When do we say, Enough Bullshit?
[thoughts from ~burning woman~ by Sha'Tara]
At this moment, living in a country with no functional government and wondering, not for the first time how long before the USA invents a pretext to annex Canada in order to rape the last natural resources within its shrinking reach, I am wondering: has anyone else happened to notice that this is a cruelly dysfunctional world ruled by sociopathic sadists? Is it because this condition is so pervasive that people don't see it, or if they do, they go on about their lying business, whatever that be, and ignore the ubiquitous sickness?
Every since I can remember, I've been aware of the lies I've been fed. And who was it told me these lies? Well, now, let's see. It began in the home, of course. Then the Church contributed its share. I was born in a generation very much in the clutches of organized and powerfully institutional religion, so in the younger formative years of home and school, the Church imposed its lies, the parents and teachers dutifully repeating and embellishing those lies and as children, we absorbed them because if we did not, there was punishment. Of course.
Over the years, like a drying prairie pond the Church pulled back, its perjuries choking it like weeds; leaving it to stagnate and bloat in irrelevance. Then the State took over. Politicians of even more unsavory ilk than preachers and priests filled halls and air waves with even more expensive, more substantial lies. Then came the corporate executives, front men for global banking; the high-priests of the financial world, the highest paid mass-murders to ever hold power on this world, their billion-dollar lies called commercials foisted upon a media-saturated public. These not only oppress and exploit people: they are the ultimate predator, going after everything: animal, plant, mineral, gas, water, space and thoughts. Especially thoughts. Using consumerist psychology they develop their global "Thought Police" disguised as managers. Their gospel is euphemistically called "company policy," a policy defined by ever-changing rules that guarantee no one can possibly know what is really going on.
It's all bullshit. And people know it. But they believe there is nothing they can do about it, and the way it works, if someone should arise with the true gift of leadership and begin to demonstrate how much bullshit it all is, the people would turn against that one. Why? Because that is how they are programmed. Hardly a one of the billions who creep about on this planet calling themselves human has a voice of his own. It's all borrowed half-baked ideas of info-tainment media. Meaningless jargon. While the planet dies; while millions are condemned to death each year for no better reason than it happens to be profitable to CEO's and their master banksters, billions just play with their little lives, making noise and listening to noise, lots and lots of noise because the noise masks any stray personal thoughts that might arise in their McDonald's-bloated, Wal-Mart-desiccated brains. Noise to cancel out doubts that might pierce the thick walls of educated ignorance. If the noise begins to fail, turn up the volume, remove the baffles and tear up the streets and the trails. There has to be noise, mind-numbing mindless noise.
There is a word that perfectly describes the majority on this world: zombies. Zombies exist but have no life. They seek pleasure and whatever they think will give them pleasure, however short-lived or however destructive, that's what zombies will do. Their pleasures are a chimera, of course, their condition dictating they can never find the pleasure they crave, but they are so desperately addicted to the need for pleasure they keep on chasing that carrot on the stick.
So there you have it: a world of zombies ruled by sadists. And what would they all say to that? "It's all good." That's a case closed.
But not for me. Along the way to the zombie state came an awakening. I began to see what was going on, and with every passing year, that vision became sharper. I don't exactly know when it happened, but eventually I realized that I no longer "belonged" here. This was not my world. I did not agree with how things were done and each time I discovered a new way to avoid participating in the System, I did so, most times quietly so as not to create unnecessary conflict, but at other times not so quietly. There were times when I still believed an individual could make a difference within the social morass. Ah, the hubris of young, untested awareness! I believed that if I could change my life and demonstrate this change, that it was good and self-empowering, that others would seek to emulate this; that they would begin to realize they were puppets of a very sick System and this was a key to a doorway that led eventually outside the System.
