Hypocrisy and the Allegory of the Cave.

[BilboBaggins]

This will be long, sorry! If you read all of it, you are truly a patient soul!

I'm not sure if any of you know the Allegory of the Cave, so for those who don't I will briefly explain. The long dead philosopher Plato had a description of a cave. Inside this cave there was a person sitting, facing the cave wall, with their hands tied behind their back so they couldn't move. Behind this person was the cave exit where the light came in. People would walk by the light holding up objects so that the person sitting inside could only ever see the shadows of the objects, yet never the objects themselves. This has a deeper philosophical explanation, but it fits my purposes for now.

Basically, I find it infuriating that everything seems to be but a shadow of the true idea. No matter what I think, draw, write, say, or do, it's just a shadow of whatcouldbe. My daydreams are always so close to reality, but never quite there. Anytime I try to explain my thoughts (even now), it's never precisely what I mean and it's so frustrating! This was just here to vent my rage regarding this--moving on to the actual blog topic :P.

 

Please understand that this blog post is going to be full of unfair generalizations and is basically a ridiculous rant! It sounds extremist and pretentious at times, but I don't mean it too. It's just basically an unorganized brain dump, so please don't get offended! If I offend anyone, I apologize! Rebuttles are totally ok if you want to tell me how wrong I am! :) 

I hate society. No, that's not an original, nor even a valid complaint, but it's there nonetheless. Western society disturbs me-I say Western because it is all I have ever known and I may have an overidealized sense of non-western society. But I look around and I'm so disturbed by everything. We live in an entirely self indulgent, money hoarding society, always wanting more and more for less. Take the company Apple, for example. Somehow we've gone from repairing broken things -to instantly buying new things after they break-to buying new things before the old one is even broken. Apple (and such companies) has convinced us that we need new products as soon as the new, hip model is out. It's ridiculous. It' s all about productivity and money making, too. It's cheaper for Apple to replace things than to fix them. I practically begged the Apple Tech guy to send my broken ipod into the shop to see if they could fix it, but instead he happily told me that he could give me a brand new one right away! I think he thought this would please me, but it's disgusting. It's wasteful and unneccessary. 

Productivity has become such a priority that now even unborn children are being subjected to toxins. The pesticides and short cuts used on our foods damage our bodies in such unnecessary ways just for the sake of expedience, and we and our children are paying the price. Genetically enhancing food is such an outlandish idea if you really think about it, and yet it's so common place because it's easier and faster. We have hardly any control over what we eat because of the chemicals that are placed into it from the very start. And we're slowly ingesting it all. Might as well drink Windex, guys.

Obesity rates are rising. Why? Convenience and over indulgence. Humans are brilliant, wonderful, inovative creatures and yet somehow we've dimished ourselves to be slaves to our indulgences. McDonalds and companies like that are the devil walking on Earth, yanno? These companies have perfected the science of the human brain to know how to advertise, how to make food that's addicting, and how to make it expedient so we don't think twice about it. We've become slaves to the industry and that should bother us but it doesn't, because it's easier to not think about it. Do we want to think about the fact that McD's is so cheap because the food that they sell can hardly be called food, since it's doubtful that most of it should actual be edible?  Nope. OR that it's addicting because of the levels of sugar and salt added in that makes our brains respond in such a way that we can't help it? That should scare us, but it doesn't. Or that advertising subliminally implants further need for these things? And that they've monopolized in such a way that it's cheaper and easier to buy fast and modified food than to actually take care of our bodies, so we don't think twice about it. It's so horrible! Yet companies do it because they make money. (I'll get to the evils of money.) Anyways,

I read an article that said that children between the ages of 4-7 should spend no more than an hour or two in front of the Tv a day.. um, hello? Children should spend zero hours in front of the Tv. NO ONE should spend hours in front of the Tv. It's a mind numbing device that does no good. Give the child a book, take them to the park, spend time with them. Stop babysitting children with a little loud box for crying out loud. It does nothing for their growth or creativity.

