A World Insane

Wise Monkeys?

It doesn't take a great deal of observation, when we look at the world around us, to conclude that much of what we see in human behaviour simply doesn't make any sense at all.

It may be true that human society somehow seems to function, despite its many shortcomings, and yet underlying the fabric of that same society is a moving, unstable morass, like a sucking quicksand covered only by a thin veneer labelled loosely as 'civilization.' We tread upon this veneer precariously.

Yes, we have technology, but only a handful of people actually invented it and those developing it now are only building on the great efforts of those who preceded them in the far past.

The monkey can ride the tricycle, wear a hat, blow a whistle. It doesn't know how to make a tricycle, or a hat, or a whistle. We see millions of people walking around all day using this technology, often excessively, killing themselves and others because they simply had to send that stupid, pointless text message or take a 'selfie' on the edge of a cliff.

Using this technology doesn't make humans intelligent; they are simply 'aping' what they have been shown to do. Monkey see, monkey do.

It is worth pondering how many of us could survive without all this technology if the world was destroyed by nuclear war or a comet hitting Manhattan. How far back in human evolution would we go? Would we revert to the days of the caveman? Perhaps we might go back only four or five hundred years, in terms of technology at least.

How many of us could make a television set, or a computer? Or a radio? At best, we might be able to make the wheel again and hitch it to a cart. Most of us couldn't make a car or any kind of engine. We'd be right back to the basics.

The point is, and the awful truth is, that technology is advancing at a very rapid rate, and yet people, if anything, are not evolving at the same level, and are in fact, going through a devolutionary process. Despite technological advances, it seems that people are becoming more stupid.

Witness the tastes that vast numbers of human beings have, from expensive ripped jeans to the popularity of Kim Kardashian. It has been estimated that Kim Kardashian has over 103 million followers on Instagram alone, at the time of writing. That tells us volumes about the interests of the masses and their level of intelligence.

Let's add to this, the growing popularity of tattoos, once the reserve of soldiers and seamen, often with good reason in order to identify the body should anything happen to the individual. Tattoos were once fairly discreet, the individual usually only sporting one or two, and they often had military or naval significance. Now, anything and everything goes, just for pointless, self-interested 'display.'

So many people have tattoos now that it isn't even unique, as it might have once been. It's now routine; no big deal to have tattoo 'sleeves' all the way from wrist to shoulder and neck included. They're trying to get noticed, in their 'selfie' world, to stand out as different, and yet, so many of them now look the same that the novelty doesn't actually exist. With their blue inked arms, legs, necks and every other body part, both seen and unseen, they look like they need a scrub in the bath.

This doesn't mean that every person with a tattoo is a moron, but it does mean that people are acting unintelligently, following the mass tendencies, rather than thinking for themselves. If tattoos were taboo then it is unlikely that you would see anyone with them. People do it because others do it, and they want to be seen as part of the crowd. Instead, they become part of the herd. A herd which is slowly being driven over the precipice of mass ignorance.

If we add to all this the rising obesity epidemic, with almost one in three being overweight in the USA, where modern so-called 'food' is wholly responsible, where fake cheese comes in squares that do not melt or bubble when ignited (God knows what it must do to the intestines) and everything is 'super-sized' to feed the massive gluttony and greed of this modern society, we have a society that is rapidly becoming degenerate.

Go on Google and make one innocent typo and a host of pornography will assail you, and if you really wanted to find more of that stuff you would never reach the end of it, from local sexual encounters to the worst kind of depravity.

People are violent to one another and to animals; much of the so called 'music' they listen to is loud and obnoxious, and video games are becoming increasingly more graphically violent. People are becoming immune to vile and cruel images, as if it's all a natural part of life. We're sick, we're depraved, get used to it, is the message.

Nonsense, the World is FLAT!

From the Flat Earth Society to insane religious beliefs which promote violence and hatred, we live in an upside-down world. There may not be a flat Earth, but the world is certainly on its head.

In the art world, childish rubbish that any three year old could probably do a better job of, is touted as the work of genius. How does it make any sense at all to spend millions of dollars on something that has zero artistic merit?

It makes you reflect on the statement made by Jesus, two thousand years ago, which holds true today; "That which is good, they will call evil, that which is evil, they will call good."

We are living in a society which prides itself on its self-interested, pointless vainglory with almost no credentials to support it. It is a look at me, 'selfie' society where any rubbish makes the headlines, and where dishonesty is applauded.

If our society was healthy and sane, no elected official would ever be able to enter a position of power and authority without the prerequisite of good moral character and values first. Yet hypocrisy and dishonesty are constantly overlooked. The public are like the Roman citizens of Nero's day, who didn't give a damn who ran the country as long as the Amphitheatre was full of entertainment, blood and gore. One wonders that if the ancient gladiatorial combats of the past were revived, along with throwing victims to the lions, if people would welcome it.

We are assailed by Reality TV, with appalling role models amongst the famous, who are often ludicrously rich, inane and embarrassing beyond any sense of shame. We have Presidents and other World Leaders who are devoid of morals, principles and values, who owe their positions to money rather than to merit.

Evil in High Places

We might rightly muse that if anyone was elected to high office based on their personal qualities or virtues, then it is likely that almost no candidates would be available.

We live in a morally defunct and crippled society where total self-interest is the rule of thumb. Our nations trade with countries like China who have been systematically murdering their own people ever since Communism took root in that country. In 1989 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Government murdered an estimated 10,000 students who were protesting that they wanted a democratic government. About three years later, the British Royal family went to China shaking the bloody and guilty hands of the very people who murdered those innocent students. A moral society would not claim the cop-out answer of diplomacy as an excuse for meeting with these people. A moral society would have placed China under indefinite embargo.

Are people worse today than they used to be? Probably not; in some ways, there is more compassion and kindness, more genuine humanity, more interest in good, wholesome foods, exercise, meditation, yoga and spirituality. There is more commitment to help the animals, to end cruelty and violence to both man and beast. There is more Global awareness and concern for working in harmony with the Earth.

Trends such as this have always existed, going back to ancient times with the early Christians, the Essenes, the Yogis, the Gnostics, the Aborigines of Australia and many of the Native American cultures. But there is a parallel universe at work all around us, in which for every good motive and forward-thinking trend there is a dumbing-down of society.

People have lost religion, because religion itself has failed us; technology and the Internet have become God, the Beast that all may worship. The desire for more of this, more of that, more of the 'food you crave' as the T.V commercial will drum into you, the latest new phone, more fun, more noise, so that humans can drown out the silence within where happiness might actually be found.

There is no time left for meditation or introspection, to sit still and ask yourself the fundamental questions of life. There is instead always some gadget to fiddle with, to keep the mind distracted. Must send that meaningless text, must get a 'like' must eat a super-sized cheeseburger, must drink a bucket of coffee.

The world will only ever be as good as its citizens. The worry is that so many people are losing who they really are and becoming zombie-like shells of the true human being that they could be, means that society may very well crumble from within. It happened before, to the Romans.

That slippery morass that we stand on called civilization, is a veneer with some very severe cracks in it. Seeping up from beneath our feet is a cancer of idiocy and insanity that will eventually overwhelm us all.