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Humanity’s Forgotten Reflection
By S. A. Ward
Chapter Eleven – Land of the Petty
The United States has been falling into a state of disarray ever since the 911 attacks and has only worsened further into the 21st century. Mid 2010s US politics dissolved into just being a shit show of pettiness and became the Land of the Petty where the divide continued to grow steadily. A good majority just condescendingly bash each other, which only perpetuates ignorance and does not promote reaching a point of mutual understanding. It is counterproductive and only feeds the flames of mendaciousness, strengthening the divide amongst and reinforces flawed ideologies that people cling to. Our aim should be towards educating the ill-informed and each other in a productive and level minded manner, without belittling and not becoming delusional kumbaya advocates. Ultimately recognizing our common humanity, viewing each other as equals and not as inferior advocates of opposing political ideologies. Our species as a collective has endured a monolithic amount of trauma and is paradoxically passed down from generation to generation. Countless brutal wars, plagues, famine, slavery, genocide, mass discrimination, avarice, and the great battle of truth. We blame each other for the past deeds of our ancestors, while we try to pick up the pieces. It echoes throughout our world and the pain it brings to some. They project it upon the innocent in mass shootings and other forms of violence, because they lack a sense of purpose, self-fulfillment, and have endured enough pain that has led them to find it is the only resolution for retribution. Gun violence and mass shootings are symptoms of a culturally ill society. Their history of being a target for detrimental acts is often negated. There is the argument that other people who went through similar ordeals, but didn’t commit such acts, so there is no reason for it, and don’t take into account that how people deal with trauma varies to extreme degrees. These mass shooters concluded it is the only way to triumph over such trauma and sought to inflict that pain onto those who caused it. Everyone has a threshold for pain and once it is breached then that individual can lose their way. Humans aren’t born into existence with the desire to commit a massacre. Their horrendous environments molded and twisted these individuals’ minds to where they carried out such egregious acts. The source of gun violence isn’t a gun issue, it is a cultural issue. An outlaw on guns would be just as disastrous as the War on Drugs, alcohol prohibition, and now like mentioned the individuals who want to censor speech. Prohibition only makes the targeted social issue worse. It may have good intentions, but that doesn’t make it an effective method. Pandora’s box has already been opened, via the guns, drugs, speech, there is no putting it back. Outlawing these things won’t address the heart of the rot that needs to be mended and the majority of law-abiding gun owners would be negatively impacted due to the actions of a minority. Legal protocols should be implemented to prevent unstable individuals from obtaining such weapons, but not an all-out ban or mass confiscation. That will only worsen the issue and could lead to a civil war. Someone determined to carry out such an act will find a way to do so. There are those who made the argument, What’s an AR-15 going to do against a tank or drones and such? A quote by Hitler, “To conquer a nation, you must first disarm its citizens.” What it comes down to is the ability and factor of resisting a malevolent force. There is too much risk in engaging an armed populace and for those that argue there wouldn’t be pockets of resistance in the military or individuals capable of creating similar weaponry in the public sector is foolish. The world is not all sunshine and rainbows. Guns are a deeply embedded product in our civilization and outlawing them would create a black market for them. Banning or implementing prohibition does not negate the demand for it. If there is a demand for a product, then individuals will seek out this product even if they’re illegal and others will aim to capitalize on this demand through the black market. It will give crime organizations like drug cartels another potential outlet to capitalize on, which would further increase their power. It would turn law abiding citizens like in past and current prohibitions into “criminals.”
The people who commit these mass shootings are still going to be able to acquire guns and the patience of individuals with a vendetta can be unprecedented. One of the biggest factors to our species’ cultural trauma is political and world history being a convoluted mess. Plagued by countless individuals seeking a grab at power to manifest their immortality project and eliminate whoever threatened it. Trying to make their mark in the pages of history at whatever the cost. Making empty promises to the masses, where they, via the masses, are the ones who endured the suffering, received none of the riches, and ultimately gave their lives for a bleak malevolent horizon. They tried their best to free themselves from the clutches of oppressive imperial, feudal, or autocratic rule, which in the past led to nothing better than a transition to totalitarian rule. It is hard to say if we have ever seen true Socialism or Communism and the results, we have seen is the birth of totalitarian reign, masquerading under the guise of these political ideologies. Simply used as an altruistic collective ruse to gain the support of these nations’ people who were already in turmoil. Another notion that comes to mind is if these systems were externally sabotaged economically by other countries or were a product of their time.
