Wondering Aloud, No. 8
We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that death will tremble to take us. - Charles Bukowski
I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. - Edgar Allan Poe
Life is a game. I cannot control the outcome. I can only choose, occasionally, how I play. And even this choice that I perceive to be made due to my freewill isn’t truly free because I am tethered to a biological system that does most of the choosing without my conscious awareness, which has always been the case for us two-legged mammals. But the big difference, and a crucial one to be aware of, is that we are presently living in a technological system, a Machine World, that demands our participation if we want to survive. At this point in the human story, we have become slaves to this technological system and while most of us aren’t consciously aware of our servitude, it haunts us continuously. I believe this is why we drink and drug, watch porn, do jobs we loath, have forgotten how to love, exist in a perpetual state of war, eat processed food, get sick with some disease, and spin endlessly in circles of anxiety, shame, blame, fear, and hate. The machine has become the master, and we, its servants. Despite the present state of things, when the breath of the moment is deep and clear, and the sun’s rays sparkle, and the river’s water flow, and the children’s voices laugh, I still believe I can choose how I am going to respond. And if, in the end, I am wrong, that’s ok because I got out there and played the game and that’s really all that matters.
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There is a theme that has been growing ever larger throughout my lifetime that says humans are bad, that we are the problem and cause of all that is wrong in the world. There are too many of us, we are ruining the earth, we are destroying life, we are greedy and unkind and selfish. So, we must be stopped, or at the very least controlled and forced to live the right way (whatever that is). And the most effective way, so we are told, to make sure humans fall into line and do what is right to ensure our survival, is for the leaders of industry, governments, technology and banking – Global Cap – to implement measures such as carbon credits, social credits, surveillance, digital passports and digital currency and whatever additional tools are necessary, perhaps even robots and AI, to get our behavior in alignment with what is ‘right.’ I once believed the humans are bad story, but not anymore. Humans aren’t the problem and there is nothing wrong with us. Sure, we’re fantastically skilled at fucking things up and we do need to work on our mindfulness, but we’re still growing as a species. Afterall, we are the youngest of all the life forms, the ones with the least experience who have the most to learn. The trees, for instance, are far more evolved than we are and that is easily proven by how they choose to exist, to live, to engage with their fellow life forms. Their behavior is next level compared to ours. But even those parts of us that could use some mending aren’t bad, they are merely in need of some healing, some tender loving care. My point is, if we are regularly telling ourselves how awful we are, it will eventually result in our inability to love ourselves, and if we fall out of love with ourselves and forget our place in the web of life we will act in ways which are very destructive to ourselves and the earth that sustains us. And unlike the so-called world leaders, I don’t believe more control, more intrusion from the system, is the healing we need. In truth, our attempts to control what is inherently uncontrollable - life and death – are the primary reasons we find ourselves staring into the abyss. Industrial civilization is nearly kaput. We have been filling the air with toxins, spraying poisons on the soil, dredging the seas empty of life, generating waste at an unprecedented scale, and generally behaving like spoiled children. And to be clear, ‘green’ energy is another lie being sold to us by the system. Once the EROI (energy return on investment) is no longer viable, meaning it costs more to dig out and refine the resource than it can be sold for, we will no longer be scavenging around the earth for the precious metals and fossil fuels to power our consumption driven civilization. This fact, coupled with the massive degradation of the habitat, are non-negotiables as regards our ability to sustain our industrial, first world existence. At the point where we cross the rubicon in these two areas the rate of collapse will be mind-boggling. Of course, the greens and the technocratic utopians will insist this nonsense, that I am fear-mongering, that our future is as bright as a LED lightbulb, that we must remain hopeful because without hope we are doomed. Wherever you find yourself on this spectrum of belief, the future is a mystery. Life is a in constant state of change and whatever will be will be, so get to the living and be sure to see it as play.
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What follows is a brief summary of the more control is better agenda the powers that shouldn’t be are feverishly forcing upon the pharmaceutical taking, processed food eating, cable tv watching, soda pop drinking masses:
1. Climate & Vaccine Passports
2. Digital ID
3. Central Bank Digital Currency
4. Personal carbon rations
5. Climate lockdowns
6. Destroy the middle class (own nothing and be happy)
7. Social Credit Score
8. Eat the bugs (not the beef)
9. 15-minute ‘smart cities’
I believe this agenda, which is based in fear consciousness, will ultimately fail, primarily because humans are a delirious and unmindful species. But before it fails it could get ugly, I mean nasty, hardcore, unlike anyone alive has seen before ugly. If you are feeling stressed about all of this, I would encourage you direct your attention to all the beauty that life has to offer and be excited about living. Eventual collapse is baked into the design of the system and there’s no escaping it. That said, if you are one of those warrior spirits that wants to fight against the technocratic totalitarian creep that is washing over the land, I say to you fight with everything you’ve got. Do not follow orders. Do not do as you are told. Do not comply. There’s absolutely nothing left to lose, nothing. The powers that shouldn’t be – the very machine itself - wants our hearts, minds, and souls, this is spiritual warfare, and we must not go gentle into that good night. It’s also imperative that I make this point as well: The Powers That Shouldn’t Be, or The Cabal, or The New World Order, or whatever name you want to call the evil doers, are all of us. See, there is no separation. We are One. The bad guys we are fighting are literally ourselves. Think of it this way: Life is a Tree, Humans are one branch of that Tree (all races, all religions, all nationalities, all of our made-up divisions), Mountains are another branch, Sea Creatures are another branch, Plants are another branch, Stars and Planets are another branch, I think you get the picture – All Life is irrevocably in an infinite state of Inter-Being forever and ever. The persistent us vs. them mentality is, to my mind, the biggest irony in all of the craziness sweeping the planet, we are completely ignoring the truth that life is an inter-connected reality. This is, of course, no surprise given how disempowered, brainwashed, and victimized we’ve become. But hey, if you don’t see it my way and you trust your governments and think all is well and only going to get better, or you’ve not the stomach for the fight, or you’ve an unwavering belief in the human being that’s totally cool. You gotta do you. On the cosmic level, all is well. You are safe, you are loved, there is nothing to fear.
