Lets Play Pretend

Lets talk about marriage, shall we? It is something that has been perverted almost since its conception so many years ago. Yes, lets go back in time and see what marriage was originally supposed to mean.

Marriage began when parents first decided to meddle with the love lives of their children. Children aren’t exactly good at selecting the right partners anyways, so why not? If you look closely at the history of marriage, you will see that it’s a strategy game that parents play. In some cultures, children choose who they marry, but they have to get permission from their parents. They aren’t matched up for economic reasons, but their parents will be more apt to agree to the union if the partner’s family is wealthy.

At some point, marriage went from being an economic strategy game to being a moral imperative. This was most likely the time when population density began to increase, and there were literally dozens of agreeable choices. The human animal isn’t exactly equipped with a moral padlock. The body will urge you to go to mate with any suitable partner who happens to be receptive. In high density populations, hearts are easily broken, and love is easily lost.

Later on, during the time of medical advancement, people realized that it is easier to control sexual diseases by utilizing monogamous relationships to prevent the spread of a disease to multiple partners. If people could resist the natural urge to mate rampantly, the disease would either stay within a family line, or it would disappear altogether. Marriage seemed like the obvious choice, since it gave both people a guaranteed outlet for sexual activity. Unfortunately, it only takes one person to spread a possibly deadly disease to an entire population of unfaithful or promiscuous partners. In short, no matter what the reason for monogamy, it just isn’t effective.

In many cases during human history, people have had a tendency to play pretend in the real world. People assumed that if they pretended that something was more important, they would treat it with more care and respect. This often led to elaborate and expensive ceremonies. This is quite easily recognizable in many cultures that observe worship of many gods. At some point in time, people were so interested in playing pretend that the number of gods that existed grew rapidly, from zero to one to two to hundreds. Some cultures even hold the belief that anything could  be a god, waiting to jump out at you or something.

Playing pretend with reality, trying to convince others that a pretend situation is real or important, goes against the current trends of science, and so, many people are tempted to disbelieve the possibly pretend ideas that their ancestors held dear. Having no evidence, other than historical traditions, is often not enough for a modern person, and so many people do not believe. This includes the concept of marriage, as it is a tradition that puts imaginary emphasis on the importance of the union between two people. These days, many people don’t even understand how to carry on a traditional relationship anyways.

The moral concept of marriage, as it was originally portrayed, was an ominous warning that if you were unfaithful, that your previous partner would have a life of difficulty and unhappiness. You have to stay with your partner so that you can both raise the children and keep the family economically stable, and it is easier if there are two of you. You must think about the children, as they represent our future. Another warning was that jealousy may become involved, which leads to crimes being committed every day around the world. A jealous lover wants your love alone, and you must not show the slightest bit of interest in someone else.

Unconscious Control

Unconscious control is the effect of one thing on another without complicating things by involving the conscious mind. If you overgeneralize it, most things work by unconscious control. If you do not overgeneralize it, most things in your life work by unconscious control. Specifically in the region of the senses, there are two separate protocols that work to give you information, the unconscious biological processes, and the conscious focus of attention. The unconscious control system of vision allows your brain to process the locations of things and the identity of things separately. These unconscious processes allow anyone, except for certain types of savants, to be controlled by persuasion.

Ideally, our senses send information to our brains, where we then consciously process the relevant data and come to a decision. This, however, is far from how our brains work. Most of the processing is not only unconscious control, but also unconscious persuasion. Most people neglect their conscious minds so much that they don’t even believe some everyday mental activities are even possible. It isn’t even a case of physical limitation, or even a case of difficulty. There are easy ways to expand the conscious mind in order to more closely regulate unconscious processes. I don’t exactly know what most of them are, but I have seen enough evidence for their existence to believe it. As part of that body of evidence, I have tried one or two techniques, to fabulous results.

