I saw it again today. This time, in the form of my parents denying my brother computer access, to a computer he himself bought with his hard-earned money, harping once again (as I had to listen to as a kid) about the evils of computers and “teh internets”. Why does the general American public so [happily] indulge in selective ignorance? Why must the older generations so oppress our youth with their self-important, narrow-minded outlooks on the world? We promote ignorance more than anything! It seems to me (maybe just because of my own life) that we are happy to promote conformity, shun individuality, and partake in a [MMORPG] Massively Mediocre, Outstandingly Redundant, Progressively Generic lifestyle!

          America. Land of the free; land of the used to be. Don’t get me wrong. I know that my country [was once] great [for everyone]. I love being a part of it; though I must turn a blind eye to 90% of all going on around [and above] me to even have remote delusions that I am enjoying myself within it’s extremely (and ever increasingly) restrictive bounds. Though in the past I’ve preached otherwise, I’ve come to realize that bureaucracy is not always necessarily a bad thing. Socialism in some aspects can be extremely productive; in many a way that the Democracy/Capitalism paradox has failed in this country; indeed, America is to capitalism as Russia is to communism.

          Why do I say this? Because I feel strongly that it is so. Why? Well many reasons. To explore in depth why we are in the situations we are in today, let’s look at some of the guiding illusions that we have allowed to be manipulated to the forefront of our society.

          The media and their infamous Weapons of Mass Distraction. Gadgets, advertisements, fashion, entertainment, politics; consumption. And indulgence thereof. We have made it the greatest American pastime, if not religion. Buy, eat, indulge, consume, comply; it is a hypnotic drill we awake to every morning and lead our lives by [and by] the clock, the dollar, and the same rhetoric we’ve had drilled into our heads from birth. Do not question authority. Support a religion. Find a nice-paying job, or strike out on your own small business. Go to college; get that education (because everyone knows if you don’t have a degree you don’t know shit). Invest. Buy low, sale high. Deny payment and service at the most trivial of issues. Parry with bullshit excuses. And always, there looms the eternal propaganda.

          But what is wrong with any of that? They are, all illusions aside, distractions. Distractions, the lot of them, just like politicians. Don’t get me wrong, I speak under the presumption that there is no conspiracy that created the entertainment business franchises that keep the general American public so preoccupied with what so-and-so wore on the red carpet, what deals Pizza Hut is offering, etc. America is the land of the dollar, and “the boredom-killing business” quite generally (if not steadily literally) does make quite a killing. Indeed, it could be the thing to replace religion as the opiate of the masses (speaking of masses America’s collective average BMI has been steadily rising, giving ever more “weight” to this theory).

          But in any matter, these distractions are real. We, Americans, have become too focused on making ourselves and our loved ones happy (or merely keeping all entertained), that we are literally not capable of (and don’t want to) feeling the great vibrations that generally precede these crisis’s months (if not years) before they occur! We have become a nation that is guided just like sheep in a flock; we trust in those who bring us to green pastures (or cream filled-pastries, more like it), even deep down knowing that they harbor intentions worse than simply preying upon us. We are nothing more than stars on a fading flag, stock for an oncoming harvest. “No one seems to notice, no one seems to care”, because “everyone has a cell phone that makes pancakes” and thus we’re all happy and contented with the spoils of a nation that has gone bad.

          Why do nine out of ten Americans not make it through the first few paragraphs of this article? Well for one, the American attention span may pride itself knowing that it is the lowest of any country at any given point in our world’s entry on mankind in history. But what I am to focus on here today are two evils, old as time itself, that are driving elements of American culture and society. These are, of course, none other than political correctness and religion, the two most noticeable stigma (for those who care to demonstrate human capacity to read and think logically) on our [once-]great nation. The former is a derivative of racial memory, and the later, a state of mind necessary to herd great masses of willfully ignorant people to accomplish a common goal, set by those who have reconciled their own harbored ambitions within compliance to the $$$ buck [because where it starts is the sole root of all our current problems this nation faces, and it is always seeking fresh eidolons and acolytes].

          Big business lobbyists are behind the wheel of this collective SUV society. The connotations are twofold; they can keep us distracted so easily, what with the big products and domineering presence – but, on the other hand, what is top-heavy easily flips, if but the right opportunities arise.

          America. This year, just recently, congress passed a bill to bail out 4 major subprime-lending mortgage markets. It will cost the tax payers $700 billion dollars. But this isn’t the first time. We spent $400 billion not too long ago on similar grounds. The “war on terrorism” has siphoned a great amount of American GDP down the drain. And what has all of this ensured? That our presence in affairs we have no business being in is prolonged, for the pleasure and profit of the select few that have sold themselves out to the evils of totalitarian capitalism.

          America. Are we going to perpetuate our ignorance into redundancy? Or are we ever going to wake up, and break this chain of events before it consumes us? We have the means, the motivation, and certainly the right to overthrow this oligarchy [dictatorship-in-the-making]. If our continued indulgence and indifference, this fixation and fascination with things we give little or no thought to, is sustained, we will soon wake up to a world where the everyday conveniences we know and love [and have taken as reality] are no longer supported.

          What is there to hope to, you might ask?

          I, strangely enough [and despite my sneering cynicism, pathos, even contempt towards the state of the world and the misanthropic principles that seem to guide it], draw hope and power from my ability to believe in mankind’s potential. I think that if we are ever freed from this entangling web of suppressing ignorance, we may truly be able to surpass all boundaries and achieve true liberation and freedom within the paradigm of the universe; and possibly, beyond.