I laugh at my naivety now but I suppose all who discover personal ways to turn their backs on the System have such a hope at the beginning. Earthians are social, gregarious creatures and do not take well to being condemned to live their lives alone. I do not mean physically alone, of course, I mean alone in the pattern of thought: that's where the real aloneness is felt. I remember the thousands I was a part of, sometimes leader of, in the anti-war, anti-corporate greed, anti-pollution years. And how quickly those thousands faded away, one by hundreds of ones, so naturally, so easily re-absorbed into the Matrix. You see, they could not face the next step; they could not enter upon the Golden Path. Having begun within a social movement, they could not go it alone when the movement collapsed. What was not understood is that any movement is but a beginning, a call to arms. Individuals must continue what the movement began, people who are not afraid to go it alone; people who do not cajole, drag or coerce others into their personal struggle. People who realize that it is enough to know what is bullshit; who need not create a whole new set of bullshit business to counter existing bullshit factories.
A large populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe. And we know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers—
One: When they find a leader. This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders.
Two: When the populace recognizes its chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning.
Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage. They must never even believe that escape is possible.
(Children of Dune – Frank Herbert)
Ron
In Spirit,
Bear
Nothing's going to change because you wish for it to, or because you bitch about it cleverly enough. You've got to work within the system until you get to a point where you can make a change, or influence others who can. But first you have to determine what that change should be and learn to define it. In this, you have failed - at least in this rant.
But from an author's standpoint - very well written article.
Where My Power($) Is In My Pen...
Latest Bullshit LIBYA CIA & El OBAMMA Sent Covert Troops,i.e. Its (Bullshit)OIL STUPID...
As Rest Humanity Simply They Do Not Care-Until It Affect$ There Wallet$ (Bullshit) Their Child(ren) One Raped, Brutalized,
Sodomized To Death By Pervert Child Molester They Become Self Glorified MARTYRS...
A D Read Reviews On Any Poems,Articles, Etc-Its (BULLSHIT) Praise -Huh!!
TRASK...
Hell, next thing ya know, you'll be tellin' me - there AIN'T NO SANTA CLAUS ...
OR - GOD IS DEAD, OR A WOMAN - OR MAYBE EVEN A DEAD WOMAN ...
Today, while driving, at work, I got the funniest idea ...
WHAT IF - in the 2012 Election - there were Only Two Possible candidates, Both
Women - now, forget Party Lines, n' all the rhetoric n' political Bullshit - you MUST VOTE for One of them ...
Would you pick the feisty, Moose-Shootin' 'Hockey-Mom' - sportin' RED Lipstick -OR ... the slick-talkin', highly educated, highly experienced Lawyer with Baggy Eyes (now) ....
Enough Bullshit? Tough Choice? I wonder ... ??? TK.
I agree wholeheartedly with your powerful words here. There is an almost overwhelming amount of bullshit out there. It starts with our parents, priests and preachers (most of whom simply parrot what they've had parroted to them) and continues with (some of our) teachers, our neighbors, and especially our political leaders, who, btw, only produce bullshit because we the people demand they do so (How long would a politician stay in office if he/she suggested putting enough tax on gasoline to make solar/wind/geothermal competitive? USA gasoline prices are about $14 per gallon which currently includes the costs of mid-East wars, naval power to keep shipping lanes open, funding a global police force, environmental cleanup, etc. Why not break those costs out so we know what we're buying?) (A dash of salt with our daily ration, please.)
It seems you may have reached the point of saying, "Stop the world. Let me off." You have trouble accepting that this is a world (a universe?), based on a relationship of predator and prey. This is a concept of inter-species and inter-group competition that in many cases extends to intra-species consumption(for example, large male bears are the most prevalent cause of high cub mortality). Unfortunately for those of us who are sensitive to individual feelings, "red of tooth and claw" seems to be the foundation of life, particularly for those lower on the food chain. But just because humans aren't necessarily bleeding red is no indication that they won't be bled dry by some of their fellow human beings.
Civilization is an attempt to structure a sanctuary in this sea of inter-individual competition. The result is imperfect, as you say with clarity, but in the given environment, we have a choice of becoming outlaws or recluses(and btw, not ever changing a damn thing) or of cultivating the most genteel of the traits we find in that environment. At least we can try to promote the best and ignore or counter the worst. Either way, life is and will remain a struggle, so why not keep on writing--keep on making a difference? What have we got to lose?
Best regards,
Leland