Of course, all of this stuff is really meaningless to people in their daily lives. Besides, people have been living through it for centuries. Luckily, the problem isn’t urgent. It is estimated to take at least a few decades before targeted persuasive efforts can unconsciously manipulate large enough populations to matter. That is, if everyone is exposed at practically the same time, and if they are encouraged to talk about it with their friends and family. Finally, in the modern era, this is a reality. Everyone is exposed to relatively homogeneous information, and at an alarming pace. The unconscious mind is  built to take in as much data as the senses can take in, for eight to eighteen hours per day, depending on whether there is abstract decision making required. The reason most people can’t handle full input situations for long periods is because the unconscious mind often feeds the feeble conscious mind data throughout the day.

As children develop, the conscious mind becomes more active, and some unconscious processes either give control to the conscious, or they become idle. Most unconscious processes, however, are required for normal brain function, and continue to run in the background, often without anyone noticing they exist. This gradual development is the reason why children are far more impressionable and easier to train in some areas, and adults are better at making logical informed decisions. There are, however, some unconscious brain functions that have to be taken by the conscious mind by conquest. These are the social aspects of the mind. They are highly developed, and many people consider the things they handle every day to be too complicated for anyone to understand. In many ways, we can be considered as being social savants.

This leads to the method of artificial unconscious control. Social control. Psychologists and philosophers have known about the human weakness for almost as long as those studies have existed. Moral stories about decision making and social development have rattled on and on about making the right decision, but many people just don’t seem to get the bigger picture. People are affected by others around them, however, in such a way, that these lessons have become integrated into the savant toolbox, albeit ever so slowly. By the way, the bigger picture is that you can make social decisions based on the facts rather than how you feel, instead of being the savant who thinks about a person and uses the emotional reaction to rule decisions. Most people know how it goes. You use how someone looks, or how someone acts, or how someone sounds. You decide their ways are unpalatable, or their beliefs are too weird. This isn’t logical decision making, it is the unconscious social controls of the brain.

Being in control often means trying to suppress these feelings and make the right decisions. Many people have taken the first steps by incorporating social pressures into the culture. The main sign that you are in control, and that the unconscious mind is not, is that you will be making decisions that you know are right, yet you will probably feel that they are wrong, you won’t want to make them. Eventually, as time goes on, the social mind will adapt to your new views, but it doesn’t act logically. You will begin to feel right in your decisions, but some decisions will always feel wrong. You can never let yourself become complacent, going on a whim. When decisions get harder, your social mind will try to take over, because it is superior, never make the mistake that you are in control because you are better, because the conscious mind is feeble. Never become complacent, assuming that the social mind understands what you want. The social mind is just a tool, to be used primarily to make a good impression on others, to be polite, and win hearts and minds to your views.

what is a blog?

A blog is much more than just a scrawling of text on a page. It is a careful marketing scheme, with intricate webbing in the background holding it up in the sky. It is a catchy name, a name that someone will search for, a name that someone has written somewhere. Perhaps it is a name that is similar to a name that someone has written somewhere, and happens to show up a few lines below theirs in search results.

A blog is also about content. Topics and categories that will make people click on your link. It is also about sharing your point of view. It is also about being predictable and on time with things that are truly interesting or important to you. It is about portraying your ideas in a clear and concise manner, or more reasonably, in the same way in which your audience typed it on the search bar.

A blog is also about purpose. It is about having something to say to the world. If you just post crazy random things, long or short, meaningful, philosophical, critical, or who knows what is next, people may get frightened away and not click on the link, or maybe that is what lures them in.

So what makes a blog “click-able”? I don’t really know, as I have not gotten any clicks yet. I haven’t  told anyone about this blog at all yet, and I don’t care to. I prefer not to get funny looks in the halls, or in my own home, from judgmental immature people. Yeah that says a lot about me right there, or does it? Strangers can’t give me funny looks. Their rude comments can’t affect my life in any way. They can’t call me up, knock on my door, or send me hate mail. They can’t look over at me from the cubicle next to mine and roll their eyes. They can’t recite my text over the loud speaker, or misstate something I said to someone else. That is if they even care, which is rare.

