the big lie

http://eq.magelo.com/profile/1219563 · Post by **Pathius** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:34 am

The Big Lie

All of your life, you've been lied to.

You've been told what life is supposed to be about. Grow up, do well in school, make
friends, get a girlfriend or boyfriend, get a good job, get married, get a nice house and
have kids. Watch tv, go to church, vote, find some hobbies to entertain you. Donate
money to charity. Go on vacation. Get old, retire, spend time with the grandkids. Look
back on your life with nostalgia, look forward to the afterlife of your choosing.

This is what you're supposed to do, this is what normal people do. This is what everyone
else is doing. Oh sure, there are a few aberrations here and there, sometimes some
people slip off this track, but you can get back on at any time.

Of course, when you actually look at the world around you, you may see something
entirely different.

See that young married couple living next door, with the wife gardening in the front yard
while the kids play out back? She's snowed under with Xanax all the time, without which
she'd be in a continuous state of anxiety. And her 6 year old son, he's following in mom's
footsteps already, taking his daily dose of Ritalin to keep him tranquil enough to sit still all
day at school.

She stopped sleeping with her husband several years ago, but that's ok, cause he
sneaks off a couple times a week and has sex with street prostitutes in the back seat of
his car, or a nearby motel. He feels a bit bad for them, and tips them extra.

His favorite prostitute is always glad to see him, because he's pleasant enough and an
easy $75. Too bad they can't all be like him. She gets beaten up and raped by johns
multiple times a year, but that's ok, she can handle it, cause even at its worst this job is
still better than what she went through as a child. Besides, there's no other way she could
support her crack cocaine habit.

And the cop who tries to arrest her, last night he arrested the neighborhood marijuana
dealer, then went home and got nice and legally drunk on jack daniels.

And the cop's daughter, the pretty high school cheerleader, sneaks off and vomits after
every meal so she won't get fat.

But these are all small scale problems. Don't forget that, several times a century, often
enough to happen at least once during the average human lifetime, all the most powerful
nations of the world divide up into sides and begin slaughtering anyone they can find on
the opposing side by the millions. This is agreed by all to be unfortunate but necessary.

And the city you live in, if you're in a western country and living in a city, has already been
targetted by some country's nuclear weaponry. A few pushes of the right buttons, and
you'll be vaporized, or survive and live in some radioactive wasteland. But that's ok,
because it probably won't happen in the immediate future, so you might as well go out
and buy the week's groceries.

Beneath the thin veneer of civilization lies a howling madness, and the average normal
human being has the ability to commit genocide during the day, then come home and
tuck the kids in at night, or to ignore the pain of a billion people in misery while mowing
the lawn or doing christmas shopping.

The Big Lie is that all of the problems of human life are separate. If you
compartmentalize them all, you can convince yourself that once you lose that 40 pounds,
or get more money, or get your husband to stop beating you, or finally kick that addiction,
you'll be a normal happy person like everyone else. And once you get the right politician
elected, or win the war, or convert the infidels to your religion, the world will be a happy
place.

The problems of life are all symptoms of the same cause. The locks on your doors
which you need to keep out burglars, the schoolyard bully, the serial killer, the drug
addict, the drug dealer, the billionaire who thinks he's being exploited by the poor, the
millions of soldiers fighting for peace, the enslavement or slaughter of entire races of
people, and your own unhappiness, all are interconnected. They are all part of one
problem.

I wish I could define the problem for you, or offer a solution. Human beings seem to
have a basic design flaw. We're a fucked up species, striving to be healthy and happy
while simultaneously destroying ourselves and each other in a million different ways

http://eq.magelo.com/profile/1219563 · Post by **Pathius** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:35 am

for the most part the author's point is fairly accurate imo

depressing isnt it =/

Post by **Chakkorisi** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:23 am

I believe I've heard it said before that human beings are the only species known, that will intentionally poison themselves (ie drugs, booze, etc.). No other species intentionally ingests toxins.

Now don't get me wrong, I throw back the gin & tonics . . . beer . . . what have you on a fairly regular basis, so I am not preaching . . . just thought it was an interesting (possibly true) factoid to contribute to this thread.

Chakk

Gecko of Desire · Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:27 am

I have seen a bunch of nature shows in which elephants, monkeys, giraffs, (can't spell) and others have enjoyed eating fermented fruit not just to eat, but to get drunk. Elephants have been known to seek it out on purpose for a buzz.

Don't you remember that commercial with the rat and the food bar. If you give a rat cocaine instead, it will press that bar till it dies.

Poisons feel to good to many animals other than humans.

Studying strategies to help children with problems I see many reasons why these things happen. I don't believe humans are a "fucked up species." There are lots of good reasons and solutions to these problems.

Post by **Laleldil** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:37 pm

I am guess Life is all a matter of perspective. Pretty easy to look out your door and see the faults in others and call it hypocritical of them. Newspapers are filled with these stories as are weekly tabliods.

Yet I see many of the same type of actions in my own life. My grandsons come in to visit and I am too busy raiding or looking for that spell to drop. They want a hug and kiss goodbye and goodnight and I get upset my toon died due to my lack of attention to a game. I have a yard overgrown with trees and raspberrys have nearly over taken the frontwalk, the meager path kept open by breaking the canes as they close together.

Perhaps instead of worrying about concerns in Iraq, who was our scapegoat for 911, since we surely would not have attacked our oil supply of Saudi Arabia, maybe our representative government would concern itself with problems at home.

I dunno, I see so many things I allow myself to do that does not help to influence others around me, that I get upset, and blame the thread, but so soon realize that it is still me that is not holding up my end of my sphere of life.

Really will I be blaming my grandsons for the way they think and act after I have fed them television for the formative years of their lives? The medium where to kill, batter, abuse, and conflict with others is the norm? Where any kind of romance, tenderness, and love are just preludes to cheating or whose death is the 'purpose' for the violence to continue? May Society forbid that affection could be shown without canned laughter.