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DRIVEL AND INVERTED
PRIORITIES
By John J. Moelaert
"No one
has ever gone broke giving people hope." AUTHOR
UNKNOWN
Our drivel-driven society is evident in countless manifestations.
Consider, for example, the international contests to determine
who can eat the most hot-dogs in a prescribed time! Many movies,
TV programs, tabloid stories, so-called musical hits and TV commercials
are an insult to anyone with an IQ above that of a carrot.
Some titles alone prove the point: MOVIES: Dumb and Dumber, Flesh
Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders, Killer Tomatoes Strike
Back. The Girl With Brains in Her Feet (Billed as a comedy-drama
that received a three-star rating out of a maximum of four).
TV PROGRAMS: Martha Stewart Living. Temptation Island. Buffy
the Vampire Slayer, Ants in Your Pants. TABLOIDS: Clinton Dates
Three-breasted Woman. Elvis Is Alive. Adam's Sandals Found. Woman
Gives Birth to 80 lb. Baby. (Remember tabloids are a multi-billion
dollar industry which thrives on the ignorance of millions of
mental midgets). HITS: Screaming often replaces singing and antics
such as smashing guitars are common. As a bonus rock 'star' Marilyn
Manson has urinated on some of his fans all in the name of entertainment,
of course. TV COMMERCIALS: Many are so inane I for one refuse
to buy products promoted by such stupid commercials. A Sucret
commercial shows a man in bed asking his wife beside him: "Barbara
are you up?" French mustard had a commercial featuring a
young boy spreading the product over a bare piece of white bread,
eagerly waiting to sink his teeth into this useless food item.
Chrysler had a commercial showing a group of cars and trucks
with the line "Changing the landscape." Well, yes,
but not for the better. General Motors claims their trucks are
built like a rock. Apart from the fact that rocks are not built,
any direct encounter between a truck and a rock in the same weight
class is always won by the latter.
Drivel and trivia also dominate most conversations. You can find
out for yourself by listening to what people talk about in restaurants,
buses, pubs, etc. (eavesdropping may not be polite, but it is
sure educational!). Topping the trivia topics is of course the
weather. In second place are usually conversations about people.
Financial matters and relationships also make the top ten. It
appears that the main motivating forces in our society are making
money and making love. It is interesting to note that the two
are often interchangeable: money can buy sex and sex can generate
money.
MOST PEOPLE PREFER FANTASY OVER REALITY
Most people get through life pretending it to be benevolent
despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This common attitude
is reminiscent of the story about people admiring the non-existing
clothes of the naked emperor as he passed them. In other words
pretending to see things that are not there.
The 1998 Oscar-winning movie Life Is Beautiful is a perfect example
to what extent people distort reality. The movie portrays the
life of a father and son who end up in a Nazi concentration camp
in Italy where after lots of suffering the father is shot and
killed.
During their stay in the camp the father tries to shield his
son from the camp's horrors by trying to convince him that it
is all just a game! The movie is but one of countless examples
of reality denial. As long as one can deny reality one doesn't
have to deal with it.
ROMANCE: ANOTHER FANTASY
In most cases romance is triggered by a strong bout of the
hots. People thus inflicted often behave irrationally, can't
concentrate on mundane matters and commonly experience sleepless
nights. They will make promises they can't possibly keep and
say things they can't possibly mean. Popular songs, which are
basically mating calls, are based on romantic hyperbole. People
commonly mistake lust for love, not recognizing the difference
until arguments start --sometimes as early as the honeymoon!
In Canada and the US half of all marriages end in divorce and
only between 15 and 20 per cent of marriage partners would marry
the same person again if they could start all over. Who would
board a plane with such a low success rate?
It is interesting to note that many romantic novels, movies,
plays and operas end with one or both of the protagonists leaving
the land of the living. Once the flames of passion have died
down, there is little left to write or sing about. Consider some
famous operas: Mimi dies of tuberculosis at the end of La Boheme,
Tosca leaps to her death after her lover Mario has been executed,
Carmen is knifed to death by an admirer and Madame Butterfly
kills herself while singing her heart out. There is no opera
where lovers live happily ever after. Apparently no composer
has ever succeeded setting marital boredom to beautiful music.
ETHICS VERSUS POWER
Idealists are rarely rich and the rich are rarely idealists.
This is important to remember, because it takes money to implement,
for example, conservation projects or social justice programs.
Lots of it. Some will argue that much progress has been made
over the centuries, both in terms of technology and social fairness.
Of course this is true, but unfortunately it is also true that
human ingenuity is largely misdirected and ultimately may well
cause the extinction of the human race.
The threats to human survival have never been more severe than
they are today. In fact, the risks --both in number and in severity--
are continuously multiplying worldwide. For example, the ever
more sophisticated production of nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons and the means to deliver them. In addition, we are witnessing
an intensifying battle between economic and environmental interests.
One sure sign of insanity is when the abnormal seems normal.