Both political wings have their pros and cons.
One thing to be adored by the right is limited government and embracing individualistic freedom. They don’t want bureaucratic drones breathing down their necks telling them how they should be living. One thing to be adored by the left is their altruistic virtues and wanting to embrace the collective, but when it comes to embracing the collective, this can reach a point where the individual becomes expendable in reaching a collectivism goal. People are also highly susceptible to corruption and abusing power.
Our species during these times and even the present evolutionary state may not be ready for either of these ideologies. Socialism or Communism may not be the roadblock and we may need to take another step in our own evolution. Moving beyond our primordial and dualistic view of human existence. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – John Dalberg-Acton. Power has a tendency to corrupt, it gives off a high like no other which is highly addictive and is insatiable in similarity to all other desires. It’s impossible to quench and leads the individual to do whatever they can to retain it. Keep in mind that Socialism’s pinnacle goal is to become Communism. One of their main objectives is to first capture the state. Leading the population to become completely dependent on the government for their needs, living schedules, and labor compensation. Micro-managing every aspect of their people’s lives. Many are under the impression that the United States is a total democracy but is actually a constitutional republic with a capitalist economy that has a robust social safety net. Democracy’s effectiveness is completely reliant on how informed the population is and if it is highly misinformed then democracy can become quite disastrous due to incompetence. Incompetence is rampant, these individuals are extremely easy to manipulate and doesn’t take much searching to see that in action. Think of the people who’d have a say in massive economic decisions and are totally ignorant on even the basics of economics.
Just about all social justice warriors are low power individuals being exploited by their turmoil. Politicians are taking advantage of this turmoil and have manipulated it into resentment towards capitalism as though it is the primary cause for their despair. Resentful over being incapable of acquiring the life and power that they sought after or were promised by the system. With the rise of Socialism and Communism taking traction in US spheres of thought they are putting their hope into these ideologies just like the many countries who did the same in the 20th century who wanted an end to their agony. They are desperate and capitalism being the issue is an easy answer for their problems. Resorting to historically failed economic doctrines in hopes that they will be the end of their turmoil.
Resentment is highly volatile and can be likened to a psychological poison. It can mutate into madness, leading to blind and incoherent rage in people, which has plagued many minds throughout history. Resentment evolves into madness and madness evolves into evil. It can make people violent where the human element is lost leading to evil acts. Censorship or silencing the voice of groups only breeds resentment and festers if it is not mended. Resentment is rampant and a huge money maker, hope is a big money maker too. The individuals who profit off them are just trying to raise their survival prospects like everyone else peddling some type of bullshit. We as humans are drawn towards power, why? Because the more power we have, the higher our survival and procreation avenues go up. Two of several physiological factors embedded into our instinctive programming that cannot be ignored. A good majority thinks money makes the world go round, but it is actually envy. We often want what others have and that is for many a core motivator. There’s a good amount of people who are angry over the rich hoarding a plethora of wealth and that they aren’t just going to shower it all into charity, which are often ineffective with bringing a real difference to the causes they represent. 8,000+ charity organizations and in 2017 collectively held $410 Billion. Charity is almost halfway to being a trillion-dollar sector, so it doesn’t seem that wealth is the issue at hand. Think of the environment’s individuals are thrown into, their societal conditioning, and cultural trauma that their caretakers embedded into them. The world is a blatant shit show that is just about beyond everybody to fix. Everyone is also just trying their best to not seem expendable in their social spheres. Bringing forth such notions could get them ostracized from the wealthy social spheres they are in like others who tried before them. There are many that want to help, but fear gets the best of just about everyone. No one wants to run the risk of putting their own survival on the line. True trust is hard to come by and life all too often shows people to avoid putting too much trust or reliance on any individual.
