Covid has dominated the news so long, it sometimes feels as though our entire lives have been this oppressive lock down fear. But it has actually only been two years. A mere four percent of my life. No biggy.
Everyone who hasn’t been trapped on a desert island for three years knows about the pandemic. We’ve been told we were going to die, that we are bad people who wanted Grandma to die if we didn’t obey the latest mandate du jure. One group mocks you if you wear a mask and calls you a sheep, the other group calls you a Nazi if you wear one. The beauty of it is, not only are we all polarized and hating each other and ourselves, there is no way to win. No matter what you do, you are the bad person.
I applaud our masters. Truly they are enlightened. When the AI enslaves us all and we end up in prison camps….pray you don’t end up in the same one with me……I will so happily grant you the just rewards for how well you have guided our society into hell.
According to Russel Brand, helicopters have been flying over the city, broadcasting orders to “suppress your souls and stay inside.” Along with this report he showed chilling videos where people were screaming in their apartments by the hundreds or thousands. The video reminded me of a horror film, but oddly, I didn’t feel a real chill till I heard the phrase. “Suppress your souls.”
I’m not going to say much more about what is going on in Shanghai. Reuters, Insider.com, Russel Brand, or even the Fake News on both sides will give you better coverage than a tired blogger. But I have something to say….(it’s better to burn out then to fade away….there can be only one!!!! Eyahhhhhh!)
I realized today why I was getting the tinglys from this. It’s because China simply has the kahunas to say what society has insinuated all of my life. “Suppress your soul. Don’t think for yourself. Don’t follow dreams. Don’t make waves. Don’t rock the boat.” We have this incredible paradox in our culture…..on one hand we worship hedonism and tell everyone that we are free to do whatever we want. But on the other we idolize empty, soulless things.
I’ll give three quick examples.
- 1) Spock was the hero of my generation, in part because he was emotionless. Emotions cause so much of our pain.
- 2) James Bond, or frankly any “good” character who is still able to kill without flinching, or to bed a woman but not get attached, is our hero. No love means no pain.
- 3)The Terminator has been an icon for decades. While “he” is a horrific villain in the first movie, I notice the sequels try to make “him” a good guy. And I’ll discuss that a little in a bit.
Star Trek debuted a few years before I was born, and Spock was a big fricken’ deal from the beginning. Even as a child, the appeal of someone who was super intelligent was enormous. And while he sometimes failed to control his emotions, the fact is that I had been taught that my feelings were all bad, and that I’d be happier if I didn’t have them. I still love the character of Spock, I do still believe in controlling your emotions to a reasonable extent. But I now know that a lot of the idea that science is free of emotion is pure bunk. The recent Covid debates demonstrate….often the person telling you to control your emotions is just a narcissist who only wants to control you.
The example of James Bond is a bit harder to analyze, especially in a quick paragraph.
James Bond is not entirely emotionless, but the character as portrayed by Connery and Roger Moore is absolutely in charge. Even his massive libido serves his purposes. He falls in and out of love when he wants. He is the one in control, and no woman dominates him. He dominates. So of course….tons of men want to be James Bond. I can’t speak for women, there must be at least a fair number of them that like the character, as he has been so successful so long. But for men, he is the ideal man’s man, always capable, never at a loss, almost never turned down, always able to get the woman to ultimately do what he wants. Sheer fantasy. And for most of us, sheer nonsense. But still a lot of fun.
Last but not least is The Terminator.
The Terminator is an unfeeling, efficient killing machine. He is the ultimate in terror in some ways because of his soullessness. But oddly, people feel a connection with him. With me, it was because I need sometimes to turn everything off if I am going to actually do the things I need to do. I have to shut out the pain and, as best as I’m able, feel nothing at all. I wonder if that is why they made him the good guy in most of the sequels. “I sold my soul today, because I no longer wish to feel. Hasta la vista, baby.”
A lot of words to say….the world pressures us to turn off our souls. A lot. Don’t show you love her. Take it like a man. There are no excuses. Honestly, sometimes that likely is a good thing. Shut off the disgust, jump into the sewer, and save the child that fell down there.
Take an eye for an eye
Turn your heart into stone
This is all I have lived for
This is all I have known
Tired Midnight Blogger (What Blogs at Midnight) 
“…One group mocks you if you wear a mask and calls you a sheep, the other group calls you a Nazi if you wear one. The beauty of it is, not only are we all polarized and hating each other and ourselves, there is no way to win. No matter what you do, you are the bad person…”
That’s it, exactly. If they can keep the Proles —and that’s us, for sure! — fighting with each other, then they win.
And no one whose household makes less than 150K (and maybe it’s 300K or a cool 1/2 Million) OR is NOT an elected official should think for one moment that the leaders are thinking of us.
If they can keep the us fighting each other and/or with the folks just below us (High-Middle v. Middle Class, Middle Class v. Poor, Poor v. “the Man” ), if they can keep giving us scraps, then THEY stay in power. Political Parties don’t matter to the rich. They want the pendulum to swing back and forth. We’ve seen all the hob-nob pictures of the Clintons and Trumps together in the past. Look at what ALMOST happened with family leave, and sick time, and child care— but nooooo, you get two Democrats to join the Republicans and the whole thing fails. HEAVEN FORBID that we take care of families. No, THEY need workers to work, constantly, for as long as possible, into our 70s. THEY need workers to work because If profits don’t increase then they don’t get their big bonuses.
(Ohhh, boy. I’m on a rant, sorry.)
I’ve been reading some FASCINATING things about the fall of Feudalism, the rise of the Middle-Class and how the powerful of the time *crushed* it by turning men & women against each other instead of continuing to work together to rebuild the system. NOW, the Mega-Corps+CEOs of today are doing the same thing, only instead of gender — or maybe that IS part of what we are seeing in the cultural wars now — they have added in (R)s v. (D)s and suburban v. urban and “us” v “the other”. It’s diabolical genius. We should be demanding flex hours and remote work and higher pay for more job responsibilities (since they won’t hire more people at a better rate). But we’re stupid crabs. Instead we are going to pull each other down or blame the other worldview or…. you get it.
(And I’m sorry for writing so much. I’d delete it, but…then I feel like I wasted my time.
—But surprisingly, I do think I now understand your “writing to help yourself” thing that you mention.)
What I *really* was going to say was, that when you said this:
“I applaud our masters….pray you don’t end up in the same one with me……I will so happily grant you the just rewards for how well you have guided our society into hell.”
I immediately thought of this:
*V* (1983) “…where you can serve us best…”
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Citizen Brook! Report to the food vats!
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Oh wow, that’s incredible. Maybe you should cowrite with me!? We could be “B&S Associated Writing!” Now is only I inspired more people that way. And I’d forgotten that moment in “V.” Soooooo excellent! Glad you enjoyed
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