Meaningless Slogans 7- Let's bring it all home!

Awhile ago, I promised I'd be moving on from the religion stuff, and the dark negativity, and I apologize for not holding up to that, but as it turns out, I had a few more things to chip away at before being truly able to move on.

I also promised I'd be moving on to more positive and constructive things.
Well, hopefully, this gripping conclusion to the "slogan series ", will be the start of that.

Well, it's occurred to me, that as things stand in the world right now, there's no truly 100% mentally healthy way to live.

Not under capitalism for sure.
Oh sure, you can get to 98.99% but the only way is to be hella fucking successful within its framework.
But the only way to do that, is to either swallow the bullshit propaganda, or swallow a flat out delusion, or both, but then you're somebody's dupe.
OR the way is to have an inherent natural talent and desire for the guaranteed marketable skill-sets.
Doctor, lawyer, wall street tycoon, and a few others.

Everyone else is fucked on some level.

But it doesn't have to be this way...

Y'see, we were given incredible gifts as a species, and as a nation, and we gave it up, and always give it up for stupid primitive superstitions, and toys, and mindless confections.

We were given this incredible mind, and rather that use it to its full potential, we allow it to be crammed full of junk.

So where do we go from here?
How do we get back on the right track?

Well, first thing we do, is we don't countenance bullshit.

It's a good damned thing Tom Paine didn't compromise with the bullshit spew of the royalists.
And it's a damned good thing he stuck to his guns, and ridiculed ridiculous notions.
We all wouldn't fucking be here now otherwise.
Even the paranoid dumbshits that secretly despise democracy, and call one party or the other "the tyranny you prefer".

Bullshit is bullshit, and there's no "middle ground", between bullshit and the truth.
You can't "make accords", with the forces of bullshit, because they fucking want it all.

And that's why truth matters.
Yeah, I know, that's the title of a book, I didn't happen to know that at the time I wrote the rant that goes with this, whaddyagonnado?
Anyhoo, as that rant pointed out, the narrative that it takes lies and bullshit to glue it all together is a false one.
So, having already kicked that notion over like the sand castle it is, now onto the truth.


So, let's first stand back, and take in the whole picture of everything I've said on this blog thus far...


Well, the bullshit all seems to start, when you put a line on the map, then someone who stands on one side of that line names that side of the line, makes a flag, sticks it in the ground, and makes that little event a deep part of their identity.
Thus is born tribalism.
Tribalism on a big scale, of course, being nationalism.

Add a bunch of silly rituals to this tribalism, y'know, bones in the nose, war paint, beads, etc, you've got "patriotism".
Make this "patriotism", the basis of in-group out-group conformity, and now you've got some good steaming nationalist bullshit going.

Pretty soon, you've got the American okey-doke they cram into the heads of kids.
And that's where you get lovely genius ideas like "real Americans", and "blame America firsters", and "family values", y'know, wonderful stuff like that.

Once you've got this manufactured tribal identity in place, and the tribalists waving their flags and bibles, now you can have the "politics as ballgame", mentality, and then the fun can truly begin.

Now you can form power structures. And what good is power, if you can't use it to chill dissent?

Ah, yes, the angry bullying insecure attack on criticism, the pointy spear end of tribal politics.

Y'know, the pointy spear to protect America's precious "heartfelt beliefs".

The stuff that makes up "the American dream".
That we're always the good guys.
That your money determines your worth as a person.
That it thus follows that the wealthy are your betters.
That your money derived "morals", make you "free".
That superstitions make you a more moral person.

All that lovely cheery heartwarming stuff.

Y'know, the "noble lies".
The stuff they keep you in line with.

And when you're not in line, you need to be socially stomped.
With some gut reaction, and some fear.
The unreason cocktail.
Logic, what's that? Boo, hiss!
We hate you!
And if you protest, you hate us! Hater!
Why, you hated us first, heretic!
Get him!

No wonder when the winds blow the wrong way, such people get twitchy.
And of course, as we've seen before, when people are twitchy, they're pretty easy to sell on these WARS we seem to like so much as a nation.

