The World I Know

Too many people live their lives in a persistant dream-state, and from my own experience, when you live your life learning about what really is happening, how the world really operates, you are considered "insane". I do not own a TV, I get my news from online sources, from people who base their observations in reality - people who will site their sources when they make a statement that is difficult to believe. I spend a majority of my free time reading books (primarily non-fiction, however I do read many 'pertinent' fiction books as well). I don't read books by people who like to perpetuate the right-left, republican-democrat paradigm. I don't read books that our culture is fixated on, like Harry Potter or Twilight because they, I find, are distractions. I don't watch blockbuster movies either. Music, perhaps, is my one real cultural guilty pleasure, but even in that regard it's primarily music that is politically motivated.

The result however is since I happen to know who is in the White House beyond President Obama, and who is in the Pentagon, and I am also aware for the most part of their individual philosophies - as revealed in their writings - and since I am also well aware of who is REALLY running the show, my friends think I need psychiatric treatment. Apparently I could have schizophrenia because I believe there is a chance that my phone calls that I've made to several senators and representatives could be listened in on by an unknown third-party (thanks to FISA). Or that the books that I've bought using my debit card online and in stores could have the same result (thanks to the PATRIOT act). I don't live extra cautiously because of this belief, or in a state of paranoia, I just understand that this is a possibility.

I don't make fun of my friends when they believe that a zombie apocalypse is immanent, or when they tell me how they can see and talk to ghosts, or when they claim to be Jesus [none of these examples are made up, really], but I'm the laughing stock if I attempt to suggest that H1N1 could be man-made (look at the geographical origins of the multiple strains this flu has) or that many ideological influence of Nazi Germany came from the United States, and that after World War Two many of those German scientists were brought to the United States and incorporated into our Military Industrial Complex.

I don't make fun of my friends when they believe that the US will be invaded by Canada and the illegal Mexican's are really here to dig massive tunnels to help with that invasion. I don't call them "stupid" or "idiots" when they elaborate on this grand invasion scheme (Canadians, if you're reading this, tunneling beneath Lake Superior is a waste of time, go through Wisconsin into Michigans Upper Peninsula and use the Mackinac Bridge - please bring ham, Americans love that stuff). However if I say that as a possibility a nuclear weapon could go off in this country in a major city in order to rally the people to support a war in Iran, largely because this type of talk has been coming up a lot in the rhetoric coming out of Washington DC and Arlington Virginia, and if I suggest that the weapon would most likely originate from our own military (siting other Empires and how they achieved what they wanted through acts of terror on their own people) I'm labeled an "idiot".

"Dreaming is for people who like to sleep, I'd rather be awake." - Brian, Queer as Folk [I've never watched the show, but I find the quote fitting.]

How can people live a life in a constant fantasy world contrived in their own heads - a world of zombies, ghosts, claims of being Jesus, and Canadian invasion etc. call someone crazy who bases their life in the known world? I study propaganda to learn how it is used, I study psychology (NOT to be confused with psychiatry) to understand how people respond to the world around them, I study philosophy to see what type of world-view others are operating under, I study profits to see how money shapes the decisions of people who are in power, and I study politics with all the others in mind in order to seperate the "wheat from the chaff", or, in other words to know what is BS and what isn't.

I am willing to challenge everything put forth, even if it means I must view the world differently and change my way of thinking. There is no topic that I consider too taboo to challenge. I live in a state of comfort - not fear - simply because I know how the world operates, and therefore what to expect. The only feeling I do have in regards to the world however is frustration, frustration with people who are unwilling to think, who are unwilling to pursue knowledge, unwilling to discuss real issues. I am sick of being called "unpatriotic" when I consider the people in Iraq and Afghanistan to be human beings and suggest that the wars going on over there are wrong. I am sick of being called "stupid" because I don't know what TV show is dominating the airwaves, or what contestant is the best singer on American Idol (that show is still on, right? - if not, insert another show with the same premise.) I am especially sick of people who rely on the words of "the experts" and are unwilling to go out and develop an opinion themselves.

People need to snap out of their fantasy world because their state of delusion, disconnect and apathy are only encouraging the nightmare that those of us who base their existance in reality are seeing.