Theory #1 213 456 389 774 328 697
Oppression can be stealthy. This is a relatively novel concept though. Let me back up my idea a little. The only thing that is worse than the oppression you feel on your back like an anvil overhead ready to crush you if you stray from the path of least resistance, is oppression that hides the fact that the anvil is dangerously close and hanging by a thread.
Not so long ago we had dictators, despots & Kings trying to keep us in line. The current incarnation of evil (USA) is going about its business ridding the world of such "leaders" for us these days. "Great", some seem to say, "let them save us from the tyranny". But what is unsaid is the tyranny that will replace the individual. Whether you like to believe it or not government by corporations is a dictatorship. Be it one or twenty thousand corporations their rule will be equally oppressive. There are rules that you must follow. You must work (preferably over forty hours a week), you must look a certain way, you must subject yourself to advertisement, you must buy things, you must regard individuals under arbitrary ages as stupid, sexless, and irresponsible, you must believe that we are advanced, and any number of other rules.
I have heard arguments that these rules are not firm, they can be broken. But although in certain situations you will not be killed or imprisoned for most of the transgressions of insolence, the truth is that at the very least you will have your social status lowered. You will be punished either monetarily or by being marginalized. Banishment was a popular tactic in feudal times, but we are so much more advanced, we have more clever ways of banishment.
So why is oppression by a single entity so much better than what we have today? One word: Revolution. If a King/despot/dictator is grievously abusing his/her populous it has been proven time and time again that that individual can be overthrown and disposed of. How does one dispose of government by corporations that are busy telling everyone how wonderful the world run by corporations is? According to them we are incredibly lucky to be living in such an era with so much freedom. It is sacrilege to not believe that our world is infinitely better than all that preceded it with our phones, washing machines, babies born in hospitals, TVs, radios, cars, box spring mattresses (thank you bria), cloths, shampoo, planes, computers, shavers, tampons, make-up, plastic, Barbies, crap, crap, and more crap. The big message... These things make you happy and all of the past generations were poor, unhealthy, and miserable because they didn't have them. So get to work so you can buy more of them and be even happier!
I'm tired of this. I'm tired of the now seventeen years you must spend of your life being socialized in schooling type institutions just so you can make a little more money, which everybody knows means more crap, which equates to more happiness & freedom. For even more freedom & happiness via extra cash just spend twenty two years in schooling (average PhD is five years). When you are all done with the schooling you can work, and work, and work. Work away your best years, work away the precious little time you have on this planet instead of spending time with your family and friends. You better go to work! You know the consequences if you don't... just look at that homeless person on the street. That will be you if you disobey. Sounds like freedom to me.
But almost everyone I meet is convinced that forty hour each week being taken away from your life is normal. If people didn't do this we would suddenly devolve into an instant chaos state. The world would revert to the misarable-ness that was the first thirty thousand years of human history. Don't you know humans have only been happy for one hundred years or so? Before that we had no things and we were miserable. It is next to impossible to convince people otherwise. I speak here with my little digital pen or my single voice, the corporations have five hundred billion watts of power broadcasting their ideals and propaganda on billions of radios, TVs, newspapers, websites, books, and magazines. Almost all media is now controlled by them, and what is not can be marginalized or drowned out by the sheer weight of the misinformation they put out. Fifty million voices are telling you that taxes are bad, what they fail to tell you is that the taxes will be on them not on you. So what happens? People vote in representatives that won't do anything to stop the corporations from not being taxed and grabbing more control and power. And we go merrily along the path thinking that we are free, as the TV orders us around.
So tell me how can we motivate a populous of slaves that are being told by their overlords that they are very free, lucky and happy (and believe it!) to revolt? It is not possible. Everything is telling them how wonderful they have it and how much worse it could be. If a single dictator tells you this you laugh. But it is not so funny when your fellow beings, that are in the same sinking ship as you are telling you that all is fine because the Captain and all the Stewards say so. And the evil empire (USA) is trying to make it so you can't even jump ship. They want everyone in on the same boat. Blind to the fact that we have less true personal freedom now than we have ever had. I'm not stupid. I can see history in the broad context that it is.
I'm so sick of people telling me their myopic view of history. 1945 is yesterday, it is not history. 1918 is the day before yesterday, it is not history. 1775 is last year, it is not history. Human history is thirty thousand years old. There has been a lot more important things that have happened in our history than anything in the last hundred. It is a day of our existence. Stop telling me how offended you are that the age that people are having sex at is dropping. It isn't dropping at all. For thirty thousand years human beings began having intercourse usually between the ages of twelve and fourteen. For the last hundred or so years, through the use of heavy handed tactics and mental manipulation we have artificially raised the mean age. That does not change the fact that most humans go through puberty between twelve and fourteen. It does not change the fact that sexual desire is transcendent of age and is often at its most intense during puberty. Don't tell me people are having sex at a younger age now, it is a lie perpetrated by the same entities that want us to be happy little consumerist slaves. Sex is an integral part of self actualization (study the pyramid please). Self actualization is the enemy of corporations.