The problem of saving or lifting the world out of poverty and hunger is a massive problem, which is why it is neglected. They don’t even know where to start, so these individuals just stick to worrying about themselves and those who enhance their survival or quality of life. The vast majority of people stick to what is comfortable. It is hard for them to take that leap of faith when their own livelihood is at risk. Then there is the unrelenting resistance from the people who greatly benefit from the way things are so that is a huge deterrent towards progress in this trajectory. They too don’t want to run the risk of implementing economic ideologies that had genocidal outcomes in a significant number of countries throughout history. It is what works for them. Putting massive wealth into charitable avenues or in solving such an issue could be totally in vain, leading to their power being diminished and falling out of their codependent social circles.
Echo chambers have become a monolithic issue in the 21st century. They are a plague and can be found in a vast array of ideologies. Politicians encourage echo chambers discretely to their constituents. This can be found most prominently on social media, where individuals remove people from their friends list for having differing beliefs. Cloaked under the guise as it is standing up for what they believe in. One of the most terrifying effects social media has on humans is that those platforms have been gradually diminishing people’s attention spans. This makes it far less likely for individuals to actually take the time to dig for truth and more so has attuned them to be dependent on this system. Leaving them to be easily manipulated and passive towards existence’s horrors or governments reaching further into their lives.
With all new information anyone comes across they should strive to practice utilizing a healthy dose of skepticism. Welcoming new ideas that can build upon or negate a particular belief and add all information regardless into one’s mental files. Bringing them forth as a mere notion of possibility and not fact. We shouldn’t marry or cling to any set of beliefs. Taking on the view towards ideas as just being tools and if something more sound is presented then we should adjust our belief system accordingly. Take note, there is a fine line between being open minded and gullible. Poe’s law in the 21st century is confounding at times, because if an individual is a master of using the right rhetoric and constructs their argument properly online even with giving strong literary hints that it is satirical. Sometimes those measures aren’t even necessary, however there are individuals that without a clear indicator they will feed into it supportively or against, negating any real critical thought of the author’s true intentions. Reacting purely off of their subjective feelings rather than coherent reasoning. While it is blatantly intended as a joke and not meant to be taken seriously. Social media is a highly prominent area of the internet where this can be found and is a breeding ground for toxic behaviors. Another side effect of the internet is the levels of cognitive dissonance it has brought about. In schools, we aren’t taught how to think critically and decipher information in a logical way to where we can identify what is complete nonsense. All the while we are barraged with copious amounts of festering malarkey and the masses just eat it up. Who can blame the SJWs though? Due to cultural conditioning, at their very fundamental core of being they desire heroism. To combat evil and arise in glorious triumph, creating elaborate life plans to immortalize an inner conceptual ideal of themselves. A notion of duality, good and evil is imbued into our psyches from birth. Constantly being bombarded with information in a variety of forms to stand up for what is right even if it will cost us our lives. Ernest Becker in his book the Denial of Death went into this concept significantly and deemed it, Immortality Project, which is when someone seeks to find means of immortalizing an inner conceptual self. Gary’s law directly contributes to Ernest Becker’s immortality project, here’s the definition.
The insatiable thirst for power is fathomless like a black hole. It is ultimately bound to survival, which searches for a door leading to immortality and those with an ill structured mind inevitably leads to a corrupted manifestation to obtain it. If plan A (immortality) isn’t obtainable they will resort to plan B which is Ernest Becker’s immortality project.
Ernest Becker discussed how territorial conquests and empires going to war were immortality projects colliding with one another. All empires, kingdoms, and kings all shared the desire to rule the world and to be the supreme power that be. They came to the conclusion that it was their right and divine purpose to align humanity with their mystical vision that seemed to just be delusions of grandeur. Power is a high like no other, another Pandora’s box or can be likened to a gluttonous beast that only demands more no matter the costs.
The Cosmics 
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