          I have just emerged from the mandatory “educational” facilities of America. I was not in the least impressed. I have heard the delusional rantings of those who have attended the most prestigious colleges in this nation, and the only consistent trait these students (and graduates) share is this bastardized, perverse view that things are fine the way they are, and reinforcement towards this whole system, the institutions that they sprouted from, is the only way to succeed in this world. And perhaps that is true, for that very notion is reinforced into all redundancy, and so many accept it without a second thought, that we promote ignorance in all forms truly; if our very institutions that aim to educate only produce narrow-minded clones, then what does that say about those who choose to remain (or must due to the harrowings such a world puts them through) ignorant? They, in turn, take it out on whatever poor progeny they produce! They either on the one hand, tell their children to get the “education” they never had, or else shut them off completely from all forms of information that is accessible to the general public (such as the opening scenario).

          Looking back at history, just think of all the times the institution has been wrong. We used to believe the world was flat! We perhaps have always (selfishly) thought, wishfully, that there is some god out there that created man in its image. But there is no divine presence that can be logically argued, and if so, I at least hate to imagine the perversions that come from man trying to contain its boundaries and vision with their own narrow thinking patterns. Yet creationism and “divine right” have always been a guiding factor that societies are based upon! And this is wrong, for everyone holds different values, and to assert any one principle as “divinely correct” is to alienate a culture from alternative thinking means. This is unfair to the minority that does not wish to settle for a simple life of compliance to a system bound to fail (and eventually out of their own prolonged narrow-mindedness and inability to accept new principles, the majority may find the new ideals unfair that they themselves, through their unfaltering trust and conformity, helped bring about).

    Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best;

          “The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next”

          This doesn’t mean that religion is evil by nature, only evil by context. I don’t mean to say I have the right answer, I don’t mean to say that there isn’t a “divine presence” somewhere. To do so would be folly, just as would be to say that there was for sure one. All facets of reality that we know of can be logically explained, all theories broken down and consistency proved eventually. We are beings designed to think logically, but more often than not we choose the simplicity of ignorance.

          Well, hate to say it, but it is too late in the progression (or regression) of this nation to continue this path. In order to revive morale in this nation and maintain a foothold in international affairs, in order to continue asserting or presence as a “first-world” country, there are many drastic reevaluations to be made, many drastic reforms, social-political and economical revolutions, and, last but most definitely not least, subconscious evolutions. If mankind’s collective hard-coded mentality does not open itself to innovation, how then can we, in our daily lives even begin to comprehend such a task as changing everything we perceive as correct?

          I am not encouraging riots, and I do not mean to encourage violent actions. But as things begin to pass the point of no return, I feel as though I must elaborate more than ever on where my country went wrong, and if it is indeed too late to salvage it, at least convey to other nations what I have seen, and what these conformist, selectively ignorant personalities, when so thoroughly drilled into each child in an subconscious attempt to perpetuate mankind as it was in each parent’s own youth (or even accidently shape it for the worse [sic: spoiled]), helps produce (and eternally perpetuate) the cycle that has so thoroughly pervaded all history.

          Let these words be words of warning, and I hope that they may reach their marks. There is hope for those who want change. There is hope for those that feel compassion, but are unsure of where to place it. There is always hope. All of our race desire happiness; we are all in the pursuit of it, though the chances differ from individual to individual depending on many different variables: birth status, situational circumstances, and ultimately, how these condition each of us to deal with future experiences.

          I like to think of the world as one organism, that we are all one. But believes are petty unless they all unite; only then may they become pithy. I think it takes our entire race, with all the diverse values, to come together, to reshape our consensus and overcome perceived “obstacles” that are truly no more than gifts we are misperceiving.

I shall start right away…

First Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, now Lehman Brothers.

As one blogist/journalist wrote, indeed, Wall Street is becoming Fall Street.

This credit problem is growing steadily worse as more big companies fold. Yet mankind carries on as if nothing is happening… scurrying like many rats on a sinking ship to the refuge of potential investments.

This makes me wonder. Loyalty is a humble notion, but a rare entity. Thus, perhaps, we should all put money into the businesses we prefer? Should we pay taxes at all if capitalism’s dream is to make as much money as possible off little investments? Capitalism never ceases to amuse me.

Bureaucracy, credit, paperwork; the epitome of “civilized” society. Shifts of money dictate shifts of power. It’s getting hard to follow who has all of what cards in the financial world. And in the wake of it all [the while] feverishly fanatical denizens of the dollar chase what[ever] little hopes that they can find in their little preferred (if only just introduced to the masses) politicians.

It truly amuses me… sometimes to sit back and revel in watching the pathetic attempts of little men and their little schemes to make something more of themselves, to get closer to the big cheese in this rat race.

Where does America stand? On the brink of destruction, or on the other hand, retribution. We will most likely fail to stop these things coming to a head, as we have dissociated ourselves so thoroughly from each other. That is why we will most likely not experience Renaissance until it is too late to save the floundering capitalist state.

Clutch your dollars tightly, little men with little minds, for the new dawn is coming. As the late George Carlin was want to say, “That’s the whole thing to the American Dream; you’ve gotta be asleep to believe it”.

- Totalk: Rant, on mind
- Total King: Possible?