "tree-hugger", "commie" or "hippie" often comes up. And I'm not. And I don't understand why, that when I say that I believe that people should be treated equally, it is met with a mentality that I'm some hippy who thinks that we should plant some trees and smoke a bong, and all our troubles will just vanish. Fuck that. Do I think I'm perfect? Of course I don't. Of course I know that if every person on earth was treated the same, we would all be Communists. The economy is very important in maintaining Australia's position in the world, and without it we would be screwed. What I'm getting at is that we need a balance.
Reading over that, I know that it sounds like I'm attacking everyone that is reading this. And I'm really not. And I know it seems as though one person can't make a difference. But if you look back to events such as the Vietnam War - the huge amount of protests held by people OUR AGE put so much pressure on governments that troops were withdrawn. And even look at Martin Luther King, Jr. I know that he is an overused example in situations such as this, but he was just one man. And he has done more for human rights than many governments can hope to achieve.
Ok, I just got a glass of water so I've calmed down a bit. And I really don't know if anything I have said makes even the slightest amount of sense. It is 12:45 at night, and I'm listening to Bjork so this may not sound coherent at all. Just watching movies such as Bobby, while it didn't have a fantastic plot, had a very strong message for those watching it, and the allusions to modern events such as the Iraq war were too obvious to ignore. Even if you think I am completely out of my mind, I really hope that you at least got the basic gist of what I am trying to say.

I really, really cannot wait for exams to be over. I'm sick to death of studying (or lack therof). I feel so angry at myself for not spending more time studying, because really, there is only one month left until exams start. Fuckkk. What is wrong with me? I've been doing alright throughout the year, why am I burning out now?
I guess it is just frustrating, because I can see the end, with graduation, schoolies, university, and Melbourne, but I can't make myself finish the task to actually GET there.
Having super-fast internet connection sure isn't helping. I've definitly wasted too much time screwing around on livejournal/myspace/facebook/last.fm when I should have been studying. Practise exams are next week too, which are going to be a complete joke since I have no idea what I'm doing. Plus the fucking politics one is worth two SAC's. Oh geez, I don't want to think about politics. I don't understand how such an interesting subject was wrecked for me. I guess it would have been better if my teacher was actually at school. Teaching myself the last unit of work was complete crap. 
Right. So today I did about two hours on maths, then some more politics (ugh) and memorised some Much Ado About Nothing quotes for literature. How much fun is that?
I should really disconnect the internet. Haha.
I finished reading New Moon today also, it was very good. I got put off reading the Twilight series after I kept seeing all the fangirls everywhere. But the books arn't actually bad at all. I think I might go buy the next one, Eclipse, tomorrow. And hopefully I can afford it, since I got my tax back today - a whole $36!
Time for bed methinks.
Oh yeah, new Radiohead album in SEVEN days! :)