An essay by Sha'Tara, local writer and friend.

 It's Called Loyalty for Short

[thoughts from ~Burning Woman~ by Sha'Tara]

Throughout history man has been troubled by individuals who, for whatever reason, took it upon themselves to observe their fellowman, to comment on their observations and sometimes, to their certain detriment, to attempt to do something about some of the terrible things they observed. I guess in some ways I'm one of those, with a difference, that I taught myself to practice a ship-load of detachment regarding what I observed and not seek to gain the social or political (and financial) limelight in doing so. I stayed out of jail and remain alive and I call that good judgment. Better a live coward than a dead hero?

As I stand here in the field, attempting to steal to home plate, I watch the players and the "cheer leaders" or those eager supporters in the stands. I listen to the hoots, whistles, yelling and comments and I'm amazed. And why should I be after so many years playing the same game, in the same league behind the same boards, cheered and booed by the same crowd? I guess because on some subconscious level my "hearing" has gotten a whole lot sharper - call it a trade-off between the body and the mind: call it whatever, that's not the point.

What do I observe? What's been registering in the back of my mind as I played the Earthian game in every kind of weather? Loyalty. If the Earthian creature is anything at all, it's loyal to a fault. Brainwash loyal. Loyal to family first of all or better put, to the concept of family; loyal to any group or collective he's attached himself to regardless of the value of said collective, or the ways and means this collective assumes to reach its stated goals. Loyal fan to the "home" team; loyal to his favourite weekend sport. Loyal to his church, the company he works for, or "his" union. Loyal to his political party or whomever leads such a party. Loyal to his street gang, bike gang, drug gang. Loyal to his TV shows; his TV news broadcasts; his TV anchor person; loyal to his particular charitable, environmental, political organizations. Loyal to the dictates of fashion and his faith to the nth degree. Loyal to his brand of pop (Canadian) or soda (American) and his brand of beer. Loyal to his nation and flag. Loyal to his scientific theories though generally without a clue as to what they pretend to mean. Loyal to his Dodge Ram or Harley. Loyal to his pop stars. Loyal to his God: in short, he's loyal. Even when he's a complete turn-coat he's still loyal, jumping from one loyalty to another.

Is such loyalty an admirable trait? Or is it something detrimental to his mental and social development? You've probably already guessed which way I'm taking here. Yes, it's man's greatest affliction and that is why the system, Matrix, whatever you want to call "it" brainwashes the creature into some sort of loyalty or series of loyalties and the more heedless, pointless and confusing it is, the better for the ruling elites and those who rule over these elites. Loyal man is a confused and powerless creature going about its business without any clue as to how such business should proceed nor how it affects the whole. Loyalty excuses everything. If you're loyal, no need to think about it, just do it, just like the so popular slogan. Meaningless, but catchy: don't think, do it. Feel it, that's what matters. If it feels good, do it - just like Snoopy the cartoon dog. Your life is a cartoon; live it as a cartoon character. Believe, that's all you need to do; don't ask what, or why, just believe until you believe in. That's where you want to be: into your belief, no matter what insanity that belief leads to. Then you never need to rationalize "it" anymore, you just believe and just do it. And you're never alone because all beliefs are collective matters.

When I consider man and his public ways, that's what I see: a cartoon; an animation drawn by some really sadistic alien teen-agers experimenting with life within an irresponsible framework. Man is an intelligence all but wholly disconnected from all of the great values and virtues that would make all the difference in this world. His intelligence is stunted from birth, either deliberately or through ignorance. It is further stunted and shunted through so-called public education and organized religion and finally it is irretrievably sidetracked away from anything one would consider human on the job and in the rarified atmospheres of colleges, universities and institutes of technology. And just in case all of that didn't take, the cartoon character is surrounded, crowded, enmeshed, mired, embeded and swamped in quicksands of commercialism: No Way Out Except Through Absorption. "Our Way or the Highway" and the cartoonist erases the highway so the character has no choice: it's all "Our Way" from there on.

