Opiate of the People

Karl Marx said that religion was the opiate of the people, that it was an insidious force used to overrule the minds of the working class.  This is certainly true in less advanced cultures.  In today's world, people strapping explosives to themselves for religious reasons has become all too familiar a scene.  Why do people do this?  Because their lives are so shitty that they will allow a maniac to promise them life eternal in exchange for strapping a bomb to yourself and killing a lot of innocent people.  Makes sense, if you're an uneducated wretch brought up in the forgotten wastes of the world.  But as far as believing ridiculous things, there is no shortage in the poorer parts of America, particularly in the "Bible Belt."  It's the same story that has played out for centuries.  Uneducated people will believe whatever you tell them, particularly if it strokes their self-worth, promises them a better life (carrot-dangling), and doesn't threaten the status quo of a homogenous, like-thinking mob.

My goal here is not to speak to the uneducated portion of the world.  Frankly, I don't believe that they are capable of understanding even the most basic of arguments.  My focus here is on something that is replacing religion as the opiate of the people.

In the educated world, religion is losing its grip.  It's not a far stretch from the basic lessons of biology, physics, and mathematics to realize that God doesn't exist.  There are always exceptions to the rule, of course.  There are spiritual scientists, even religious ones.  I can't explain their existence, but what I will say is that my hypothesis is the  following:

If you claim to be a scientist and you believe in God, then you aren't a true scientist. 

Basically, people who fall into this category have failed to apply objective criticism to their own belief structure.  The fact that they have the ability to apply these principles in their professional lives and refuse to do so in their personal lives is deplorable.  After all, a sentient mind is a terrible thing to waste.  But for these people, religion is still the opiate they choose to numb them to world, therefore they are not of primary concern to this discussion.

My focus here is alcohol.  For those of us that have lost religion, either through self-realization, education and reasoning, or outright rejection of mass mentality, there is a hole that is left.  Religious people don't have to worry about purpose.  Their purpose comes from God.  In fact, that's what scares religious people most when they start to think that God doesn't exist.  If God doesn't exist, why am I here?  Very good question.

The search for purpose in this world is not so simple.  Some people dedicate their lives to a cause they believe in.  But these causes typically don't pay well.  Most of us, caught up in the capitalistic urge to make a living, take jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need.  In my opinion, this approaches the level of stupidity that suicide bombers illustrate so very well.

So, you have a job you hate.  Your substitute for God has become money.  It's the thing you serve.  The thing you want most.  In all respects you have become money's slave.  The thing is, since you have no God, you have no purpose but for the amassment of funds. 

What do you do?  You drink.

You drink to forget how miserable you are with your work.  You drink to forget that your only purpose in life has become paying the bills.  You drink to forget that you are wasting your time on this planet, working endless hours in a place that you wouldn't dare lock your kids in for fear they will turn out just like you.  You drink to smother your unquenchable rage and hatred for society, which has locked you in a cage from which you see no escape.

Thus, in the place of religion, alcohol becomes the crutch that allows to you accept and even celebrate the status quo.  It dulls your senses and brings your intelligence down to the background level of humanity.  It muddles your ability to assess your life with reason and clarity.  When you drink, you can't focus on the true meaninglessness of your existence.  It makes you happy, at least until the next morning, when you end up back at the job you hate or wasting your weekend sleeping off the booze.

So why is it the opiate of the people?  Because, like religion, it serves the goals of our overlords so very well.  It keeps us in line.  It keeps us subjugated.  We don't act out.  There is no civil disobedience anymore.  We're all distracted by television, religion, booze, antidepressants, and an endless diversionary campaign to keep us so afraid of the world around us.  When you're not at work, you're locked up in your house watching advertisements for more shit you don't need, drinking the booze that is advertised on the screen, and pissing your life away.

This is all very good for the booze business, and for your employers.  It keeps you in your job, working slavishly to buy more things and throw money into the pockets of CEOs all over the country.  It's a perfect system for the subjugation of a populace.  For the dumb ones:  Religion.  For the educated ones:  Alcohol. 

For the ones that figure it out:  Marginalization.  The forces of alcohol and religion combined are very great in this world of ours.  Almost a perfect storm to keep the collective intelligence of mankind on what seems to be an unrecoverable death spin. 

Lest you think that I am complete outsider looking in:  I grew up in the Bible Belt.  I was baptized and believed, at least for a while, in the divine, the Holy Spirit, the whole lie.  I bought it hook, line and sinker for a while, until I reached my teens and achieved self-awareness.  I was dry until age 21, since after all, it was illegal.  I then spent a few years as a social drinker.  By the time my first job was in it's fourth year, alcohol was a regular part of my life.  I spent a few fleeting dry periods, but drank socially.  As work became more and more pointless, I began to drink more and more.  I recently stopped again, discovering that clarity returns like a vengeful avalanche between two and three weeks from the cessation of drinking.  Today is day 20.  And here I am.  I don't know where this is going, but I do know where I would like it to go.  I would like to never drink again.  Although it is probably my favorite thing to do, I am not at all willing to surrender reality back to a God in a bottle. 

Alcohol has become the equivalent of religion in my opinion.  And given my extreme disdain for religion, I am very reluctant to do something that, although a tangible object, accomplishes the very same thing.  I no longer wish to surrender my will to an external being, whether or not it happens to be real.

Alcohol is an antidepressant.  If you use it, it is your Zoloft.  In some cases, your Ambien.  It is a way to self-medicate and check out from the world around you.  Alcohol gets you high.  You accept your fate.  You will spend your life doing something you hate, year after year, calm as a Hindu cow on the outside.  Even if you are a raging mess on the inside, you appear normal to the outside world.  It makes you fat.  It wrecks your metabolism.  And still you clamor for more. 

Most people will ask me why I am dry.  I will ask them, why do you need to be wet?