Life in the Madhouse
“Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here everyday…” So sang the old classic. That was my alma mater’s old fight song. People have long compared the rat race and even life itself in the modern world to a jungle. There is something about that imagery that appeals to us. Maybe it’s in our genes; after all we are descended from jungle dwellers. Whatever the reason it is no longer accurate. At least not for those of us here in the good ole US of A.
I realized this truth earlier today while I was starting the coffee. A lot of realizations happen to me at this time of the day when I am halfway between sleep and wakefulness. The news was blaring on the radio in the background. Suddenly it hit me. We don’t live in a jungle, we don’t live in a rat race. Those tired old metaphors are no longer accurate. Today’s world is a madhouse.
That’s right I said it: a madhouse. I live in the looney bin, and I haven’t even been committed! The entire friggin’ world has gone insane. The inmates are running the asylum, and they were elected by other inmates. I mean this seriously. From where I sit the world has gone nuts.
People are debating how much and what kind of torture is acceptable. Not whether or not you should torture people, but how much you can torture them and in what ways. Hello? Someone who prefers waterboarding over electric drilling does hold the higher moral ground, folks. People can now be held indefinitely without ever being charged. No lawyers, no trials, no evidence, no witnesses. The goddamn Nazis were given trials in open public courts –and these were pseudo-people who’d made lampshades out of human skin, among other atrocities!
Right wing groups are rising in power around the world. Iraq and parts of Africa are in total anarchy. Protestors were trampled in Houston, arrested, and then had their bail sat at $888,000 –more than murderers.
Government planners are devising ways to “win” a nuclear exchange –even after every human being on earth and most of the other species has been killed. Similar plans are being devised for biological and chemical attacks. The current attitude of the Neo-cons towards Iran is “nuke ‘em while we can”. These same enlightened folks also want to round up all illegal immigrants and all Muslims into the new internment camps Halliburton has built prior to deportation. Oh yes, and repeal the bill of rights, outlaw birth control, and turn the country into a Christian state, ala the Old Testament. Hello? Does this sound like the behavior of sane people?
Our economy is built on a house of cards. The stock market is hitting new highs almost daily, but foreclosures and defaults are at record levels. The official inflation and unemployment figures are at least several percent understated. PhDs are working in McDonald’s –and glad to at least have a job. More and more Americans are being pushed out on the street and/or can’t afford a meal. People who are going hungry are now “those with low food security” according to the new government report. Let me tell you something: if you can’t afford food, you don’t have any food security –cause you don’t have any damn food! One out of every six people in this country has no health insurance, and that number rises daily.
We’re told deficits don’t matter, and debts don’t matter. Our government may owe $30,000 to China for every man, woman, and child alive here today, but hey it don’t matter. Got ten grand on the credit card? No problem! The message is simple: buy, buy, buy. Go into debt. Mortgage your house. But buy that new ipod and the new PS3. And what do people do? Buy, buy, buy. There were fights over the PS3 last weekend and one person got shot. Over a game system. People now spend a third of their waking life from cradle to grave watching television –mostly junk at that. And this is good?
Oh yes, and then there’s the environment. Guess what? The way we live is unsustainable. Which is a shorthand way of saying are way of life will crash and burn one day if we don’t willingly change. Global warming is here, but we have Senators standing up and calling it a hoax. And that God will take care of the faithful, regardless. Those who do believe in climate change are not arguing about how to stop it, but rather how much of it can be allowed and how many species, people, and landmass it is acceptable to lose!!!! Of course, no one is going to give up their big screen tv to save the Beluga whale. Or even their own grandchildren, as several people have publicly stated. It’ll be their problem, and they’ll either deal with it or they won’t. Or so runs the thinking.
This sounds like the antics of a young child –or a delusional adult. But it is the way the majority of people in this country think and behave. Why aren’t more people standing up to stop this madness? Where are they at? Even the majority of clergy are egging it all. It is almost as if our population suffers from some sort of mass psychosis. From a psychological and sociological stance it is absolutely fascinating to watch. From the standpoint of a human being, and one who tries to be ethical at that, it is absolutely terrifying.
But what can be done about it?
I realized this truth earlier today while I was starting the coffee. A lot of realizations happen to me at this time of the day when I am halfway between sleep and wakefulness. The news was blaring on the radio in the background. Suddenly it hit me. We don’t live in a jungle, we don’t live in a rat race. Those tired old metaphors are no longer accurate. Today’s world is a madhouse.
That’s right I said it: a madhouse. I live in the looney bin, and I haven’t even been committed! The entire friggin’ world has gone insane. The inmates are running the asylum, and they were elected by other inmates. I mean this seriously. From where I sit the world has gone nuts.