In the end, what makes a good blog is probably the person behind it. Just keep writing. Do it on a schedule, every week, every few days, every day, whenever. Save the every few minutes stuff for another medium though. You are probably the best critic of your work, many bloggers can be found vocally criticizing their own work, what a waste of time though, since they could be deleting the poor work and writing it over again in the amount of time it takes to muse over the quality of  the work. In other words, you are probably the only critic reading your blog, otherwise let your readers complain about it.

Don’t become a self-loathing psychopath.

So that begs the question. Where do whimsical and largely meaningless blogs come in? How does such a blog become successful? How does one measure success with such a blog? Why would anyone write such a blog in the first place since nobody is going to want to read it because nobody will get anything of any value from it? Finally, should the author of a whimsical blog be happy if hundreds or thousands of people start reading it? I know I would be momentarily terrified to see that hit counting meandering line turn into a mountain.

Perhaps some blogs are just that, a web log, a (we)b-log. Never meant to see fame. Never meant to revel in the light of a distant lamp.

motivation

Motivation, take me to your leader… What kind of person do you think I am? Do you think it is fun to torment me so? Does it please you to see me struggle like this?

Personally, motivation is a thorn in my side. It requires me to be compelled by forces beyond my resistance in order to accomplish any complex or difficult task. Furthermore, when motivation does strike, I find myself unprepared.  Motivation’s stinging whip, inspiration, burns with the power of a thousand stings of snake venom. The rush of adrenaline of a bull trying to strike, yet having just been sedated, as it pushes itself forward, it collapses in a drugged stupor. The sting of a machine gun, with bits of fiery death, rending flesh and breaking bone as they soar. As I kneel in silent agony, waiting for pain to follow the sudden, almost unnoticeable impacts.

Yet again, day after day, motivation brushes my cheek gingerly, but, as I look up at her longingly, she refuses me, pushing me aside. I see the look of loneliness on her face, I smell the sweet alluring fragrance of her perfume, yet the one she waits for never seems to appear. Who else could she be waiting for but me? I am the only one in this room. I am the only one who sleeps in this bed. I am the only one who returns to her side time and again. And then, as I open my eyes, I see the world too clearly. I draw my hands to my face in horror as I draw breath. As my eyes bring focus to this world, and my mind absorbs the harsh reality, I lie back and roll over, daring the day to go on without me.

Yes, precious sanity, that which I have held on to for so long, as it ebbs and flows as sands with the rising and falling waves. Vainly I withdraw myself into this shallow realm of reality, so pristine, unconquered by the world. I wish to drown myself in its perfect beauty. I wish to pull its warm softness around me and sigh. But no, forever as I wake, forever as I then sleep, sanity shows me glimpses of itself, as that of a corner mirror to a city street through a window that I can not reach.

Perfect sanity, so bittersweet, show me thy bars of gold. Sing to me of thy mysteries. Reveal to me, oh perfect creation. I shall never stop pursuing you. Yet, oh beloved sanity, why must you keep me all to yourself? Why do you lock me away in a world without companions? Why do you find my time so difficult to release? What is that which requires my attention so fully that I should not have some of it for others?

Of course, I am your servant forever. I sit in your high court, with truth at my right hand, and my humble adviser, clarity, at my left. Although I must protest that clarity has been busy working in other courts of late, and so the song of truth do I hear most often. Yet that which truth does portray seems unbalanced without the advice of clarity drumming a steady rhythm. However, I must also protest that when clarity comes, truth often becomes jealous and takes a break in the gardens. As I sit in peace with the soft tone of clarity in my ear, I am soothed, but the melody of truth was not swiftly heeded, and so the elegant music of the court is never heard.

It was you who saved me from the seeming chaos of the crowds outside. Hustling and bustling all day and night. You do not shine your presence upon the masses so often. You falter at the thought of leaving my side. Yet, when you release my hand and call upon another, my heavy heart is lifted, and my chains become light. I understand now why you watch me close, for motivation is always waiting. Often I wonder why she waits, so near, yet so far. But now I know she is waiting for you to go. She waits for your stern glare to be lifted from her, so that she might come nearer. I listen eagerly for the sound of her footsteps, and I strain to hear her light and eager calls. When she visits, we share a song, we share a dance, and we share a dream, and then all too soon and suddenly, she is gone. Before my steady hand has time to finish painting her portrait for the dining hall. Before the memories of the day fade, here you have returned.

