n a t b s

I actually think living in this society makes you dumb.  Not permanently so, but it numbs the mind.  Day after day of mindless drone work, followed by television, drinking, as well as the general bombardment of advertising and useless pop culture gossip that you can’t avoid even if you try.  It’s mind numbing.  And I have a case study: my own life!  I sort of swore off psychedelic drugs since college.  Haven’t tripped in 3 years, until this weekend.  When I was tripping, all that society-stuff that clutters the mind washed away.  I experienced what it feels like to have a mind at peace, a mind that’s not constantly prodded.  And I felt like a motherfucking genius.  And that clarity of thought has lingered into the week.  Still, I can feel the fog of society creeping back in, bringing me down.  I need to stay on top of it this time, try to drown out the distractions if possible and keep my mind limber with reading and writing.  And I think I need to trip more often than I have been.  A least once a year, if not more.  Clarity lies there.  I know, clarity is not what one traditionally thinks of when one thinks of tripping, but I tell you my friends, I had clarity like you wouldn’t believe that day.  Pure, simple, beautiful clarity.  And it’s so simple.  You just need to avoid distractions, and not get wrapped up in them.  I thought pot was my problem, I can now firmly say that it’s not.  Cliché as it is, it’s society’s fault.

I should be.  I need to keep my job.  Without a job I will loose my home and I’ll starve.  I’ll become a wretched degenerate, sneered at by business men, harassed by teenagers, and pitied by the compassionate.  Living in a subway station I’ll beg for money and I’ll get some. I’ll turn the money into food and spirits to ease my pain. And despite the fact that 6 million other Americans are also unemployed I’ll still hear that callous timeless heckle: “Get a job!”

But I’m free.

Free to choose servitude or slum, McDonald’s or Wendy’s, paper or plastic, Amex or Visa, Jet Blue or Delta, Democrat or Republican, Yankees or Red Sox, hybrid or regular, low sodium or vitamin fortified, United Health or Oxford.  Yes, it’s glorious to be a free human living in a world of choice.  Simply glorious.

Star Trek has to be one of the most popular mainstream visions of a utopian human future.  It sees our current path, and basically extrapolates one of the better outcomes.  In this utopian world, science has basically solved every problem.  There is no scarcity, of energy or materials, and medicine has cured most disease.  Surely, we would all agree that such a world is a general ultimate goal of the path we’re on.  But there’s something else that’s interesting about that world; the people aren’t human.  I mean, sure, they’re biologically human (except for the aliens), but what I mean is that they’re not emotionally human.  They’re too rational, too regimented.  Too perfect.  Ron Moore saw this, and tried to inject some humanity into the characters (Family).  But I guess my point is, our system is so unnatural, so alienating of our basic nature, that in the perfect vision of our ideal future, we cease to be people.  We’re perfect cogs in the machine we built, but we’re not people.  This is the path we are on, and this is the source of most problems.  It’s the reason the situation normal is all fucked up.

I’M ALIVE!

I’M A HUMAN BEING!!!!!

We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.

-Tyler Durden