People are debating how much and what kind of torture is acceptable. Not whether or not you should torture people, but how much you can torture them and in what ways. Hello? Someone who prefers waterboarding over electric drilling does hold the higher moral ground, folks. People can now be held indefinitely without ever being charged. No lawyers, no trials, no evidence, no witnesses. The goddamn Nazis were given trials in open public courts –and these were pseudo-people who’d made lampshades out of human skin, among other atrocities!
Right wing groups are rising in power around the world. Iraq and parts of Africa are in total anarchy. Protestors were trampled in Houston, arrested, and then had their bail sat at $888,000 –more than murderers.
Government planners are devising ways to “win” a nuclear exchange –even after every human being on earth and most of the other species has been killed. Similar plans are being devised for biological and chemical attacks. The current attitude of the Neo-cons towards Iran is “nuke ‘em while we can”. These same enlightened folks also want to round up all illegal immigrants and all Muslims into the new internment camps Halliburton has built prior to deportation. Oh yes, and repeal the bill of rights, outlaw birth control, and turn the country into a Christian state, ala the Old Testament. Hello? Does this sound like the behavior of sane people?
Our economy is built on a house of cards. The stock market is hitting new highs almost daily, but foreclosures and defaults are at record levels. The official inflation and unemployment figures are at least several percent understated. PhDs are working in McDonald’s –and glad to at least have a job. More and more Americans are being pushed out on the street and/or can’t afford a meal. People who are going hungry are now “those with low food security” according to the new government report. Let me tell you something: if you can’t afford food, you don’t have any food security –cause you don’t have any damn food! One out of every six people in this country has no health insurance, and that number rises daily.
We’re told deficits don’t matter, and debts don’t matter. Our government may owe $30,000 to China for every man, woman, and child alive here today, but hey it don’t matter. Got ten grand on the credit card? No problem! The message is simple: buy, buy, buy. Go into debt. Mortgage your house. But buy that new ipod and the new PS3. And what do people do? Buy, buy, buy. There were fights over the PS3 last weekend and one person got shot. Over a game system. People now spend a third of their waking life from cradle to grave watching television –mostly junk at that. And this is good?
Oh yes, and then there’s the environment. Guess what? The way we live is unsustainable. Which is a shorthand way of saying are way of life will crash and burn one day if we don’t willingly change. Global warming is here, but we have Senators standing up and calling it a hoax. And that God will take care of the faithful, regardless. Those who do believe in climate change are not arguing about how to stop it, but rather how much of it can be allowed and how many species, people, and landmass it is acceptable to lose!!!! Of course, no one is going to give up their big screen tv to save the Beluga whale. Or even their own grandchildren, as several people have publicly stated. It’ll be their problem, and they’ll either deal with it or they won’t. Or so runs the thinking.
This sounds like the antics of a young child –or a delusional adult. But it is the way the majority of people in this country think and behave. Why aren’t more people standing up to stop this madness? Where are they at? Even the majority of clergy are egging it all. It is almost as if our population suffers from some sort of mass psychosis. From a psychological and sociological stance it is absolutely fascinating to watch. From the standpoint of a human being, and one who tries to be ethical at that, it is absolutely terrifying.
But what can be done about it?
posted by RAS at 11/21/2006 12:32:00 PM
2 Comments:
educate. de-radicalize the truth and expose mass-deception in order to pave a clear path for common sense.
push. demand answers. find a stinking mass of backwords rhetoric, enter its center, and clear the air with a statement of generosity and compassion.
sanity is completely relative. it's just a matter of what lenses you see the world through.
Have you read any Noam Chomsky? I really like his film, "Manufacturing Consent."
Peace, Love, and Understanding,
~Liz
PS- Happy Genocide Day.
Miss Liz,is there a difference between the educator and the educated? Surly not,are they not the same? Is there a you who are very wise and i who am very dumb? I do not see the difference,are we not both the product of that which you call insane and are we both not people who have had our brains filled to the brim with every kind of evil that has ever come into existence on this poor planet? Ok, i am a little thought full and somehow are able to glimpse that something is amiss, now what? is that which i am viewing any different then that which is in my head?
Surly not, i am the thief,i am the killer, i am the lover, i am all that i observe, how to look at that without running away into some bullshit escape saying hey!! that ain't me, ok , there you go.When we point our finger at someone or something we are standing in front of a mirror and looking at our selfs,,,
nothing to be afraid of is there? just to look without identifying with that which we look but knowing at the same time that that is us!!
Judge not is the hardest thing i have ever come across in my life, but it can happen and on that fateful day it will be that step that you have been looking for all your life.
peace
aho
mf
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