Still dreams of another life haunt me. In waking and in sleep. During deep thought and catatonic bliss. Through swift and laborious race, and through the silent stillness of the mist. As natural blessings lead to honest work, and yet fleetingly so, they fade into but a memory, and stutter into obscurity. Beyond the energy of the moment that is now, the dark veiled form stands looming. Wreathed in shadow, swathed in chill winds. Unperturbed by the day’s trials, unhindered by toil and torment, unwavering and unrelenting in grief and sorrow.  Without breath and without pain, with only pity and disdain, marching into unseen waves of gray.

Oh motivation, I scarce can bear the thought of what she might do to us if she were to catch us together like this. She would send you away. She would lock me away. In cold chambers or in the heat of court proceedings. We would be as one. And you, one who brings me joy, and leaves me scarred, tormentor of my soul, and keeper of my secrets. I shall see you again in the court, as you toil with another. In a warm embrace of productivity and interest in the day, and the future. As I watch you go, I hope  to see you glance my way, but you do not offer so much as a nod. And then you are gone. But a memory, so faint, I scarce can recall whether it was a dream.

I must say, sanity, I did enjoy teaching your children as they grew. Fair haired reason, and gentle innocent curiosity. I would relax in moments as they played, imagining what a future they would make. As they grew, I knew they would draw their mother’s pride, and well deserved. But reason grew violent, with his fits of manic rage, and curiosity was too often taken advantage of during her adventures. And as they drew up by their mother’s side, to stand next to her in prideful immaturity, a spitting image of their mother in her youth.

Let it be our little secret, between the two of us and no more. As crimes of passion await. Now at night she takes to her separate chambers. Go down the hall and pull the candle stalk just so. Push the wall as you hear a soft click, and we can be together every night, and see what we shall see. In such unsteady foggy tired state of disarray, the two of us may joyously remember the days our youth spent frolicking and wandering. Yet now let us set our hands to more earnest tasks, and let us bind our souls with a true task.

Motivation, I bid thee come upon the morn. Signaled by way of cool breezes touch. Take with thee inspiration strong. With energy to work all day long.

Do not hesitate as you always have. Show me what you have in mind. Whisper the melody, line by line.

Guide my hand until the day is complete.

So at night I may sleep.

Desalination and Carbon Fiber

It seems mighty convenient that the oceans are rising at the same time that modern inexpensive desalination plants are being built all over the world. There is now enough excess water in the oceans to create dozens of stable and completely artificial ecosystems, pumped straight into the center of the driest climates on the planet, and the water is just going to keep on rising until all of the extra water reserves are exhausted. I am just surprised that I haven’t seen a big educational TV episode about some fancy modern rich city that plans to create its own river-spring that freely pumps fresh water to the ocean, using power from the resulting hydroelectric dams to make the system completely carbon neutral, while at the same time, revitalizing a parched region, and saving possibly thousands of undiscovered species.

It also seems extremely convenient that, right at the wake of the age of carbon fiber, scientists declare that there is a global excess of carbon in the air. I am just surprised that I haven’t seen a big educational TV episode about car manufacturing plants utilizing  the new carbon fixing machines to supply the production of the new planned custom-made-to-order composite auto bodies yet.

However, if you think about it another way, you might  reach a startling conclusion. Perhaps those nuts who say we can affect the climate are right, further yet, perhaps this was all planned out in times long past, by visionary business people and scientists. While the rest of us struggle to sit straight in our chairs, and wish we had those water squirting toilets like those other guys have, so we don’t have to wipe, some mad scientists may be deciding the fate of the planet. On the other hand, what am I talking about? Nobody would believe such outlandish nonsense.

So, what is my biggest wish for the future? To cure old age, and live forever, of course. I still have a few years left in me, but I hope they don’t cut it too close. Oh, and, if you want to grow old and die, that’s all the more space for my new vegetable garden.

