The Butterfly Effect is a term used often to refer to the exponential ripple effects of every action we take in life. It originated from a Ray Bradbury story of a time traveler who goes back in time and steps on a butterfly. When he gets back to his current day, everything around him has slightly changed. An incredibly small change in the Earth’s history eventually led to a noticeable difference. The story highlights that every decision you make has a real impact on the world around you.

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Yesterday I was driving my car when I stopped at a red light. Lying on the corner is a man soaked in piss with his full ass hanging out. He yells “I LOST MY CUP” before getting up and stumbling into traffic where he begins knocking on windows. The knocks are very weak because he’s withdrawn from the drugs he’s addicted to. But they don’t have to be solid knocks. He’s terrifying to look at, he needs no knocks to get our attention. All the drivers start doing this thing we all do with homeless people where you want to stare at them up and down, study them like a zoo animal, see how bad living can get but act as if we can't see them. Sure, you feel bad but if you look them in the eyes they'll think you want to be nice. Cars started moving as the light turned green and he goes back to the curb and gingerly lays down.

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It got me thinking. If Ray Bradbury used his time machine, and came back from the future with a Ray Gun (which he invented and selfishly named after himself) that vaporizes anything it shoots, and vaporized that man, would anything change about the future? My best guess is no, literally nothing in the future would change. Every single person he tries to interact with actively ignores him, whoever he buys drugs from has already forgotten about him, his family and friends have disowned him, the government certainly doesn’t care about him, and the street corner he lies on will just keep on being the street corner. Nothing changes.

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If you want to get technical, in the original reality the guy eventually dies so someone from the department of dead people would have to come pick him up and put him in a hole. That would change that person’s day which could alter life. But to be honest if your working for the department of dead people you’re just kind of going through the motions of life and not making a huge impact to begin with.

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OK, so a homeless person doesn’t change the world in any way. So what, right? How about the average 20-year-old making Tik Toks for a living. Shaking asses and drinking sponsored energy drinks from startup companies that claim to make your dick and balls bigger. That guy probably hasn’t caused one sale for any of his sponsors, doesn’t interact with any of his friends or family, and gets ten thousand views a week and each viewing only lasts an average of 5 seconds. That kid gets vaporized and again… nothing changes. I mean the people who knew him will post stuff on social media making it about themselves and how they’re the victim. But if he didn’t die, they would have just posted about something else with the same level of emotionlessness. Life goes on and no one will be thinking about it.

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What’s my point? Well, for one, I’d like everyone to stop using the phrase butterfly effect. I know that this hasn’t proven the theory wrong, but I think it’s overblown and it’s a theory, not a law. Really it just annoys me I guess.

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Secondly, I think I’m right that most people don’t contribute a ton to our society. It’s a serious problem. People need a purpose, and they need people who really care about them. Families are mostly broken and divorced. Kids are not educated and addicted to social media. Drugs are glorified in our society. The economy runs on consumerism, service-based industries, and people trying to get famous.

 

Because of how our media operates, I know about tragedies happening all over the world, but have never said hello to any of my neighbors. I have no real reason to care deeply about the tragedies and even upon typing about my neighbors, I wouldn’t care if all of them were kicked out of the building I live in. Our society is creating people with no real connections, no real jobs, no real possessions, and very little emotion. We’re being made into stupid dumb butterflies about to be crushed, and no one’s going to care.