Spitting Out the Kool-Aid

I feel different and isolated from most people in the world. I feel like a loner. When I'm with my mother and siblings, it always feels awkward. Long ago I threw out the mythological dogma that enslaved me, and they don't understand why.

My mother, especially, is a ravenous defender of the status quo. She is the greatest prisoner I know to her own indoctrination. She feels that society should return to the 1950s, which was the perfect, idyllic time for her. Any kind of reasoning with her is dismissed. If it's not the Devil behind our global problems, then it's "worldly" and "immoral" people in general who are causing our downfall.

Moving On

If humanity continues its current course, we will soon destroy ourselves both environmentally and economically. There are many debates on the true source of this problem, and some people point to "greed" and "selfishness." Others point out the lack of "critical thinking" in our society, and still others say we need to "mature" more as a species. Well, I think all the above are correct.

Solving the Problem

What can I do as just one of nearly 7 billion humans? The biggest problem is my inability to crack the walls that people have built around themselves. They have all drank the red Kool-Aid of consumerism, God, guns, and country, and they have mixed all of this together to create a bizarre set of values that have nothing to do with our need to survive.

Environmentalists are branded "extreme" and "radical," which certainly is easier than dealing with any problem. If someone starts talking about our environmental ills, they are simply considered "liberals," and the masses of sheep move on with their meaningless, empty, and self-destructive lives.

I can't awaken them, nor can I get them to see that their minds are filled with lies, propagated by those who benefit from the status quo. The myth that the United States is always "good," that there is some deity in the sky that micro-manages our lives, and that buying things helps the economy are all LIES that are drilled into our heads. Yet, people rarely challenge them.

How Do I React?

Am I depressed? Hell yeah, I'm depressed. There are times when I don't want to do anything except sleep. The stupidity of the last election was depressing, Fox News is depressing, the Tea Party is depressing. Americans appear to have sunk to a new low in their insanity, which I guess is a coping mechanism. And as the world gets more screwed up, by their own ignorant indifference, then the masses of sheep will become even more disconnected, disoriented, and generally crazy. Will there be violence? Yes, eventually.

Positive Notes

There are a couple of signs that are positive:

• More women in politics. I was thrilled to see so many female candidates in the mid-term elections. This gives me hope. Total equality for women is, in my opinion, crucial for sustainability. As more women enter the political arena, I can't help but believe they will insert more reason and concern for the environment into our government. They are the mothers who are bringing children into this screwed up world, so I really think that they will insert a sensitivity that few males would ever have.
  
  
• Church membership in decline. Now, here is the really exciting news -- when you Google "declining membership" you will see a long list of articles on how most Christian denominations are losing members by the droves. This is a good thing because Christianity is completely disconnected from the environment and our need to survive (they only teach you illusions). Now, Christianity teaches many good things, like the Golden Rule, but as soon as the sheep leave the church and pack out the restaurants, all the good things are promptly ignored. So, really, I see little use for organized religion. Worse yet, religion is the antithesis for critical thinking. Church is a place where asking tough questions makes you "sacrilegious" or a "heretic." The idea is that if you ask a tough question about the Holy Bible you are "questioning God," which, apparently, pisses him off. Or, more likely, people can't stand the idea that the mythology they've invested their lives into is an illusion. There is a LOT of emotionalism involved. People get defensive not because you are questioning God, but because you are questioning THEIR BELIEF.

In Conclusion

Okay, while I stay depressed a lot because of our species suicide, these past few years have also been the best years of my life, mainly due to some special people I've become friends with. These individuals have opened my eyes and given me more pieces to the puzzle of life. For the past few years, I've felt that the puzzle is almost complete, and I'm wondering if I've hit the last wall, or if there are more doors to open. I feel like I have a grasp on our current challenge, so I guess the next step is to take action. But I haven't figured out how yet. The best I can do is to put little cracks into people's sacred belief systems. When they see my thinking does not conform to their rigid worldview, they do try to ostracize me. I had one high school classmate who recently "defriended" me on Facebook, and my mother uses the tactic of making me feel like a "bad person" for not conforming to the institutional status quo. But, all in all, the best form of punishment for my nonconformism is to simply isolate me, and that's one area where "the world" has done a pretty good job. For the most part, I am all alone. Even my own wife and children have drank the societal Kool-Aid and have savored every last drop.

And what's really odd is that people who are indoctrinated call ME indoctrinated. So, maybe I am indoctrinated by the liberal elite, and I just don't know it. But the difference between me and the sheep is that I question EVERYTHING and don't accept any kind of pre-packaged dogma. So, maybe I'm just indoctrinated at a different level. Maybe, but I doubt it.