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?

Rewarding Performance

A thought came to me today - a thought about the ratio of work to pay.  For me, that ratio has reached an absolute minimum.

And why are so many people so incapable of even the simplest tasks?  That's right, the educational system.  People leaving our schools lack fundamental skills that prepare them for the real world.   Not surprising, since today's school curriculum focuses on passing standardized tests while completely ignoring the need to teach critical thinking skills.

Many people bemoan the state of our educational system.  However, I have come to realize that we, at least those of us who are capable of teaching ourselves, should be celebrating.  Without a dysfunctional educational system, how could we hope to command such a work to pay ratio?

What would happen if our educational system became functional and produced rational, thinking individuals? We would have a tidal wave of people who could do the jobs that need to be done, increasing the supply of skilled workers and decreasing the demand (salaries) for skilled work. 

The fact is, I find my job easy.  So easy that sometimes I want to scream at the walls.  But at the same time, 90% of people stemming from our educational system would not be able to perform my job function. 
 

I know a lot of teachers.  You know the old adage:  "Those who can, do.  Those who can't . . . . teach."  It now seems they are self-replicating, passing their "vast" knowledge of the real world on to their students.

Think back - it may be harder for some of you than others.  Did your teachers seem like smart people to you?  If so, enjoy digging that ditch or flipping that burger.  If not, I'm guessing you get the picture.  And let's be honest, can you really call a person with an education in education educated?  What did they teach you, how to learn?  How people learn.  Apparently they left out the part about failure being the best teacher.

So, a big thanks to all the teachers as they prepare to take the summer off.  You've earned it.  By performing so poorly that somehow, even a shred of knowledge can pay such vast returns.

So enjoy your summer off, and think about doing an even worse job next year in your "noble" profession.  I don't want my kids to have any competition.

The New God

The thing we die for.  The thing we live for.  The thing for which we spend cooped up in little cubicles or offices, wasting the best years of our life.  That's right, if you live in America, your God is money.

People can pretend all they want that they have other Gods.  The thing that rules their existence is cold cash.  It's the vehicle by which society has imposed upon itself a caste system, with the ultra-rich at the top of the heap.   They buy politicians, Hollywood, and everything else.  News networks, internet providers, buses, trains, buildings, and plaster them with ads to make you chase the same materialistic goals that they have decided for you.

Buy my book, you need new furniture, a bigger house and car than you'll ever need.  You NEED a car.  Thousands of years of civilization without them but by your new god, you will drive and drive and drive to pump gas into your car and money into their pockets.

George Carlin said that we are way too prosperous for our own good.  No shit.  It's too easy here if you have a brain to make a lot of money and do nothing with your life in this country.  I'll put aside all arguments of "nothing matters" for the moment.  Too easy to crawl into that box you call a home and insulate, get in your habits, and wake up 60 years old wondering what the hell happened.

A bunch of rich magnates got together over the weekend to discuss "inclusive capitalism," finally realizing that hoarding of wealth and resources tends to piss off 99.9999% of the population.  They discussed that when capitalism is seen as one of society's problems, it's a bad thing.  Capitalism is another word for slavery.  Capitalism is the worship of  otherwise worthless pieces of paper and the things others will give you for them, printed by governments to keep you in line.  It's an ingenious system.  Even more powerful than religion.  You can get people to throw away their lives for religion.  But I don't see many people spending 40-70 hours a week trying to get their religious fix.  They only do that for money.

Needless to say I've come to find the whole thing a bit trite and meaningless.  It's been 26 days since my last drink and I think the effects are just starting to wear off.  I feel the urge to trash my car keys, throw everything in my house away that I don't need, move into a smaller and cheaper place, eat the cheapest food, stop buying anything for anybody, start to put my money where my mouth is, and start retracting from this sick, diseased, and dying world. 

I mean, how much shit do you need?

Do I want my kid to end up like me, working a job I hate to buy shit we don't need?  And worse, having my wife work a job she hates to buy shit we don't need.  Do I want to pay $15k-$25k per year to have someone else raise my kids?  Just so they can drill the same, prescribed, designed, capitalistic propaganda into his brain, year after year, until he ends up just another peon in their regime?  Spending so much time with other forgotten kids of our era, with constant exposure to tablets, cell phones, spastic TV, etc., etc., that he ends up an undisciplined, spastic mess?

I don't think so.  Clarity is a hell of a thing.  You start to see the world as it is.  And South Park, "You're Getting Old, Man," had it right.  This world is all shit.  It's not in the capitalist overlord's interest to have an informed public.  Have you seen the news, lately?  They spend all of 30 seconds per story.  No depth.  No analysis.  No comprehension.  I can only assume other countries see our news programs and laugh at the utter lack of information being supplied to the American public.  If you haven't tried it, watch a few BBC stories and you'll know what I'm talking about.

And education, wow.  To give the rich tax breaks we have sacrificed the quality of our educational system.  Of course, this, along with their news propaganda, plays into making the working class dumber by the decade.  Set up two opposing sides and develop a divided idiocracy, where conservatives and liberals are pitted against each other and argue so vehemently that they can't take a step back and see that they are all slaves to the same god.

And the value of hard work?  Gone.  Every medicated parent thinks that their kid is special, so we have eviscerated the ability of the educational system to distinguish merit.  You see these kids come out of school, and they've never failed.  They expect the world to hand them everything.  Unfortunately, in many cases, it does.  Such is the American way.  Random awards bolster the false notion that hard work pays. 

So go home, have a drink, and forget, you benumbed masses.  Buy another round with the money they paid you to sell your life today.  Forget, and teach your kids in turn to forget and deny the obvious truths that you have chosen to ignore.