Consider gas-guzzling RV's in Europe or North America while villagers
in Africa and Asia often don't have enough fuel to pump water.
Luxury and poverty often exist side by side. For example, going
on a cruise to eat in luxury while floating around and going
nowhere while 18 million children in the US --the richest country
in the world-- are undernourished. Obesity from overeating on
one hand and starvation on the other.
INVERTED PRIORITIES
No sane person would start painting his house while it is
on fire. Only after the emergency has been dealt with would one
contemplate doing that. But in the world at large it is common
that emergencies are ignored and frivolous matters get our attention--and
our money. Top speakers like Ralph Nader or Noam Chomsky warning
us about various catastrophes that will befall the human race
if not enough is done to reduce problems such as global warming
and microbial mutations may draw a few hundred people, but a
major rock concert or a football game is watched by millions.
Our priorities are dismally disarranged. Hockey, baseball and
basketball players are getting millions of dollars while schools
and hospitals are under funded.
We live in a world with distorted values and inverse priorities.
(See: The
serious side of Carlin). More than a billion people (One
in five) don't have safe drinking water. Almost as many have
not enough food.
In the meantime about 32,000 children die per day for a lack
of food and basic medicine. Clearly the problem is not going
to be solved by sending shiploads of food without sending truckloads
of contraceptives. The reality is there is no shortage of food:
there is a surplus of people!
Overpopulation, no matter how vigorously denied by some religious
and political leaders, is real. Couples willing to have vasectomies
or tubal ligations should be rewarded with incentives such as
tax breaks or extra food rations. As it is, people who can least
afford it have the largest number of children and so the misery
is perpetuated. Meanwhile the Pope, who allegedly deplores poverty,
simultaneously opposes birth control--unable or unwilling to
see he connection between the two. The only form of birth control
acceptable to the holy father--who is neither-- is the rhythm
method also known as Vatican roulette. The male-dominated Catholic
hierarchy condemns as sinful any effective form of birth control.
God knows why women want to even belong to a church that has
oppressed them for 2,000 years. For example, in Quebec the Catholic
church prevented women from getting the right to vote for two
decades after women in the rest of Canada had been granted that
right between 1916 and 1922. To this very day women are still
denied entry into the priesthood. A church which has spent more
than one billion dollars in the US alone on sexual abuse charges
clearly does not qualify as a leader of morality.
Is life wonderful? The answer depends on who you ask and when,
but it is worth noting that no one has ever entered this world
laughing and it is doubtful anyone will ever leave it that way.
Most people live as though death only happens to others. Many
act as if they are invincible. They smoke, drink, fight, overdose,
speed, skydive or do other life-threatening things. The brevity
of life is best understood by those who have almost reached the
end of it. The make-belief that governs most of life also shapes
death. Even when you die people will make money on you.
The funeral industry is a multi-billion dollar business that
thrives on fantasy and gullibility. For example, the dead are
dressed up as though they are going to a party instead of ending
up in a hole in the ground or in an incinerator or become fish
food if they die at sea.
Then there are the flowers the departed can't smell, the satin
lining of the casket they can't feel, the words of praise they
can't hear and the tombstone they can't see. How many people
will attend a funeral depends on how well-known the deceased
is or how (s)he died. A murdered child will attract hundreds
if not thousands of people to its funeral. Had the same child
died of natural causes, only family members and a few friends
would show up. Publicity also depends on the circumstances of
death. An old person who dies in his/her sleep will attract little
attention, but if that same person were to die trying to stop
a plane from being hijacked, it would be front-page news and
a large crowd of people, most of them not even knowing the deceased,
would show up at the funeral.
Then there is the matter of legacy. Most people leave little
more than their offspring. A few leave things that benefit everyone:
Thomas Edison the light bulb, Graham Bell the telephone and Alexander
Fleming penicillin.
On a historical scale the Egyptians left us their pyramids, the
Incas Machu Picchu and the Chinese their wall. Seeing these enormous
monuments one recognizes the ingenuity of the planners and the
hardships of the labourers that went into these massive construction
projects. Was all that work and cost worth it? Considering all
the suffering the construction exacted, of course not. Today
none of these projects serve their original purpose; they have
simply become tourist attractions. Like van Gogh paintings the
creators were not the beneficiaries.
As final proof of human idiocy some fellow "human"
beings who wrote some of the bloodiest chapters in human history
have monuments built in their honour: Lenin in his Red Square
refrigerated tomb, Napoleon in Paris' Pantheon, and Pizarro in
two black boxes in Lima's cathedral: one for his head and the
other for the rest of his body. There is no grandiose monument
for Gandhi. Only our memory of him remains.
QUOTES ON DEATH
"There is need for some kind of make-believe in order
to face death unflinchingly. To our real, naked selves there
is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for." ERIC
HOFFER
"Our last garment is made without pockets." ITALIAN
PROVERB
"Strange is it not? That of the myriads who / Before
us passed the door of Darkness through / Not one returns to tell
us of the Road / Which to discover we must travel too."
OMAR KHAYYAM |