 I hate technology (here comes the hypocrisy). Yes, I am using a laptop-yes, it is technology. However, I refuse to buy the "new iPhone" or iPad or e-book. I think e-books are an abomination. The love I have of books, of the smell, the pages, the bindings, and yes sometimes even the papercuts, will never leave me. IPods have rooted out vinyl and casettes in a sad turn of events, but I'll admit that I do like my iPod. However, books, I feel, should remain sacred. I've thought this through lately. I'm going treeplanting over the summer. I'll be in a tent for three months, for the most part seperated from society and certainly from technology. When I come back, I'm doing a techno-detox. I'm giving my computer to my sister and probably getting rid of my phone. Will it be inconvenient? Probably. Should that matter? I don't think so. Convenience is overrated, I want my life back. I'm guilty of spending hours online and texting while in the company of others. I think it's dehumanizing- we're selling our souls to our machines. On that note, my iPod will remain. I've contemplated the hypocrisy of this, but I think I've found peace with it (ha-ha). Music is a very human thing. It's beautiful, it's like dance and art. Humans are the only creature capible of it. My computer and my phone are not a human trait. If anything they detract from human experience and connectivity. Yes, facebook allows communication to a friend in Kyoto (if I had one), but heck--send a letter. Call them. (more personal than texting, which is a cheapened form of communication, i think.) My iPod will remain because music is a huge part of life. It envokes emotions and humanity, if that makes sense.

Money is the root of all evil. I don't entirely agree with this statement, but it's pretty darn close I think. Money and advertising. Anyways, people should work to live, not live to work. It seems like the aim of society is no longer to live a full and meaningful life, but to participate in a materialistic fashion show. We're told to go to school so that we can "get a job, support a family, be secure". Why? The other day I told my Dad that I didn't know what my major in university should be--he told me that's good. He said that you should never go to university in the aim of getting a job, and I agree. I'm going to university because I love learning. I love envoking thought. The classes that I'm taking and the thousands I'm spending on it are not helping my career choice in any way and I'm perfectly satisfied with that, because I'm not in it for the job-I'm in it for the knowledge. Unfortunately, we do need money. But I think it's important to remember that we don't need tons of it. It's just currency. Please allow me to make a incongruent leap here, but even the word "currency" , the word that is used for money, is so close to the word "current", it other words: it belongs to the present and doesn't last. Stop holding onto it like a life force. Also, as you've seen, I hate expedience and indulgences and this is what money feeds on.

I'm stopping this now, but maybe you get a sense of my random, unfair frustrations-haha. If you've gotten this far, I am impressed and feel kind of bad, haha. Now, I'm not saying I'm some ubercitizen who doesn't conform to these, but I'm trying to break away now..because it freaks me out.

Also: I'm not saying that there aren't goods in the society, nor that there aren't goods that come with technological advancements etc. Of course there are, but this is just commentary on the over arching bads, in my view.

My dream would be to live in a little nomad community that is self-sufficiant and doesn't pander to businesses and the other social evils of America. (With my iPod though, my fatal flaw in the whole thing. :( ) Anyways, thanks for reading. Please, share your thoughts! I'll read every word ;)

[BilboBaggins]

I feel like as an act of penance I should write an equally long blog about the goods of society. Which there are!! Multitudes! i'm just realizing how angsty this post was, ha-ha!

Roobles- I agree about the birds making music, but it's a different sense I think. Humans make music in the mathematical sense of notes and compositions while birds just make beautiful sounds! :) And thanks!

[Roobles]

Hear hear.

I 99.9 pcent agree with you

This society is going downhill we are becommin brain-washed, dull, lazy slaves of consumerism and corporations.

People go to work and live around work to give it to the companys and government never gone is too busy to care what is happening to each other in the world.

I would love to find a nice island where kids play on the street, neighbours know each other and look out for each other, morals and restored and food is all organic local produced. But that's a fantasy.

We have also become de-humanised with television. Death, destruction and war does. Of des turn us as much as we see it on a dailybasis and our kids kill each other on the Xbox.

But birds and some animals also make music this part is where I disagreed with u.


Hope u find ur utopia x