Lies

A lie is a story. Minstrels and storytellers created them in order to pass the time, in order to entertain people, or in order to create a more memorable version of how things happened. They were traditionally accompanied by music played by a stringed instrument called a liar. Of course anyone can create a lie, but these sorts of people made them popular and traditional, often in order to make some money. There is no doubt that story telling has greatly benefited society far more than its dark cousin, the lie, has harmed society, or is there?

The purpose of a lie is usually to defend against negative accusations. People tend to lie to protect themselves or others from blame. Lies are useful for avoiding the harsh realities of life, and keeping friends. However, as is often the case in fairy tales, lies usually lead to deeper negative consequences later.

Nice people will attempt to avoid making negative accusations, and when faced with one, they will typically  try to change the subject, leave, or politely ask you to leave. Nice people may be driven to lie in order to cover for other people when someone negatively accuses them, or to avoid a confrontation. Very nice people will even avoid negative accusations by changing their daily habits and activities.

Intelligent people decide to lie to avoid negative consequences that may occur from a negative accusation, such as punishment, be it from parents or from law enforcement. They may often be found accepting negative accusations that have no consequences, or even accusing others of things that have no consequences. Of course, intelligent people will usually avoid doing anything, or avoid leaving clues that would lead anyone to accuse them of anything bad in the first place. Intelligent people often get mistaken for moral people, simply because they always seem to do what is right.

Moderately smart people decide to lie in order to cast away blame from any negative accusation, whether there are consequences or not is not important. It is the moderately smart people who end up weaving complex trails of lies through their lives that they have to memorize in order to keep up the illusion of trust with their friends. They are not smart enough to think of all of the possible ways to manipulate the situation in their favor without using a lie, and so making up a lie seems easier in the short term.

Stupid people decide to lie when they are accused of something, either because they do not trust the accuser, or based on the tone of voice of the accuser. Whether or not the accusation is negative, and whether or not there are any consequences is irrelevant. Stupid people will often show that they are telling a lie by unknowingly using what is called a “tell” in poker. This makes it easy for almost anyone to determine when they are not being honest, even other stupid people.

Moral people do not tell lies purposefully. When moral people realize they have told a lie by accident, they usually go back to the people they told it to and apologize.

Evil people tell lies in another way entirely. They do not really care whether you know the truth or not, and so they may choose to be honest, or not. Evil people use lies as attacks. They try to disturb others emotionally with their lies, or they try to mislead people into mistrusting each other by making statements that conflict with what someone else said. Evil people often fall into one of the above categories in addition to being evil.

People who tell lies the most are typically called compulsive liars, story tellers, or just liars. They can’t resist telling a good lie, even if it is obvious that it could not be true. They may not be trying to defend someone, and they may also not be trying to attack someone. They could be trying to improve their image, or they could simply be bored. These people can also fit into any of the above categories while also being in this one. People who also fit into the moral category tend to become fiction writers, however, people in any category may do so as well.

Gang Violence: The Solution

The most vulnerable group of children in every nation is the group who does not spend at least a daytime hour with their parents actively interacting.

In poor families, this means that the parents are probably working during their entire waking part of the daytime. Having a quick breakfast together in the morning is good, but it doesn’t count toward a stable home. Neither does spending one or two days per week with your child. An entire day together doesn’t make up for missed time during the rest of the week.

In middle to high income families, this usually also means working all day. However, it may also be intentional neglect. It may be due to a drinking habit, or a leisure activity. Additionally, spending time together is not enough. They must interact on an intelligent level. Often, parents who spend enough time at home may be focusing on hobbies or house work without including their children. This may be considered as intentional neglect. They think that just because they are in the same house, that somehow, through osmosis, their child will turn out right.

Many parents have excuses, such as having bad habits, fear of becoming abusive, not knowing how to work with children, or money issues. There is no evidence that lack of social activity will stop children from emulating their parents. This means that if you have a smoking or drinking habit, the best thing you can do is consult a doctor for a good quit-smoking routine. Also, most aggressive or violent people are not as violent toward their children, and can instead be overprotective. Working with children is far easier as a parent than as another caretaker. The best way for a parent to spend time with children is to teach them what they do, how to be a responsible adult, solutions to life’s little problems, and playing sports. Finally, if you have a fancy car, and who knows how many other fancy things, you don’t have to work to pay them off, just sell them and buy a cheaper car with the money you saved. If possible, take your bicycle to work, you know you have one.