War, America is endlessly fascinated with war; and America is a capitalist country, so it's no wonder that war would become a business model.
Why, we even sell it to our kids.
All the better for the recruitment drive.
That, and a few shitty movies.
Y'know, the kind that stir up some nice juicy fear.
All the better for the herding.

Hate to sound so repetitious, but this stuff all loops back on itself.
It's a merry-go-round.
A dopey fucking merry-go-round.

As for war, the only one worth fighting to me, at least anymore, is the war on bullshit.

And speaking of bullshit, and the selling of it, that leads me to America's giant fuckin' insecurity problem.
That's where the attempt at stifling criticism truly comes from, and that boils down to conformist in-group out-group bullshit for the sake of politics; and political power is at the heart of the sabotaging of American education, and that's the source of the anti-intellectualism that's at the heart of so much of America's insecurity.

Vicious cycle.
Anti-intellectualism, when we need critical thinking more than ever.

And these dumbed down Americans (and it's not their fault) lead their unfulfilling lives of mediocrity, and yet they're still sold on the idea that it's all noble somehow.
Ah, yes, the noble lie.

Now, if the American dream is really so fucking real, why do people want to see it all come down?
And over the system working the way it's allegedly supposed to.

What happened?

What's everyone so afraid of?
Aren't they being fulfilled by this life they've chosen?

Maybe they're afraid of themselves.

I mean, biggest example, look at the body fears, and sex fears.
Sex is the basis of life, and it literally fucks people up.
Isn't it part of that American dream we get sold?
Maybe that's the problem.
That it's made into a product.
Things that should be free get sold to us.

No wonder people get cynical, and form these butt-ugly world views that people are fundamentally irrational, and that there's no hope.
No wonder they turn around, become the people that peddle fear, that control with fear.

And so, that's how the marketing people sell people their empty illusions.

A candy-coated dream world they use to herd people, by selling you placebo antidotes to your manufactured fears, fears of unattractiveness, fears of undesirability, fears of lack of virility, fear of the neighbors one-upping you in an imaginary competition, and perhaps biggest and most pervasive of all, the propaganda antidote to the fear that it may be all bullshit (it is, btw).

I wish someone had told me this shit as a kid, would've saved me so much time and heartache in my teens and twenties.
But they don't tell this to kids, critical thinking is the enemy of bullshit.

Dishonest, insincere, propagandist manipulation.
Ugly, dopey, capitalist bullshit to sell false promises.
Products, magical mumbo-jumbo, pseudo-science, ideology, candidates, hell, they even literally sell dream worlds these days.

And all this shit ends up in our culture, and you get shitty shows with shitty messages like "technology bad, religion good", oh yeah, that helps.
It all cycles back.
Like a dog with its mouth sewn to its asshole.
A dog spellbound by the illusion that its shit is Beef Stroganoff.

And speaking of being spellbound by illusions, all that propaganda plays on our most ancient and primitive fears...

In the end, these ancient superstitions are nothing but mind-control and suppression.
Tyranny of the mind.
And fuck, there's a lot of it...

You start with your base coating of fear, particularly of death, so you whip up a nice little immortality fantasy, and very quickly, it becomes a thumb-sucking coping mechanism, but of course, just tune out that the whole thing is built on a flawed idea to start with, with sappy justifications, just ignore that.

All that would be bad enough, but it comes at a price, a heavy fucking price, and flat out has a dark side, which is how you end up with doctrinal nastiness like, oh say, scripturally sanctioned bigotry.
But given it's all tangled up in that coping mechanism, the superstitious will lash out with pure gut reaction to protect it, with nasty tactics, and when all else fails, whining, because they don't want enlightenment, not really, not where it counts, because if the facade of that gut-reacted worldview fell down, they'd have to face the horror, and one of the side-effects of that in some people is batshit paranoia, and speaking of paranoid bullshit, there is of course, the media's banner boys for bullshit, and their little lists of people who aren't Americans, which takes us right back to in-group out-group tribalism.
Now, examples like this illustrate why, I could leave it all alone if religion didn't get it's sticky fingers all over politics, but it doesn't keep out of it, which is where all this started, and like I said in that first rant, I could be wrong, but I need to hear a decent argument.

But the good arguments never come, heard 'em all.
None of them hold up to critical thinking.
Hence the gut reactions.