If you are self actualized you will in all likelihood find a great deal of fault with the work your life away for trinkets mentality. The first, and most important thing, you must realize before you can be self actualized is to know what you are. We are Mammals. Mammals are creatures of leisure. Mammals spend most of their time in a state of relaxation. Only a minimal part of the day is spent working. Two or three hours of hunting/gathering/building shelter is a busy day for a Mammal. If you don't believe me watch any nature program, watch your cat, watch your dog, watch even Mammals that are on the opposite end of the spectrum from us like rats. You will see that they don't do much (unless we force them). They tend to just be. Our current society is run like a bee or ant colony. The workers (practically all) constantly and tirelessly work at their little jobs. We, as Mammals, are not capable of this. That is why you see aberrations in society like murders and violent crime. It is not "the few bad apples" causing problems, it is people driven to the breaking point due to a society that forces them to act like insects instead of human beings. The true criminals are the ones who perpetuate this dilemma.
So then we are stuck again. No way to change because the hard sell that "things are getting better all the time" (Phillips TV add) is everywhere. And the things that aren't getting better, they're not getting better because evil individuals like Saddam and Osama are standing in the way. Standing in the way of the make-up, plastic tit, liposuction, junk food, slim fast, hairless skin brigade from selling crap to more people though guilt and shame tactics under the guise of "making you feel better about yourself". If we all just work a little harder and longer, buy more things and behave then everything will be just peachy. Fuck that! Give me a real dictatorship over that any day. I can handle megalomania, no one can handle brainwashing.
That leads me to the topic of the week. How could this happen? Because the TV told you that the bad man is taking away your freedom and happiness by making your shiny new toy car a little more expensive, so you know what you have to do now... vote for the candidate that will keep this two seconds of history chugging along. Don't worry about the silent majority, there in such desperation and apathy already that they wouldn't dream of voting. You see, if all the people who actually understand that what is going on in the world right now isn't such a good thing, actually voted... well... all they ever tell me is... "that just the way it is"... but it wasn't always this way, it use to be much much better, but unfortunately that is a secret now.
This is why things like what just happened in California happen...
...please people, wake up...
One thing that I realized last year, in my first year back in Montreal, was that Decarie existed before it was a giant trench in the ground. I can't imagine it. I can't fathom how it was. Even if I saw a picture I'm sure I wouldn't recognize it, but it wasn't always like that. There was a time when there wasn't a huge ugly trench dug into the ground. So all you Montrealers go and spend a little time looking at the Decarie expressway and think about the fact that things were once different. And even though it seems impossible today that there could be anything but a huge trench dug into the ground... we all know better...
Not so long ago we had dictators, despots & Kings trying to keep us in line. The current incarnation of evil (USA) is going about its business ridding the world of such "leaders" for us these days. "Great", some seem to say, "let them save us from the tyranny". But what is unsaid is the tyranny that will replace the individual. Whether you like to believe it or not government by corporations is a dictatorship. Be it one or twenty thousand corporations their rule will be equally oppressive. There are rules that you must follow. You must work (preferably over forty hours a week), you must look a certain way, you must subject yourself to advertisement, you must buy things, you must regard individuals under arbitrary ages as stupid, sexless, and irresponsible, you must believe that we are advanced, and any number of other rules.
I have heard arguments that these rules are not firm, they can be broken. But although in certain situations you will not be killed or imprisoned for most of the transgressions of insolence, the truth is that at the very least you will have your social status lowered. You will be punished either monetarily or by being marginalized. Banishment was a popular tactic in feudal times, but we are so much more advanced, we have more clever ways of banishment.
So why is oppression by a single entity so much better than what we have today? One word: Revolution. If a King/despot/dictator is grievously abusing his/her populous it has been proven time and time again that that individual can be overthrown and disposed of. How does one dispose of government by corporations that are busy telling everyone how wonderful the world run by corporations is? According to them we are incredibly lucky to be living in such an era with so much freedom. It is sacrilege to not believe that our world is infinitely better than all that preceded it with our phones, washing machines, babies born in hospitals, TVs, radios, cars, box spring mattresses (thank you bria), cloths, shampoo, planes, computers, shavers, tampons, make-up, plastic, Barbies, crap, crap, and more crap. The big message... These things make you happy and all of the past generations were poor, unhealthy, and miserable because they didn't have them. So get to work so you can buy more of them and be even happier!
I'm tired of this. I'm tired of the now seventeen years you must spend of your life being socialized in schooling type institutions just so you can make a little more money, which everybody knows means more crap, which equates to more happiness & freedom. For even more freedom & happiness via extra cash just spend twenty two years in schooling (average PhD is five years). When you are all done with the schooling you can work, and work, and work. Work away your best years, work away the precious little time you have on this planet instead of spending time with your family and friends. You better go to work! You know the consequences if you don't... just look at that homeless person on the street. That will be you if you disobey. Sounds like freedom to me.