On the other hand, parents who are seriously poor, and are locked in to working at that low wage job, need government help to raise children. Poor people tend to have children as a side effect of stress relief or other unfortunate circumstances related to poverty. Some lucky poor people may argue that it’s not true, but those are the lucky ones, or perhaps they are not as poor as they think. Rich people tend to not have as many children because they can afford to take precautions, and because they have a wider variety of alternative stress relief measures.

All parents are responsible for the actions and care of their children while they are not in government custody. It is all too common throughout the world that children come home from school to an empty home. In some places it is illegal, but the laws are not well enforced, and how could they be? Someone would have to be watching every school child’s home at the moment they come home, to see if someone is there to take care of them. That is going to happen in the future, but it is not likely to happen soon. Gangs thrive on groups of children and young adults who are left unattended.

All unwanted incidents, whether they are gang related, drug related, or the like, are the legal fault of the parent, and the parent should be capable of preventing every such incident to be qualified to raise children.

I had to put that in bold because it is really true, and nobody can deny it, and any parent who argues against it needs to have their kids taken away, who are probably already doing drugs and having teen pregnancies and in gangs anyways. The simple fact is, almost every such incident is allowed to happen because of lack of parental attendance. Sure, some incidents such as you may see on the news from time to time may have been uncontrollable by the parent, and happened because of low corporate standards, and that is why they get on the news. They are not as common as those caused by parental negligence, by any stretch of the imagination. Also, personal attacks are very effective tools for judging who can be a parent, because any parent who tries to make excuses and dodge blame is not mentally stable enough to raise children.

There is something to be said for community programs for children. They attempt to put a band-aid on the problem by attracting children who are otherwise unattended. They use many different techniques, usually focusing on fun activities. These programs are good, but they are not efficient. They drain a large amount of resources from neighborhoods that could be better spent. They do not attract every unattended child, due to lack of awareness, or due to location. In larger neighborhoods, they tend to be overcrowded. They also often do not offer transportation safety solutions, so unlucky children on their way to the programs may find that someone has other, shadier plans for them. In poorer neighborhoods, where they are most needed, there may not be any community programs at all, due to poverty issues.

Finally, it is time to discuss the solution to it all. Of course, most people will be against the idea, since it will use up the parental tax exemption money they are so dependent on. Every family with children, from birth to the first year of adulthood, must be given incentives to take time during every day during some daytime hour determined by studies to be the most high risk period of the day, to spend with their children. One possible incentive is to use some of the tax refund money you already give to the government and get back anyways.

Some parents travel long distances to work. They can not spend the time to travel all the way to where their children may be, just to spend a couple hours, and then go back to work. These parents may benefit from the modern technology of video phones, or perhaps the futuristic technology of virtual reality family time. These may be provided by employers and funded by government incentives.

Finally, there is the alternative to these solutions. The alternative is right outside in many neighborhoods around the world. Some criminal is twisting the minds of your children while you are not looking, making them do all sorts of crazy things, not just the usual things you hear of in the news like shootings and thefts, but other things that your children will remember all their lives, traumatized. If you want to know, just contact someone from your local law enforcement.

Gangs are the final counter culture. They are the most disturbing last signs of cultural decay. Gangs are mostly made up of children who were left unattended. They appear in huge numbers all throughout a region to murder, rape, burn, torture, and extort the population, until a country sends in military forces to exterminate the so called dangerous militant extremist threat. Once gangs take your children, they will often use them as leverage to get to your resources. In many gang infested cities, it is the child living in the home who tells looters where your valuables are. Gangs are like a cancer, growing to fill the void left when parents leave their children alone. They are like rats, multiplying in your sewers, coming out at night to eat your food, until one fateful night, they have such great numbers that they can swarm through, killing and infecting everyone in their path.