Hyperbole? Not at all. In fact I'm being gentle and kind here. I'm removing the carrot that's made you cross-eyed from staring at it all these years, and while I'm at it, removing the stick also. Just helping you see further in time and perhaps even farther in space and you now have permission to stop your mad plunge to nowhere, stand still for a bit and look back, not only at the load you're pulling which you were never allowed to see, let alone know what's in it, but at the road you've been dragging that load on.

So, what's the antidote to this brainwash; this myopic condition called loyalty? Obviously it's self-empowerment and complementary detachment.

Here's an exercise most Earthians find themselves utterly incapable of doing. This is what self-empowerment entails: self-determination through self-responsibility. First, you deliberately reject everything you are loyal to, from God to Brand; from Pop to Patriotism. From Family to Harley. Ditch it all. To paraphrase one of the Teachers: "When none of it matters it will all be yours." But to be able to accept it all as "yours" means self-empowerment because up to this point Man the Loyal has relegated "all of it" to his God, gods, rulers and leaders; puppet masters, preachers, bosses and toy-makers. Taking responsibility is utterly impossible to anyone loyal to anything but himself. It makes no sense and would simply overwhelm. Only in self-empowerment does taking responsibility for "all of it" make any sense; in fact taking responsibility for all of it becomes the only way any sane person (human) can possibly proceed if he's to give himself a purpose for his life.

This is the problem: that the loyal man can never give himself purpose; that such purpose remains the purview of those who rule over Loyal Man. Religiously, man is a lost sinner completely dependent on a god to save him from "hell" - whatever that means today. Politically, man is a lost individual in a sea of crazies or dangerous people who need strong-minded leaders to make laws and maintain order through enforcement. Economically man is dependent upon "business" and "banking" to keep him in transportation, house, food and entertainment. So it goes: man is an entirely dependent being, from birth to death... and for those who believe in life after death, even beyond death.

Ah, but some of you will say, we are humanists. We do not rely on faith but on facts to make our decisions about life. False: if you are not self-empowered you're just in another trap, and it's called "science" generally speaking; more specifically your life only makes sense because you believe in a theory called evolution or the egregious belief that "life" spontaneously happened without the intrusion of hocus-pocus from sky wizards or possible spirit force. Which means that you've entered into the religion of scientific materialism. You now need to demonstrate that your choice is the only correct choice and anyone else who believes IN sky wizards or some transcendent creative force is not only in error, but a danger to society. Sky wizardry leads to all kinds of deranged social mores such as child abuse, persecution of "witches" and LTBG'S, slavery, variously creative tortures and death penalties for any and every peccadillo that threatens the reputation of some specific Sky Wizard. True enough, but as a humanist you've simply made your scientific theories into Universal and Earth Wizards who can do no wrong, regardless whether they make weapons of mass destruction, empower the Security State or make GMO's and Roundup, or generate vaccines that kill more people than they save (and how dare I utter such blasphemy!). You've become loyal to a new faith called science. And the wheel turns as the movie goes from black and white to colour to 3-D.

The question at the end, for me, is, do "I" live as a self-empowered individual? Honestly? Yes. Always successfully? Not a chance. This is no cake-walk, and it is way trickier than any rocket science or proving a 6000 year old earth. It would be so much easier, near the end of the day, to just slip on the old political, scientific, financial or religious rubber boots and ignore the soles full of holes. Fortunately I now know that if you walk barefoot long enough your feet become quite tough and you don't need boots. A caveat however: if you step on a nail, it will still hurt and you will still bleed, self-empowered or not. Also if you become troublesome enough of an enemy, the agents of the Matrix can still kill you and are always looking for an excuse to do so.

Quote:
" There are myriad ideologies on this planet that base their operations on the notion of The Group, the mass, the collective, and [supporting ideologues] fervently want to wipe out the idea of the free individual, the individual with power, with imagination, with creative force. Which means they want to wipe out consciousness, because consciousness rests with the individual. These ideologues are grotesque." (Jon Rappoport)