But almost everyone I meet is convinced that forty hour each week being taken away from your life is normal. If people didn't do this we would suddenly devolve into an instant chaos state. The world would revert to the misarable-ness that was the first thirty thousand years of human history. Don't you know humans have only been happy for one hundred years or so? Before that we had no things and we were miserable. It is next to impossible to convince people otherwise. I speak here with my little digital pen or my single voice, the corporations have five hundred billion watts of power broadcasting their ideals and propaganda on billions of radios, TVs, newspapers, websites, books, and magazines. Almost all media is now controlled by them, and what is not can be marginalized or drowned out by the sheer weight of the misinformation they put out. Fifty million voices are telling you that taxes are bad, what they fail to tell you is that the taxes will be on them not on you. So what happens? People vote in representatives that won't do anything to stop the corporations from not being taxed and grabbing more control and power. And we go merrily along the path thinking that we are free, as the TV orders us around.
So tell me how can we motivate a populous of slaves that are being told by their overlords that they are very free, lucky and happy (and believe it!) to revolt? It is not possible. Everything is telling them how wonderful they have it and how much worse it could be. If a single dictator tells you this you laugh. But it is not so funny when your fellow beings, that are in the same sinking ship as you are telling you that all is fine because the Captain and all the Stewards say so. And the evil empire (USA) is trying to make it so you can't even jump ship. They want everyone in on the same boat. Blind to the fact that we have less true personal freedom now than we have ever had. I'm not stupid. I can see history in the broad context that it is.
I'm so sick of people telling me their myopic view of history. 1945 is yesterday, it is not history. 1918 is the day before yesterday, it is not history. 1775 is last year, it is not history. Human history is thirty thousand years old. There has been a lot more important things that have happened in our history than anything in the last hundred. It is a day of our existence. Stop telling me how offended you are that the age that people are having sex at is dropping. It isn't dropping at all. For thirty thousand years human beings began having intercourse usually between the ages of twelve and fourteen. For the last hundred or so years, through the use of heavy handed tactics and mental manipulation we have artificially raised the mean age. That does not change the fact that most humans go through puberty between twelve and fourteen. It does not change the fact that sexual desire is transcendent of age and is often at its most intense during puberty. Don't tell me people are having sex at a younger age now, it is a lie perpetrated by the same entities that want us to be happy little consumerist slaves. Sex is an integral part of self actualization (study the pyramid please). Self actualization is the enemy of corporations.
If you are self actualized you will in all likelihood find a great deal of fault with the work your life away for trinkets mentality. The first, and most important thing, you must realize before you can be self actualized is to know what you are. We are Mammals. Mammals are creatures of leisure. Mammals spend most of their time in a state of relaxation. Only a minimal part of the day is spent working. Two or three hours of hunting/gathering/building shelter is a busy day for a Mammal. If you don't believe me watch any nature program, watch your cat, watch your dog, watch even Mammals that are on the opposite end of the spectrum from us like rats. You will see that they don't do much (unless we force them). They tend to just be. Our current society is run like a bee or ant colony. The workers (practically all) constantly and tirelessly work at their little jobs. We, as Mammals, are not capable of this. That is why you see aberrations in society like murders and violent crime. It is not "the few bad apples" causing problems, it is people driven to the breaking point due to a society that forces them to act like insects instead of human beings. The true criminals are the ones who perpetuate this dilemma.
So then we are stuck again. No way to change because the hard sell that "things are getting better all the time" (Phillips TV add) is everywhere. And the things that aren't getting better, they're not getting better because evil individuals like Saddam and Osama are standing in the way. Standing in the way of the make-up, plastic tit, liposuction, junk food, slim fast, hairless skin brigade from selling crap to more people though guilt and shame tactics under the guise of "making you feel better about yourself". If we all just work a little harder and longer, buy more things and behave then everything will be just peachy. Fuck that! Give me a real dictatorship over that any day. I can handle megalomania, no one can handle brainwashing.
That leads me to the topic of the week. How could this happen? Because the TV told you that the bad man is taking away your freedom and happiness by making your shiny new toy car a little more expensive, so you know what you have to do now... vote for the candidate that will keep this two seconds of history chugging along. Don't worry about the silent majority, there in such desperation and apathy already that they wouldn't dream of voting. You see, if all the people who actually understand that what is going on in the world right now isn't such a good thing, actually voted... well... all they ever tell me is... "that just the way it is"... but it wasn't always this way, it use to be much much better, but unfortunately that is a secret now.
This is why things like what just happened in California happen...
...please people, wake up...
One thing that I realized last year, in my first year back in Montreal, was that Decarie existed before it was a giant trench in the ground. I can't imagine it. I can't fathom how it was. Even if I saw a picture I'm sure I wouldn't recognize it, but it wasn't always like that. There was a time when there wasn't a huge ugly trench dug into the ground. So all you Montrealers go and spend a little time looking at the Decarie expressway and think about the fact that things were once different. And even though it seems impossible today that there could be anything but a huge trench dug into the ground... we all know better...