In ancient stories of cultural upheaval, children are the ones who rise up to destroy a failing culture. Militant groups, formerly known fondly as gangs, come to make order where there is no order, using merciless and often bloody tactics to rise to power. Steely eyed young people, with fire in their bellies, and dark masters, have an easy time of it. Just look at you, all tired out at the end of a hard day of work. You are ripe for the picking. Poor parents in the highest risk neighborhoods are even more exhausted. Your gangster child could easily put your pillow over your face. And there are so many of them to do the dirty deeds, if only you had spent the time to properly raise and protect your children from the bad men, mommy and daddy.

Freedom

Freedom is the open air. The earth beneath your feet. The chill wind through your hair. Wild animals howling at the moon. Bugs in your pants, and birds pecking at your eyeballs. Freedom is starting a fire every day. Harvesting your own food. Searching, hunting, waiting, starving for food.

The freedom to live life the way you want. The freedom to take risks. The freedom to have fun. The freedom to kill anyone or anything, even if it is yourself. Freedom to run from packs of wolves. Freedom to avoid stampeding herds. Freedom to be eaten alive by infections. Freedom to be bit by diseased creatures.

Freedom to live alone, or with someone. Freedom to raise children how you want. Freedom to torture and corrupt. Freedom to claim and conquer. Freedom to take away the freedom of others. Freedom to take without asking. Freedom to sell others into slavery. Freedom to hurt the ones you love. Freedom to live a lie. Freedom to teach lies to your children. Freedom to force others to live a lie. Freedom to force others to lie.

Freedom is not truly free, for someone amongst us will surely try to take your freedom, and since it is free, no purchase or trade is required. Then why is it that when freedom was free, some could never hope to afford it? Now that it is not free, everyone can get as much as they can afford. Freedom is not truly freedom either. Everything you want to do has rules on it. If freedom was really freedom, you could do anything in any way you wanted. Of course you could try, but if you wanted to do it illegally, you would have to pay the price.

Instead of freedom, the concept of being able to do what you want, we speak of freedoms. Freedoms are things you are allowed to do without asking, without paying, without signing up, without qualifying. Freedoms are things you can do in spite of others, in spite of angry outbursts, in spite of shame, and in spite of ridicule. Freedoms are things that nobody really values, for they use their freedoms without realizing, without thinking, without knowing.

Freedoms are basically actions that are too common and harmless, too expensive and tiresome to control. Freedoms are things that do not harm progress and efficiency enough to worry about. Freedoms are things that do not get in the way of another person’s freedoms. Freedoms are things that must be regulated carefully by everyone, lest some insane person take advantage of such freedom with a knife, chopping off fingers. Freedoms are things that children must be taught to respect, and not to misuse, lest someone declare them insane and take those freedoms away.

Freedom is just an idea, a memory of ancient times, a way of thought to cultivate innovation. Freedom is an experiment, an ideal taught to your children so that they will do things that you would never want to do, so that they might benefit you some day. Freedom is a method of understanding, a tool to seek the boundaries of what is possible, to seek the depths of creativity, and to push the limits of society.

Freedom is the essence of the mind, whereas the mind is in a solid prison, with small openings that let it experience life in a limited way. It has freedom to do absolutely anything within its prison of fat and bone, and reach out to the body to do its bidding. Yet after all of this, what has been accomplished? The mind did no work, it gets no credit, it has no job, it can’t even escape its prison. Everything is attributed to the body. It chopped the wood, it carried the water, it hunted the game, it harvested the plants.

Cultural Decay

Every culture decays over time, and then it crumbles. If your neighbors are horrible people, they will come invade. If your children are horrible people, they will start a revolution. If you are a horrible person, you will end up in a nursing home for a long long time. That is if someone doesn’t kill you first.

Cultures don’t have to die out. Your culture is just an extension of your body. If your culture makes your body unhealthy, then your culture is unhealthy. If your culture makes you die, then you culture must die. This is a threat to everyone. You are killing the people around you. I am coming for you. Your culture fails.

