Once in awhile, if you read this blog, you realize I have some thoughts and ideas about things. Tonight as I write this, I want you to consider the following and see if you agree. Feel free to write what you think to thesilencebureau (-at-) gmail.com.
1) Nobody really wants real Democracy. Let’s say you really suck as a person. You’re a real jerk. Under a real Democracy, your neighbors could vote to have you thrown out of your house and run out of town. Or another example: under a real Democracy, whoever lost the vote… would lose power. None of this hanging around to be the ‘opposing viewpoint’. No, you’d just be gone.
True, we want rugged individualism, but not true Democracy.
2) No one respects authority. Give anyone the chance and they will ignore the rules and do what they think is right, regardless of who told them to do it. Teachers, policeman, firemen, the military, the government, the church… none of these hold any real power. People will stop doing what they’re told as soon as what they’re told fails to meet their expectations.
3) No one believes in the same God as anyone else. Try this experiment. Take a friend to the grocery store. Go to the produce section and pick out an orange. Now ask your friend to describe the color of that fruit. He or she will likely say, “Orange”. Now, you describe it to your friend. You will likely agree – it’s “Orange”. Now, ask your friend to describe the color orange, without referring to something that contains the color (warm, hot, heat, etc. also does not count since it is merely a secondary reference to fire, which refers to the color). In the same way that no one can see the color orange in the same way that someone else does, we experience God as a truly personal experience.
4) There are too many layers of government. There is local, state, and federal. Then there’s the U.N., the IMF, the World Bank, NATO… Then there’s the United Federation of Planets, the Galactic Omnibus League (GOL), and the Universal Union of United Galaxies (UUUG)… Then there’s the Hyperspatial Council of Parallel Realities and the Pan-dynamic Republican Democracy of Alternate Universes.
Luckily, we only pay taxes to the first three.
5) Nobody likes art. Everyone is threatened by anything they either 1) don’t understand 2) cannot do themselves 3) cannot relate to. Art usually fits most of these categories, if not all three. True, there are those who pretend to “appreciate” art. These people are just trying to be ‘better’ than others. Most people are much more into illustrations and fun things that they can describe.
6) Most people can never truly love another person. Most people do nothing unless it’s out of self-preservation. Most people love other people because, in their minds, the people they love are actually part of their own psyches. Therefore, they do not feel threatened by them. They really cannot differentiate the people they love from themselves. This is a trait that is never outgrown, though we are all born with it to a much greater extent. Babies, for example, are born as gods, who think that everything around them must be part of themselves. As soon as it becomes clear that the other person is actually NOT a part of ourselves, we cease the feeling that we have that we call ‘love’ and the barriers go up. Of course, like God (or the color orange), no two people can experience ‘love’ in the same way.
7) Every driver is a sociopath. If it were not for the self-preservation instinct, the fear of going to jail, and the fear of high insurance premiums, most people would simply drive a huge tank and run right over every other driver out there. When people get in a car, they will do things that they would never do walking around the mall, for example. If you imagine that instead of a car, you are actually running very fast, you will understand what I mean. But, every driver, when they get in the car, completely shuts out the world, society, everything… it’s just them and the road. Everybody else on the road is a nuisance.
8) Magical thinking is everywhere. Whenever we wish something would happen but are unwilling to take tangible actions to facilitate it or think that somehow we can change something that we have no power to change, we are engaging in magical thinking. Many people dislike confrontation, decision-making, making priorities, following through with actions and that type of thing. So, instead, they like to divert all of these things to the realm of magic. Whether it’s horoscopes, numerology, witchcraft, voodoo, or other types of religion, we look for signs and signals of what we should do in life or how to make something happen that we wish would happen. Unfortunately, the world works with much more simpler laws than we are willing to put up with. If you want to pick up a rock, for instance, go over and pick up the rock, with your hand. Don’t stare at it and hope that you can lift it with your ‘force’ powers. If you have a decision to make, weigh all of your options – write them down if that will help – but don’t talk to invisible beings that you hope will make the decision for you and then ascribe the decision to the invisible being when in fact, YOU made the decision (based on magical thinking).
9) Most people are hynotized by routines. The reason most people can’t find time to do things is because they can’t break out of their routines. And, the routines are so entrenched they don’t even recognize them. They are simply in a pattern that they find difficult to comprehend breaking out of. I’m not talking about bad habits or addictions. I’m talking about simpler things – like instead of your ten minute shower, you cut it to two. Try it. Can you do it? Instead of taking the freeway home, take the local routes. Instead of ordering the chicken, get the steak. Instead of ordering the steak, get the chicken. Shake things up. Live a little.
10) People love to complain. In a forthcoming entry entitled ‘The Unreleting Culture of Unproductive Criticism’, I will provide a list of human conditions and the criticism attributed to them. Related to that, people can find a complaint for everything. Why? Because complaining gives people attention. And people love attention. Negative attention is like negative publicity. There is no such thing.
Swatting At Flies 