Our Ill Society
Is it even possible for a society that marginalizes its most intelligent people to be healthy? We wonder why our students do badly and then turn on the TV to see jocks making millions of dollars a year by seeing who can run into other people harder. Sure, the richest man in the world is a nerd, as are a few other technology billionaires, but they are far outpublicized by the hundreds of people who make their money by chasing around inflated balls. We can't blame the athletes and entertainers in this country for these problems, though, because we're the ones paying to see them. Our kids aren't born stupid, they're raised that way. They see right through adults who tell them education is the most important thing when they see that actors make hundreds of times more money than teachers. For this same reason, we can't blame public education for the problems with our children's test scores. How is it that people can vote down every proposed tax increase for education, then complain about how public schools suck and then send their kids to private schools, which are far more expensive than public education ever was? What's also amazing is that we blame violence on these same children who are being screwed by adult institutions all the time. Do people not realize that more children have been killed by adults in the past week than have died in all the overly-publicized school shootings in the past decade? Somehow, though, the "recent" upsurge in violence is only affecting kids. Then, once we've effectively covered up the fact that adults are, and always have been, far more violent than children, we blame their violence on entertainment. People seem to believe that kids who have no problems with peers at school who ridicule them constantly and are perfectly adjusted to society in every way can start listening to Marilyn Manson and suddenly turn into murderers. Let me tell you something, I know several people who enjoy listening to Manson and so on, and they're some of the most interesting people I know. I would be far more afraid of getting on the bad side of some of the "Christians" at my school than any of the supposed "Satanists." Yet it is these jocks who think they're the coolest people around who seem to be accused most often of rape and assault of their girlfriends. It is these arrogant, conceited pricks who call anybody who's different a fag and routinely beat up on smaller, "nerdier" kids. Of course, it is also these people who are most appreciated by staff and parents alike, because they make the school look good at football games. Then we're surprised that the other kids, the ones who are constantly tormented and ridiculed every day, are, amazingly enough, very angry inside. Sometimes they're angry enough to resort to horrible acts of violence. Yet we still insist it's this bad entertainment rather than anything fundamentally wrong with our society. People, we've got cause and effect mixed up here. Marilyn Manson is most popular among alienated teenage males. They're not alienated and resentful because they listen to him, they listen to him because he seems to be like one of them. He was one of them, in his own childhood. Thus their choices of music and other entertainment are more of a release for pent-up aggression than a cause of this aggression. As a society, we have to do something about this. We cannot possibly hope to survive if we continue to push those who think for themselves to the outside. Any civilization that stops thinking for itself can't possibly stand up against people or groups who do. History repeats itself. All empires have fallen after a couple centuries or so. This country has been around for almost 225 years. It's only a matter of time...
One argument often used for conformity over individuality is the fact that often people who don't hide their true selves also lack what we call "social skills." Basically, this means that these people tend to be loners who don't want to be around other people much of the time. Did anybody ever stop to ask why this might be?
Rather than being the result of some mystical anti-societal urge inherent to individuality, could it be that perhaps these people simply find the norm boring? Could it be that possibly they get sick and tired of interacting with people pretending to be something they're not? Could it be that maybe, just maybe, they don't enjoy being around people who have no capacity for intelligent conversation but rather feel the need to fill the void with idle small-talk or, worse yet, gossip?
No, it couldn't possibly be that. It couldn't possibly be that they have no use for people who are uncomfortable with the silence that occurs when there's truly nothing to be said and who talk simply to make noise. It couldn't be that they get no enjoyment out of talking with and being around people pretending to be like everybody else. There's no way that they simply choose not to be a part of our ill, conformist society that teaches people not to think for themselves.
Why are we surprised that they find more enjoyment in talking to other intelligent people via the Internet than in carrying on with mindless bullshit with people who think it's best to hide any mind they may have? Real thoughts take time to put into words, and in conversation, that time is usually occupied by silence. People who are uncomfortable with this silence choose instead to speak without any real thoughts behind the words. Online, people can pretend to blame this silence on slow typing, or doing something in addition to chatting. In real, fact-to-face communication, though, you can see what the other person is doing and that they could continue to talk while doing this.
Nothing good can come of hiding the fact that we have minds to think with. Sure, unthinking beings don't have any problems, but they don't have souls, either. That's not to say they have no right to live, but they aren't the same as us. The fact that some Original Sin was supposedly committed has nothing to do with out problems. Rather, the knowledge and capacity for thought that was gained from this "sin" that causes these problems. (if you don't already know, I'm referring to Adam and eve eating of the tree of knowledge in the second story of creation) However, thought is also the solution, rather than the attempt to cover it up.
The saying, "Idle hands are the devil's playground" comes from the fact that when we aren't doing anything, we can't escape from our own thoughts. For people who are trained to hide their thoughts, exposure to them can seem very bad and devil-like indeed. However, you can't cover it up forever. I think the fear with which most people approach death comes from the fact that they are afraid of finally seeing their true nature. Well, death is a bit too late for this kind of panic to take place. We must learn to know our minds now if we have any hope of dying peacefully. People with near-death experiences are lucky, in that they see all of it and then can come back, knowing ahead of time what to expect when they finally do die, for real this time.
All of us can look into ourselves here and now. We don't need to physically die in order to see that our actions affect everyone and everything. We can simply look into that fact now. Pay attention to all of your actions, including thoughts and feelings, not just outward, physical actions. In addition to looking at the effects of these actions, we must examine the motivation behind them. Jesus said that even a man who looks with lost at another woman has committed adultery, without "doing" anything (this is somewhere in the Sermon on the Mount found in the book of Matthew. I don't feel like finding the exact verse right now). Everything matters. Every action, every thought, every feeling. All of this forms who we truly are. We must get to know ourselves if we have any hope of freeing ourselves from this world of suffering.