Of course, I am not going to do anything irrational, I’m not crazy. The way cultural intervention works is, big banks give you huge loans that you can’t hope to repay, and then your life belongs to us, and you must wear shirts with foreign letters on them, and underwear with the word JOCKEY or  HANES on them. Next you will have to live in a tall building with thousands of other people. You will have to send your children off to a school to learn a strange language, and watch helplessly as they bring home foreign friends with strange markings, speaking a language you can’t understand. Then you will have to watch as their children grow up, but you can’t talk to them because they don’t know your language at all, and they don’t look or act like you are used to.

If you are in the second group, you will be forced to learn a strange language. Your boss will be from overseas, with a thick accent you can hardly understand. You will be forced to do hard menial labor that nobody wants to do, and you will be thankful for it. In the end, you will realize that you can no longer identify with your own people, and you will find a nice foreign person who understands you, and your children will go to fancy schools on scholarships, and they will know two languages, neither of which you fully understand.

If you are in the third group, nothing will change, but you will hear strange rumors of a corporate takeover, and your hourly wage will drop. Finally, your company logo will change, then your company name will change. When you try to retire, you will find out that your retirement agreement was canceled, and you have to live at home with your children. If you are lucky, your children will be smart and wealthy. If you are unlucky, you will be too much of a burden on them, and they will force you to live at a government run facility with thousands of other old people.

If you are in the fourth group, you won’t really care what is happening. The rush and bustle of daily life wears you out every day. You have no idea where your life is heading, and you just hope that there will be money for food. If you’re unlucky, you will have to live out on the streets, learning slight of hand, begging for pennies to buy stale bread, sleeping behind huge trash cans and in prickly bushes so they won’t find you. If you are lucky, you will enjoy the thrill of it all, meeting hundreds of strange people, going to strange places, doing odd jobs. Someone will notice how much you enjoy your work, and you will get promoted, and you’ll be able to buy a huge house, and an expensive car, and drive twenty miles to work every day, far away from the low rent housing and retirement homes.

This is serious

Really, listen to me. I know what I’m talking about. Living your life in an eight by twelve room will make you the wisest person in the universe. Don’t listen to music or shake hands with strangers, and for goodness sake, don’t hug people just because they are family. Oh, and, if you can handle eating raw vegetables, you will never be hungry. Really, you have to eat all day to get enough nutrition just to live. And ignore those losers who tell you vegetables have no protein, not only will you get plenty, but you will not be eating all that fat and clogging your arteries and enlarging your heart and dying early from heart disease. Just make sure you are not just eating a few types of vegetables, eat at least ten.

For one thing, the secret isn’t living in a room alone all your life, it is watching expensive educational TV programming and doing a lot of web searches all day. Listening to music and watching comedy shows and eating fatty food and gossiping and smoking may seem like good relaxing fun, but it is clinically proven to stop you from maturing into a brilliant vibrant and interesting person who never gets bored or lonely, like me. Now that I have effectively dragged your way of life  through the mud, and ruined the mysteries of life for you, I’m sure you’ll never come back, but at least you’ve read this far. My work has finally paid off.

Sitting in an empty room, alone, away from it all, helps you process things. It helps you get some perspective. It takes a while to get used to, maybe a couple of years. Watch out for the warning signs of insanity though, pulling out your hair, rocking from side to side, biting your nails, washing up for over a half hour at a time, compulsively humming show tunes, and staring out your window at people walking past. Life is hard, until you get used to it. You are now officially a monk. Don’t let people call you a hermit, that would be rude. WARNING: If you have a lover, just forget it, your partner will leave you. Don’t even think about asking either, they always say they won’t, and then they do it anyways. Well, you’ve been warned.

The most important thing to do now is go to the bed shop after hours and test the beds. Make sure you can get a full eight hours sleep on it. Do the same for a good office chair. Do it on several nights so you are sure they are not just for show. I won’t tell you how to do it, but make sure not to do anything illegal. You may need to take a blanket along. Make sure to calculate the cost of buying a new one when the warranty runs out, they always wear out right after the warranty expires.