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Hope and hopelessness are two sides of the same con. They are perspectives based in some unknowable future, traps of a moment that hasn’t arrived, and as such, they are emotions of unreality. To exist within the duality of hope and hopelessness is to suffer, to live in a prison of the mind. If, on the other hand, you abandon hope, which also means hopelessness will cease to exist, you are free to live in the presence of the eternal now and be liberated from the neurotic tendency of expectations and results.
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Once I realized that the constructs of time and separation existed only in my mind, and fully opened my eyes and heart to the truth of timelessness and inter-being, the world was revealed for what it truly is, sublime, eternal, mysterious, painful, pleasurable, interconnected, and most assuredly not what my thinking mind told me it was. I was then free to laugh, to smile, to sing, to dance, and perhaps most importantly of all, to not take things so fucking seriously. Of course, I still had to go to work, do the laundry, raise the kids, purchase groceries, and tend to the garden, because those are the tasks at hand that make up a life well-lived. It’s just a far more easeful and fun journey when we do those tasks from a place of awareness instead of ignorance.
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If we really could control life, it would proceed exactly how we want. Quite obviously that is not how life goes. May this awareness liberate us to fully embrace life in all its joy and sorrow, remain unattached to outcomes, be kind to each other, and greet each day with gratitude.
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Is life happening for me or to me? Your answer to this question will deeply impact your experience of being alive.
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It may sound trite, but I’m a live and let live kinda guy. As such, love who you want to love, sleep with who you want to sleep with, dress however you want to dress, call yourself whatever you want to call yourself – simply put, you do you. But please, for the love of all creation, tend to your own garden, the world doesn’t need more people pushing their agenda on others and demanding everyone play along. That said, bodily sovereignty and freedom of choice are essential, regardless of what your personal beliefs are, otherwise we get a world gone mad like the one we’ve currently got. And, under no circumstance, if you are feeling like the world isn’t fair or just, would I recommend you succumb to the victim mindset. It’s unbecoming, disempowering, and doesn’t serve you in your emotional or spiritual growth. Own your shit, don’t expect or demand anything from others, and get to work creating the life you want. This approach will have the most beneficial impact on your life, I can promise you that.
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I recently heard a very cogent explanation that puts to rest the distorted gender narrative that has become a daily obsession here in America. If we were to put 100 women and 10 men on an island, in 100 years there would be an entire community of humans on the island. If we were to put 100 trans women and 10 men on an island, in 100 years we would have the skeletons of 110 dead men. Point being, regardless of how someone may feel, they cannot change their biological sex, and to pretend otherwise is to miss the forest for the trees. It seems to me that someone feeling like they are in the wrong body needs our compassion, as the mental struggle must be immense. I myself cannot imagine the intensity of emotions that come with feeling as if you are inhabiting the wrong body. Thus, compassion and empathy, and a means for people who feel this way to get some help sorting out the emotional challenges and finding a path to healing seem paramount. But what won’t benefit anyone, and will only further divide us, as is being proven every day, is to believe that pushing an agenda of diversity, equality, and inclusion is a sane approach. We won’t arrive at our stated destination by going about it this way. We already are, and have always been, one with all that is, so to think that emphasizing our differences is the path to unity is absurd. Why? We’re starting with the lie that we are separate and different based on our race, gender, religious beliefs, etc., and we are adding another lie on top of it, that men can be women and women can be men, and we’re expecting this to lead us to harmony, acceptance and peace. It’ll never unite us, but it will further divide us. Two more of my cents on this subject, to allow biological males to compete against biological females in sports, or to have them share prisons or locker rooms, is abusive, disrespectful, and dangerous to females. And for my last cent, giving hormones to minors and performing gender affirming surgeries on them, should be acknowledged for the profoundly unmindful and harmful behavior that it is. If someone is a grown adult and they see fit to administer hormones to themselves or to surgically alter their genitalia - which brings the risk of losing one’s ability to enjoy sexual intimacy and have one’s urinary system work properly - then do your thing, it’s your life. But it’s a crime to go allow minors to undertake these treatments. Alrighty then, I’ll get back to my happy place now, which is minding my own fucking business.
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If you expect nothing, accept everything, and live a life that is true to you, your experience of being alive will instantly and massively improve. No one owes you anything. You are not a victim. You showed up here so you must belong here. Try these perspectives on for size and see what comes to light.
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While lying on the earth under a giant oak tree I began to ponder the question; Why do I suffer? What was revealed to me is this - it is my unquestioned thoughts that are the source of my suffering. If I am constantly in a state of thinking and I don’t stop to ask: What is the source of my thoughts? Are the thoughts even true? Who exactly is this ‘thinker of the thoughts?’ I will continue to perpetuate my suffering. Perhaps the simple act of pausing to ask these questions would be the anecdote to free me from my suffering. I don’t know if any of this resonates, but it’s what came to mind as I was thinking my thoughts under that giant oak tree.
There is no real direction here, neither lines of power nor cooperation. Decisions are never really made – at best they manage to emerge, from a chaos of peeves, whims, hallucinations and all around assholery. – Thomas Pynchon
art by: https://www.instagram.com/taudalpoi/