Why I'm Annoyed With John Mayer

And no, it's not because he dumped Jennifer Aniston or the fact that he has days where he looks kind of like Edward Scissorhands. It's because of these song lyrics:

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

That's why we're waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

And we're still waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change

One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

I know this isn't a new song, but it's bugged me from the very first time I heard it. At first I was like "Hey, not a mad message" and then I started actually listening to the lyrics and I realized it was like the lazy person's anthem. Apparently John has never heard Ghandi's quote that you need to "Be the change you wish to see in the world" so he wrote an apathy anthem. This sort of makes my blood boil, because I can't stand apathy. I hate people who just don't care enough to get off their asses and do something about the problems that the world faces, or the problems in their own lives. So basically this song talks about how people are waiting for the world to change but doing absolutely nothing to influence that change. Ok sure, the system is pretty sucky and it feels like one voice can't be heard, but if there are enough voices then they become impossible to ignore. The line "It's hard to beat the system when you're standing at a distance" pisses me off, because in most cases it's a self imposed distance. People my age, and those younger than me, seem to have forgotten that it's actually their duty to not be distant. It's their job to stay connected and work to have their voices heard. Sure, it's discouraging at times, but if the Civil Rights movement had just stopped because they got discouraged, we'd still be eating in segregated restaurants. I'm so incredibly tired of people around me saying "What difference does it make?" because every change starts with one person who makes one small step. It's like saying that we'd save X amount of carbon emissions if everyone would switch to energy efficient bulbs in their houses. So, maybe 10 people do but the rest don't, and they're the ones who say "Well it won't make any difference". You're right, it won't if it's only 10 people. Everyone has to be on board.

And maybe your voice isn't heard on every single issue, or there are bigger things going on that cause what you want to happen to be prevented. Maybe we can't force the war to end, but we can vote out the people who voted for it in the first place. But people don't even vote anymore, because they spout off some bullshit like "They don't represent MY views". Ok well no one person represents my identical views on everything either, not even Jason, but there's someone out there who represents a good portion of them and maybe the most important ones. Or else it's something like "I don't like either candidate". No, you are too lazy to learn anything about either one and you would rather sit on your ass and eat cheetos or pine over your boyfriend than go out and learn something.

So to you John Mayer, I say that all of your waiting is getting us nowhere. Maybe if you'd stop waiting and start trying to be the change you wish to see in the world, we wouldn't have to listen to whiny emo songs about how you're so powerless. People are not powerless unless they choose to be. If you're not happy, rise up and fight the system. So you know what John? It is that you don't care. So what if the world isn't fair? It never has been and yet time and time again people have risen above that and made change happen where it needed to. Stop whining about things not being fair and do something about it. Stop waiting and make it happen.