You are what's wrong with the world.

You have no shred of self-respect, no ability to create for yourself. You derive all of your power from your image and effect on others. You may have disliked me at first, but you hated me once you realized that I did not care -- that your disapproval had no effect. You hated me more because I am not reactionary, and I will not waste my time casting hatred in return because I do not seek approval from you or from others who may agree with my opinion. You are powerless to control me, and that is the basis of your hatred. You go further and, through extortion, through any means you have, turn others against me. You think that I'll regard the opinions of a group higher than those of an individual; I won't. You keep drilling and drilling with personal attacks, like it's your mission to destroy and conquer me. You may conquer how others respect me, but you'll never touch my self-respect.

You hated competing with me for attention because I did not compete. You disparage competitiveness -- I saw your name under the "anti-capitalism" column -- but really, you are a slave to said dogma. You compete for the worst prizes, too: influence, pity, and attention, all the products of others. You believe that you're so much more enlightened than others that you won't even share your vaguely-leftist beliefs (even if, say, an APUSH homework grade is at stake). You don't want doors opened for you, because you think (or say) you have dignity: I can open my own doors too, but I'm not swollen with a facade of pride like yourself.

There are people who can be shown altruism, like Randy, and there are those who can't. The former can enrich your life (mutualistic), but the latter will suck the life from you (parasitic). I know your type; you are the latter. You're a leech. You attach yourself to the most confident and competent person who will take you and you feed off of them. You control them through their own pity. You manipulate their emotions to suit what you want from them. You justify your actions with selfish motives -- "I need you" -- but you expect and preach selflessness. You may know the truth, but you'll never admit it; for all the independence you feign, for all the approval you seemingly don't need, for all your self-propagated nonconformity, you can only live through others. You aggrandize yourself with how little you supposedly care what others think. You're such a maverick. You crush the freedom you claim to have and admire: the only way to love a person is to love their actions, but you restrict those, and thus you are never capable of love. You can never create an emotion or thought of your own. You argue that those feelings you do have are unique; they are not. They are borrowed.

I was victim to another like you (though absent of your desire for power) last year; I couldn't say no. I couldn't leave it because I felt binded by my pity, so I gave it whatever it wanted -- verbally. I spared it the pain of abandonment, but substituted that with false hope. It was harmful to both sides. I was broken by it, I broke another with it, but I've learned, and I've freed myself. It's gone now, and I won't talk to it again.

I know I'll never fix the world. I have no desire to do so. I'll just ignore it, along with you, and I'll have my eudemonia.

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Man hates you; man hates your passion
You give your all in subtle fashion
Resist the urge, their temptation
To join the faceless generation

They stuff you with ideals and shoulds
But turn away your honest good
When you break from the beaten path
It's not a stunt, not an attack

Keep your dross and toss your gold
As you run, the sky unfolds
Burn your path, your scripts, your ways
And never let them catch you