Yep, the web of superstition has been perniciously constructed to be immune to criticism.
Tricky little knot.
It's meant to be.
The forces of control worked long and hard to get it to this point.

So, that's why it has to be tackled head on.
It's strangling humanity, always has been.
Like I said earlier, tyranny of the mind.
It became very clear to me.
In a country that allegedly values liberty, one can have none of it.

Funny that one of the arguments for all this stuff, is that liberation from this very force will DESTROY imagination, destroy creativity, (and thus intellect along with it) when clearly it's the opposite.
No, whatever myths the secular imagination might theoretically slay, I wouldn't miss.
Just crap that's been bad for the zeitgeist.
But, I don't think it would fuck even that up.
Creative minds have chawed on this problem for awhile with no harm to storytelling.
It's just more knee-jerk fear.
Like the superstitions themselves.

Like I said in the first of these rants, it's all slogans and superstitions.
Which boil down to one big fat ad campaign.
Which is the embodiment of meaningless slogans.

Meaningless slogans, empty promises.

But see, it all doesn't have to be this way.

The "patriotism", stuff for a start.

You can be proud of who you are; and you can be proud of where you live, without it being the sole source of your pride and esteem as a person.
You can defend the ideals of your nation without it being blind "brand loyalty".
You can be both an individual, and a community member, without it being a tribalist thing.
Without it being in-group out-group.
Without it being monkeys hurling feces.

You can have defense, without it being an instrument for bullying.
Without it being an instrument for greed.
A defense that truly does fight for FREEDOM, and not for "interests", which amount to some old man's wallet, and little else.

You can be proud of our fighting men and women, without it being an armchair athlete deal, without it bolstering within you a pride you didn't earn by your own accomplishment.

You can be proud of our fighting men and women without making them cult objects.
Without making them fetishes in a cynical political propaganda campaign.
Without it being part of the whole tribal monkey deal.

And you can want to see justice doled out without it becoming a blood thirst for its own sake.
A pulsing animal urge that goes way past the boundary and object of the original injustice.

You can be proud of your accomplishments without trying to bludgeon others with shame.
You can find worth in yourself despite the fluctuations of your bank balance.
You can find self worth without attacking the worth of others.

You can be open to constructive criticism, and fend off un-constructive criticism without it being a matter of life and death for your ego.
Or, having it be a matter of life and death in the eyes of your tribe, and thus your ego.

And there are people like that.
And that's the America one can be proud of.

And if I'm wrong, and we truly can't have a meaningful practical patriotism without the drum-beating, and the war mongering, and the anger, and fear, and xenophobia, and greed, and bigotry...patriotism is fucked, and fuck it.

And of we can't have a functioning nation without that kind of patriotism, then we're fucked.
As a people, and as a species.

And it doesn't have to be this way with the insecurity shit.
This tribal, dumbed down, dumbing down, reactionary, partisan and marketing beast.

You don't have to listen to this bullshit.
You don't have to base your worth on this crap.
You can accept yourself for what you are, and who you are, and tell everyone who doesn't like it, and wants to mold you into some conformist mold in order to sell their bullshit, to fuck off.

You even can have Conservatism without the greed, and fear, and hate.
Such people exist.
I've seen them.

You can have commerce, and marketing, and politics without the cynical herding.
Without playing to people's insecurities.
Without forming those insecurities in the first place by fucking with people.
Without fanning the flames of tribalism.

And if I'm wrong, and you can't get people to believe in this country's ideals en masse without peddling insecurity and fear, and dumbing the public down into sheep, then America is fucked, and fuck it.

And if we can't have America without fear and bullshit, we're fucked.
As a people, and as a species.

And it doesn't have to be this way when it comes to the advertising bullshit.

You can have a capitalism without the lies, and the meaningless junk products, and the snake oil.
Without the weasel-ism, without the hucksterism, and flim-flam, and bullshit slinging.

And I'm not a dummy, that shit is never going away anytime soon, but you can live your life just fine by tuning it all out.
By being a savvy consumer, and critical thinker.

And if I'm wrong, and you can't have a properly functioning capitalism without the lying, bullshit, and all around PT Barnum hoo-hah, then capitalism is fucked, and fuck it.

And if a capitalism with an informed public, capable of critical thinking breaks the economy, then we're fucked.

And if we can't have western democracy without that bullshit brand of capitalism, then we're double fucked.
As a people, and as a species.

And it doesn't have to be this way with the bullshit of religion.

You can have transcendent wonder, poetry, music, art, and yes, morality without primitive childish superstitious nonsense, and without organized religion's dogmatic authoritarian bullshit.

And if I'm wrong, and we really can't have the transcendent, what some like to call "spirituality", without superstition and orthodoxy, then religion and spirituality are equally fucked.

And if we truly can't have civilization without that brand of religion, we're fucked.
As a people, and as a species.

And if our nation, our species, is fucked, I mean we are truly and completely, and utterly fucked.
The species is doomed.
It's over.
It's fucking over.

And if the species is doomed, then all the corporate junk media, hopeless praying, douchebag political punditry, and all around hopping about and hooting bullshit-boosterism grates all the more, and becomes a million-fold more horrendously, and horrifically, and indeed nightmarishly ridiculous than it already is.

And if we're doomed, and if there were a shred of honesty, and sincerity, and honor in all these noisy dopey fucking people, they would shut the fuck up.
They would see the doomsday they were helping to bring, and they would as one, right now, shut the fuck up.
Hell, I'd prefer they commit mass suicide, but I'll settle for them shutting the fuck up.

But I wouldn't wait or look for that to happen.
Not ever.

So, if we're fucked, and given that the Glee Club will never shut the fuck up no matter what the situation, ...then I'm not only not for one moment going to take it seriously, but I'll ridicule it mercilessly.
Why the fuck not?
Why not have some fun as we circle the drain?

....but if we're NOT doomed, if I'm NOT wrong about all the things I said above, and we CAN get our shit together, and turn things around, then all the stupid goofy bullshit is an insult to what we're capable of, and none of us should put up with it for one more fucking second, and I should STILL ridicule it mercilessly.

That we take the incredible gifts we were given, chief among them, our incredible mind, and we give it all up for such stupid meaningless shit, there's no way to soft-peddle that.
To hit that with the truth means saying what it really is.
It's risible.
It must be ridiculed.
Anything less would be flat out lying.

Now, maybe my whole premise is wrong, and all the stupid destructive bullshit I've pointed out really isn't stupid destructive bullshit, and it's all fucking wonderful.

You feel wonderful watching the news?

I imagine not.

Then fine, we're on the same page so far.

It's stupid and destructive bullshit.

Oh, but maybe I'm right about it being stupid and destructive bullshit, BUT it's just that "humans aren't perfect", and it's "just the way things are", and while it'll never really turn around, it's literally not the end of the world, and we'll stubbornly and clumsily muddle through somehow.

Maybe.

But if it's a "human nature", thing, then the percentage of hyper-achievers should be way lower.
There should be little to no magnificence in our lives.
But it's there.
Giving lie to the low grading curve.
Glaring.
Scorching.

And "just the way things are", was the line given to excuse the dark ages, and a host of other bullshit stupid periods of reversal that were in turn reversed.

And here we are with airplanes and laptops.

Nope, it's bullshit, and simply muddling through won't cut it.

Now, I don't say all this out of fear.
I know some douche out there will say I rail against fear, yet fear myself.
Nah.
If it's truly the end of the world, and I'm helpless to say or do anything about it, what's the point in getting all emotionally bent up about it?

It just seems to me like an incredible waste is all.

And if you agree with me it'd be a waste, then you agree with me there's something that'd be wasted, and thus you agree with me we have potential as a species.

Can't have it both ways; either we waste our potential, thus could conceivably turn it around, or there's nothing we can do no matter how hard we try, therefore we have no potential, and nothing would be wasted if the planet exploded right now.
The only third alternative I see, is we have potential, but we missed our chance to fix things long ago.
But if we're clever enough to make an indestructible trap for ourselves, then that just shows how much potential we have, and allow to go to waste.

So it all comes down to what we choose.

Hope, or despair.
Pick one.
And if it's the latter, get the fuck out of here.
This blog ain't for you, never was.

And it'll be less so as we move on.


(Audio version available)